The silence that followed the Silent Soul's revelation was heavier than the cliff's crushing winds. Hine stood there, staring into the void beyond the cavern's mouth, her breath slow and uneven. Naberius. Ronova. Istaroth. Asmoday. The names etched themselves into her mind like searing brands, each syllable carrying a weight her soul could barely hold.
"They are not beings you seek," the Silent Soul whispered, its tone steady but layered with something colder than fear. "They are the architects of all you see. They are the ones who decided what your world would be. Meeting them is not a journey. It is a trial you may never return from."
Hine's fingers closed tightly around the shard. Its surface pulsed with a faint, urgent glow, as if it heard and approved of her unspoken thoughts. Her lips trembled, but her voice did not falter.
"I do not care," she said, her words soft but sharp enough to pierce through the damp air. "If they are the ones who set this world in motion, then I will meet them. No matter the cost."
The cave groaned, a hollow echo that almost sounded like laughter carried through stone. The Silent Soul hovered closer, its ethereal form flickering in faint silver ripples. "Your defiance burns bright. But bright flames are the first to be extinguished. Do you even know what it means to face them?"
"I do not need to know," Hine said. Her grip on the shard tightened, her knuckles paling against the faint, glowing light. "I just need to be ready."
The Silent Soul regarded her in silence. Its presence filled the space around her, neither warm nor cold, neither welcoming nor rejecting. A being of patience and eternity, weighing the resolve of a mortal girl.
"You are reckless," it said finally. "But determination such as yours bends paths and breaks chains. Very well, Hine of the fractured shard. If you wish to stand before them, you must prepare. The journey ahead will not be one of days or weeks. It will be of lifetimes compressed into suffering. Are you certain you can endure?"
Hine's gaze did not waver. "If I must crawl, bleed, and break until there is nothing left of me, I will. I need to understand why this shard chose me. Why it calls to me."
The shard pulsed again, as if acknowledging her vow. The faint hum it emitted sent a shiver through her veins, almost alive, almost approving.
The Silent Soul moved to the cavern wall, its form brushing against the rough stone as if weaving its essence into the darkness. "Then listen well. The Rulers are not gods as you understand them. They do not love. They do not hate. They exist beyond such trivial boundaries. Naberius breathes life into nothingness, Ronova reaps all that ends, Istaroth bends the moments between heartbeats, and Asmoday folds space until distance itself forgets its meaning. To reach them, you must first learn to survive their domains."
Hine swallowed hard. "How?"
The spirit's shape shifted, forming arcs of thin light that traced symbols across the air. Ancient runes, older than the earth beneath her feet, danced and rearranged themselves in patterns she could not decipher but somehow felt in her bones.
"You will learn discipline in solitude," the Silent Soul said. "Your mind must be a still ocean, undisturbed by fear. You will learn to bend your will until the shard obeys you, not the other way around. And you will learn to kill what you cannot comprehend."
Hine's heart pounded, the raw thrum of it echoing through the still cavern. She thought of the cliff she had crossed, of the silence that had devoured her screams when the rocks nearly gave way. She thought of the storm she had endured and the hunger that had clawed at her ribs. She had survived those trials. She would survive what came next.
"When do we begin?" she asked.
The Silent Soul's voice deepened, vibrating like the low toll of an ancient bell. "Now. The shard is your guide, but it will not carry you. To reach the threshold of the Infinite, you must be forged in agony, sharpened like the edge of a blade."
The air shifted. A sudden, violent chill swept through the cavern, extinguishing every faint glow except for the shard in Hine's hand. It burned brighter, threads of white-hot light crawling along its cracks. She gasped as pain shot up her arm, sharp and cutting, but she did not let go.
"Good," the Silent Soul murmured. "Feel it. Do not fight it. Let it carve you hollow, for only in emptiness can strength grow."
Hine gritted her teeth, her breath hissing as the shard's light seared against her skin. Images flickered in her mind... glimpses of endless fields of ash, oceans frozen in mid-wave, stars collapsing into themselves, and four figures cloaked in shadows deeper than the void. She collapsed to one knee, her free hand clawing against the cold stone, but still she clung to the shard.
The vision shattered with a soundless snap. The cavern returned to its dim, oppressive quiet, and the shard's glow softened into a dull pulse. Hine slumped forward, her body trembling with exhaustion and her sweat-soaked hair clinging to her face.
"You are still standing," the Silent Soul said. There was something almost approving in its voice now, a faint trace of acknowledgment. "That is more than most can claim."
Hine wiped the blood from her lip, her chest heaving. "I… will not stop," she whispered. Her voice cracked, but her words carried a weight that even the Silent Soul could not dismiss. "If they rule this world, then they will look me in the eye."
The spirit drifted closer, a faint halo of silver surrounding its shifting form. "Then we begin the first trial at dawn. Rest, Hine. This path you have chosen will devour you if you hesitate."
She nodded weakly, curling herself against the cool wall of the cavern. The shard rested in her palm, its steady pulse a quiet promise in the dark. She closed her eyes, but sleep did not come. Instead, the names echoed in her mind, over and over, each repetition sinking deeper into her bones.
Naberius. Ronova. Istaroth. Asmoday.
And with each name, her resolve burned brighter, a small, fragile flame refusing to die in the endless void.