The gate's hinges screamed as a gap opened, spilling out a gust of air so cold it seemed to pierce bone. The torchlight guttered, shadows stretching unnaturally long across the chamber.
Aloysius staggered forward. He didn't mean to, but the shard's pull was overwhelming. It vibrated with a hunger he could feel in his teeth.
Beyond the opening was not darkness, but a faint, silver-blue radiance like moonlight refracted through deep water. And then… the outline of something vast.
Two eyes appeared first. Not eyes in the mortal sense, but twin wells of starlight, infinite and unblinking.When it spoke, the sound came from inside their skulls.
"So… the bearer lives. The first since the Sundering."
Kaelis stepped in front of Aloysius, blade drawn. "Name yourself."
"Names are chains. You could not hold mine if you tried." The voice carried neither malice nor kindness only a weight that crushed thought. "But you may call me the First Fragment."
Elyon's breath caught. "Impossible… the First Fragment was destroyed ages ago."
"Destroyed? No… scattered. Broken into shards. And you, little bearer, carry one such piece."
The glow from Aloysius's palm erupted, a column of light shooting toward the figure beyond the gate. The chains writhed like living serpents, some snapping, others reforging themselves as if resisting both freedom and imprisonment.
"Release me… and I will make you whole. The other fragments will kneel to you."
But as Aloysius's mind filled with visions worlds folding, oceans burning, the sky itself shattering another voice cut through the haze.
Soft. Urgent. Familiar."Don't."
It was his sister's voice.