The creature's eyes glowed the same color as her ring.
Lira couldn't breathe—her body frozen between fight and flight.
It moved wrong. Too smooth, too fluid, its outline bending like smoke beneath skin. The voice that came from it wasn't a single sound but many, overlapping—whispers speaking through a mouth that barely moved.
"Bearer of the first fragment… found."
She raised her arm again, silver fire flickering along her hand. The creature hesitated, its expression twitching.
"You smell of the Shattered One. Give the ring, and you will not be broken."
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"We are knowledge. Forgotten. Bound."
The word bound made the ring's voice stir in her mind, sharp and angry.
"It is the Codex's spawn. A construct made of stolen memories. You cannot reason with it."
The thing lunged.
Instinct took over. Lira flung out her hand, and silver energy exploded from her palm. The blast hit the creature square in the chest, flinging it across the room. It hit the wall with a wet crack, reforming in a whirl of black mist.
"Impossible," it hissed. "You are only human—"
"Not anymore," the ring murmured.
The creature came again, faster this time. Lira ducked, feeling claws slice through the air. She swung the lamp again; it flared like a blade, cutting through the mist.
The monster screamed, and where the light touched it, parts of it turned to ash.
Then, silence.
Its body unraveled—melting into dark threads that curled toward her like smoke being sucked into her chest. She gasped, falling to her knees as the threads vanished into her skin. For a heartbeat, she saw its memories:
A library beneath the earth, filled with chained books whispering in a thousand languages.
A shadowed hand turning pages that bled ink instead of words.
A symbol—the same circle from her ring—drawn in blood across stone floors.
Then the vision shattered.
She was alone again. The room stank of ozone and burnt wood. Her lamp was still glowing faintly silver.
"You absorbed it," said the ring. "Its essence will strengthen you."
She stared at her hands, trembling. "I… killed it."
"No. You unmade what was already dead."
Her head spun. She stumbled to her mirror—and froze.
Her reflection wasn't hers anymore. Her eyes shimmered faintly silver, and behind her—just for a moment—she saw another figure in the glass: a man's silhouette, watching, faintly smiling.
"Who is he?" she whispered.
"The one whose soul you wear," the ring replied. "Elias Varin."
The lights flickered again. Somewhere in the city, something howled—a sound that didn't belong to any animal she knew. The ring pulsed, like a heartbeat matching her own.
"More are coming," it said softly. "The Codex knows you exist. The Totem dreams. The Crystal sees. The world will not stay quiet much longer."
Lira backed away from the mirror, heart pounding.
Outside, thunder rolled—and she swore, for a moment, that she saw four points of light burn faintly across the skyline, like stars in unnatural alignment.