The moment Keth spoke those three words—*You're the thief*—the corridor shattered like glass.
The false walls fell away, revealing a cavernous space that hurt to look at directly. The ground was paved with broken weapons. The air tasted of rust and regret. Above it all loomed the real Crimson Gate—not a door, but a gaping wound in reality itself, pulsing like an infected heart.
The crown-eyed creature wearing Rhis's skin hissed. "Clever little heir."
Valtheris's frozen blade completed its arc, slicing through Rhis's throat—
—and met no resistance.
Rhis's body dissolved into smoke, reforming near the Gate. The creature laughed with her stolen voice. "Did you truly think it would be that easy?"
Keth's Mark burned hotter than ever, searing through fabric and flesh alike. The pain brought another memory crashing to the surface:
_A younger Valtheris standing before the Gate, weeping blood as he pressed the first Mark into a dying warrior's chest. "It won't hold her forever," he whispered. "But it will hold her long enough."_
The vision faded as real-Valtheris grabbed Keth's arm. "The Mark," he gasped. His silver eyes were bleeding. "It's failing."
Across the cavern, the creature stretched Rhis's limbs with sickening pops. "Poor, tired little shackle." She smiled with stolen lips. "Seven bearers. Seven failures. Did you really think the eighth would be different?"
Keth clutched their chest. The Mark's edges were unraveling, threads of crimson light peeling away into the air. With each lost thread, the Gate pulsed wider.
Something moved in the darkness beyond it.
Valtheris shoved Keth behind him. "Then we do what we should have done centuries ago." He raised his shadow blade—and plunged it into his own heart.
The crown-eyed creature screamed.
Black blood poured from Valtheris's wound, but instead of falling, it snaked through the air toward the Gate. Where it touched, the wound in reality began stitching itself closed.
The creature lunged, Rhis's form distorting mid-leap into something jagged and wrong. Keth moved without thinking, intercepting the attack—
And the Mark *detonated*.
Crimson light flooded the cavern. The last thing Keth saw was Valtheris's shocked face as the blast consumed them both.
Then—
Silence.
Darkness.
And a single, familiar voice whispering:
*"Remember."*