The Sky Abyss felt empty.
Not peaceful—emptied, like something vital had been torn out and never replaced. The floating islands drifted in wide, slow arcs now, no longer pulled by the wounded sky, but the air carried a hollowness that pressed against Kael's chest with every breath.
Maelor was gone.
There was no body. No ash. No final words left hanging in the air. Just absence—sharp and absolute.
Kael stood where it had happened, fists clenched so tightly his hands shook. Silver light leaked faintly from his veins, pulsing in uneven rhythm, like a heart struggling to remember how to beat.
He hadn't moved since the sky sealed.
Lira watched him closely.
She didn't cry. Not yet. She had learned that grief sometimes needed to wait—needed to be used before it could be felt. Instead, she stepped forward and placed Maelor's fallen staff upright in the stone where he had stood.
It felt right.
Saryn finally spoke, his voice low. "The Sky Abyss is stable. For now."
Kael didn't respond.
"The path forward remains," Saryn continued. "The realms won't stop just because he's gone."
That did it.
Kael turned sharply, silver eyes blazing. "You think I don't know that?"
Saryn met his gaze without flinching. "I think if you don't face it, you'll break."
Silence stretched between them.
Lira stepped in before the tension could harden into something worse. "He didn't give himself up so we could fall apart," she said firmly. "He did it so we'd keep moving."
Kael exhaled shakily.
She was right.
That was the worst part.
Maelor had chosen this ending.
Kael looked up at the endless sky, jaw set. "He believed I could survive what's coming."
The dragon inside him stirred—not with rage, not with hunger.
With resolve.
Then prove him right.
Kael straightened.
"No more running from what I am," he said quietly. "No more pretending I can keep this contained forever."
Lira felt it then—the shift. Not a surge of power, but something far more dangerous.
Control.
"I'm done letting my fear decide when the dragon comes out," Kael continued. "I'll master it. Or it will kill me trying."
Saryn nodded once. "That is the only way this ends."
The Sky Abyss wind began to change direction, steady now, guiding rather than resisting. Far ahead, the drifting islands aligned into a loose path—leading away from the abyss and toward lands unseen.
Lira moved to Kael's side. "Whatever those realms hold," she said, "we face them together."
Kael glanced at her, a faint, tired smile breaking through the grief. "I know."
They stepped forward as one.
Behind them, the place where Maelor had vanished shimmered faintly—just for a moment—as if the sky itself acknowledged the cost that had been paid.
Ahead, three realms waited.
And somewhere far beyond them, something watched with growing interest.
The journey was no longer about survival.
It was about what Kael would become when there was nothing left to hold him back.