The stairway descended deeper than any tomb should. Each step echoed with a hollow sound, as if the stone itself were brittle, ready to crack under their weight. The air grew colder, heavy with dust and something older than rot — the scent of burned stone.
At the base, the chamber opened wide. Black pillars circled a vast seal carved into the floor, its lines glowing faintly with dying light. The split-circle symbol dominated the center, half scorched into shadow, half etched in fractured gold.
Liora froze, her chest tightening. She knew this place. Not from memory — from dreams. Every night since entering Caelthorn, this seal had burned behind her eyelids.
Kael's voice broke the silence.
"Tell me you didn't know about this."
"I… didn't." Her hand shook as she reached toward the seal. "But the order did."
The seal pulsed once. A heartbeat of light and shadow. The walls shuddered, dust falling in streams.
From the cracks in the seal, a voice rose — not a whisper like the revenants, not a hum like the Watchers. A chorus. Dozens, maybe hundreds, speaking in unison, yet fractured:
"Break… us… free…"
The ground trembled. Revenants crawled from alcoves in the walls, their hollow eyes blazing, yet they did not attack. They circled the chamber, kneeling before the seal like worshippers at an altar.
Kael cursed, stepping closer to Liora. "They're bowing. To what?"
The answer came when the seal split further. From within the crack, a figure began to rise — taller than any man, cloaked in both flame and shadow, its body shifting between charred bone and blinding light.
Liora staggered back. "This isn't just corruption… It's something the Dawnwatch tried to bind."
The figure's voice boomed, rattling the chamber:
"Daughter of Dawnwatch. You bear their guilt. Break the seal — or be buried with it."
The choice slammed into her like a blade. If she shattered the seal, she would release what the order bound — a force powerful enough to turn the land to ash. If she held it together, the revenants would tear Caelthorn apart to finish the work themselves.
Her staff trembled in her hands. Kael's voice cut through the chaos, sharp and furious.
"You can't save everyone. Pick one. The world, or your ghosts."
Tears burned her eyes as the seal's cracks widened, light and shadow spilling out. The chamber roared like a collapsing star.
Liora screamed, slamming her staff into the ground — and the seal answered, shattering in a storm of light.
The last thing she saw was Kael's eyes, wide with fury and awe, before the chamber exploded into white flame.
Volume One Ends