POV: Kael 🔦🗣️💔
The hallway narrowed into a long tunnel lit only by their footsteps. Every sound they made — breath, boot, heartbeat — echoed back tenfold, warped and distant.
Kael didn't like it.
He didn't like how the walls curved in. How the light dimmed without cause. How the floor felt too smooth, too quiet. Like walking on glass.
They reached a door of black stone. Inlaid in the center was a single word:
"Echo."
"We go in together," Ariya said, her voice firm again. Steady.
But her eyes flicked to Kael just long enough for him to notice the worry.
They stepped inside.
The moment the last foot crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut behind them.
Everything went black.
"Stay close," Kael barked. "Nobody—"
Light exploded.
But not from outside.
From within.
Ariya gasped. Lyra flinched. Jax cursed.
Kael could barely process what he saw:
They were in a dome-shaped chamber. Circular. Stone-carved. Each wall bore a mirror — twelve in total — but the mirrors didn't show reflections.
They showed memories.
Twisted ones.
His own mirror glowed first.
Kael watched himself kneeling beside Ariya — blood soaking her tunic. Her eyes wide. Still.
"You failed," whispered a voice he hadn't heard in years.
His father's.
"All that strength, and still… you couldn't save her."
Kael's hands curled into fists. "That's not real."
But it felt real.
He looked across the room — Lyra staggered backward, tears in her eyes.
"I didn't abandon her," she whispered. "I didn't—"
Jax was laughing — wrongly. Bitter, broken laughter.
"Of course they leave. That's what they do."
Only Ariya stood completely still.
Frozen.
"Ariya?" Kael called.
She didn't answer.
Her mirror was dark.
Then it spoke.
"You belong to me."
A male voice. Cold. Familiar.
"You always have."
Kael spun.
That wasn't an echo.
That was real.
"Ruvan," Ariya breathed.
The voice came again — not through a mirror, but from the walls.
"Every step you take brings you closer to me. Why fight it?"
Kael stepped between her and the nearest mirror, sword raised.
"Show yourself!"
The chamber groaned.
Then the light dimmed — and all the mirrors shattered at once.
The echoes died.
Silence.
And then… a second door opened, across the chamber.
Ariya exhaled shakily. "It wasn't just a vision. He spoke to me."
"How?" Lyra asked. "You think he's here?"
"He doesn't have to be," Jax said grimly. "He knows how to reach into her mind now. That's what this place is doing — linking them."
Kael looked at Ariya.
She was pale. Shaken. But she nodded.
"We go forward," she said. "I won't let him win this way."
He wanted to stop her.
To make her rest.
But he knew she wouldn't.
So he followed.
Because wherever she walked — through flame, shadow, or echo — Kael would always walk with her.
Far above, Ruvan touched his mark — and smiled.
"You felt me," he murmured.
Then he looked down at the object in his palm — a glowing shard of obsidian tied to Ariya's blood.
"And soon… you'll hear only me."