The sanctuary did not feel the same after the Hollowborn retreated.
The candles burned steadier now, but the silence they left behind was heavier than the noise. Liora stood at the center of the circle, arms wrapped around herself, trying to slow her breathing.
Kaelen watched her carefully.
"You should rest," he said. "What you resisted tonight would have broken most bearers."
"I don't feel strong," Liora replied. "I feel… hollow."
He nodded once. "That's the cost of hearing echoes from lives you don't remember living."
She glanced at him. "You talk like you've seen this before."
"I have."
The word landed between them like a dropped stone.
Liora turned fully to face him. "Then start talking."
Kaelen hesitated. For the first time since she met him, uncertainty flickered across his face.
"This isn't a story I tell lightly," he said.
"I'm already part of it," she replied. "Whether you tell me or not."
A long pause followed.
Then Kaelen exhaled slowly. "Come. There's somewhere safer."
They left the sanctuary as dawn crept into the sky. The city looked ordinary again—cars moving, people walking, unaware that shadows had nearly breached their world.
Kaelen led her through narrow streets until they reached an abandoned watchtower overlooking the river. Its stone steps spiraled upward, worn smooth by centuries of forgotten footsteps.
At the top, the wind was strong, carrying the scent of water and old iron.
"This place exists in overlap," Kaelen said. "It touches several layers at once. The Hollowborn can't cross here easily."
Liora leaned against the wall, exhaustion finally catching up to her. "You promised answers."
Kaelen rested his hands on the stone railing, gaze fixed on the horizon.
"I was once a guardian," he began. "Not human. Not Hollowborn. Something in between."
Her brow furrowed. "Like… you?"
"Yes," he said quietly. "I walk between because I was made to."
He turned to her then, silver eyes darkened by memory.
"The Spiral doesn't choose randomly. It creates anchors—souls that can hold impossible balance. But those souls attract predators. So guardians were forged to protect them."
"Forged how?" she asked.
"By sacrifice," he answered.
Images stirred at the edges of her mind—chains, light torn from flesh, voices chanting.
"You were part of the ritual," she whispered.
"I was the result of it."
The wind howled louder, as though the world itself reacted to his words.
"I don't age the way humans do," Kaelen continued. "I don't belong fully anywhere. And every bearer I guarded… died."
Liora's chest tightened. "Including me."
"Yes."
She swallowed hard. "Did I die because you failed?"
Kaelen's jaw tightened. "No. You died because you chose to."
Her breath caught. "Chose?"
"You stepped into the Spiral willingly," he said. "To seal a rupture that would have erased entire realms."
Her hands trembled. "And you let me."
"I begged you not to," he said softly. "But you were never afraid of endings."
The weight of that truth settled deep inside her.
"That life," she murmured, "was brave."
"And this one still is," Kaelen replied. "That's why you scare them."
"Who?" she asked.
"The ones who benefit from endless imbalance," he said. "Those who feed on cycles repeating exactly as before."
Liora straightened. "Then why am I alive now?"
Kaelen met her gaze. "Because the Spiral changed its mind."
A shiver ran through her.
"It has never allowed a bearer to return," he continued. "Until you."
Silence stretched between them, broken only by the river below.
Finally, Liora asked the question that had been forming since the sanctuary.
"What are the Hollowborn to me?"
Kaelen's voice dropped. "They are what happens when balance is denied."
He gestured to her chest. "Your blood carries restoration. Their existence is decay made conscious."
"So they want me dead."
"No," he corrected. "They want you claimed."
Her stomach twisted. "That voice said 'come home.'"
"Yes," Kaelen said grimly. "Because your origin is not as simple as you believe."
She laughed weakly. "You're really good at dropping terrifying sentences and stopping."
"I'm trying not to break you," he said.
She met his eyes. "Try harder."
For a moment, something unreadable passed between them—respect, maybe, or fear.
"Very well," he said. "Then hear this."
He stepped closer, lowering his voice.
"You were not born human the first time."
The world seemed to tilt.
"What?" she whispered.
"You were shaped," he said. "From something older than humanity. Something the Spiral itself could trust."
Her pulse thundered. "You're saying I'm not—"
"You are human now," he interrupted gently. "But your soul remembers what it was."
She backed away a step. "And what was I?"
Kaelen's expression darkened.
"The Heart."
A sudden ache bloomed in her chest, sharp and familiar. The mark flared faintly beneath her skin.
"The Heart of the Spiral," he finished. "And the reason every realm still exists."
Below them, the river surged violently, as if responding to her awakening.
Far away, unseen eyes opened in the dark.
And the Hollowborn began to move again