The pull upward did not feel like a rescue, for some reason, she could feel the force coming off of Selene and she was not sure whether that was a good or bad thing.
The pressure came sudden, sharp and undeniable, cutting through the chamber's steady hum within seconds. The girl gasped as the thread inside her snapped taut, not tearing anything but burning bright enough to make her stagger. The pillars shuddered in response, she looked around and saw the way the ancient restraints groaned as if something deep within them had noticed the change and taken offense.
The woman who had removed her mask reacted instantly. Her composure cracked for the first time as she turned sharply toward the ceiling, eyes narrowing, crimson and gold flaring brighter.
"She found you," she said, yet she did not sound surprised, but grim.
The chamber trembled again, dust falling from the veins of glowing stone as pressure rippled downward through layers of wards never meant to be disturbed so directly. The hum within the girl surged, it was clear they were no longer aligned, but they were being pulled in two opposing directions, one ancient and patient, the other furious and unyielding.
"You said I was necessary," the girl said through clenched teeth, forcing herself upright as the air thickened around them. "You didn't say I was bait."
The woman met her gaze without flinching. "What I said simply means you were a deviation, which often draws connection as well as correction and attention."
Above them, far beyond the stones and sigil, Selene tore through the city's deeper defenses with terrifying precision. She did not rage blindly; every strike was calculated, and the girl could feel the way every ward unraveled along fault lines only someone bound to the city itself could feel.
The livid red in her eyes burned like a brand now, no longer reacting to just the presence of the girl but directing, bending the city's own power into a downward spiral that cracked the ancient protections layer by layer.
Back below, the pillars began to stir in earnest. Shapes pressed closer to their restraints, immense and restless, awareness blooming as the pressure from above and the resonance from the girl intersected. Sigils flared violently, rewriting themselves in real time to compensate, but the chamber had not been designed for this kind of convergence.
The woman stepped closer, placing herself between the girl and the nearest pillar, her voice lowering. "Listen to me carefully. If she reaches this place unfiltered, the bindings will fail. Not slowly, but selectively. Everything held here will wake at once, this containment, is found in between the prison, a glass surrounding it in a way, that is how you can see and see the prisoners here."
"What? So, we are in a space, an in-between, but what if she doesn't?" the girl demanded, her voice shaking despite herself.
"Then the city above survives a little longer," the woman said quietly, "and this place remains a forgotten wound for the time being. They will not be able to see what we see from here, even if they do find it."
The girl's chest tightened as understanding finally settled in full. She was not here to break the prison or preserve it; she was the fulcrum between outcomes that terrified everyone involved.
Another violent tremor ripped through the chamber as a section of ceiling split, glowing cracks spiderwebbing outward. Power poured through the fracture, raw and unmistakable, carrying Selene's presence like a storm given form.
The woman did not hesitate, she grabbed the girl's wrist, her grip firm and grounding, and in one fluid motion pulled her backward toward the deepest shadow of the chamber, where the light from the veins could not fully reach.
The sigils ignited beneath their feet, yet they were not restraints, but pathways long sealed.
"This is where the things they do not understand occur," the woman said, urgency sharpening her tone. "You can't stay here. Not yet. I do not want to force you, but I have a duty to do, I have to take you to her, even if it resorts to forcing you."
"Where are you taking me?" The girl asked, panic and resolve colliding as the pull inside her screamed in protest, torn between a loyalty to Selene she did not understand and answers she refused to abandon.
"Out of her reach," the woman replied. "And deeper into the truth than anyone above is prepared for."
The shadows folded around them, swallowing sound, light, and distance in a single breath.
At the exact moment they vanished, Selene broke through the final ward.
She landed hard against the stone floor of the chamber, power rolling off her in violent waves as her gaze snapped instantly to the space where the girl had been moments before. The livid red in her eyes flared brighter than ever, illuminating the pillars, the sigils, and the empty air left behind.
She felt it immediately.
The thread was still there, but displaced, twisted sideways rather than severed, pulled somewhere even the city's foundations did not map.
Selene straightened slowly, fury sharpening into something colder and far more dangerous.
"Run," she said softly into the echoing chamber, her voice carrying a promise rather than a threat. "I'll tear this so called order apart layer by layer if that's what it takes."
Far away, in a place not bound by the city's rules or its history, the girl stumbled as the shadows released her, heart hammering as the hum within her shifted yet again, no longer trapped between above and below, but standing at the edge of something vast and unfinished.
For the first time since this began, she understood one terrifying truth.
There was no safe choice anymore, everything will have a risk and despite her heart, she felt as though this was the right choice, even if it was a bit selfish.
She turned around, her eyes widening as a wave of energy washed over her, and they began to glow. The masked girl stepped aside, revealing chains, and for the first time, the woman she had seen in her visions appeared—suspended in the middle of the air, bound by them.