The Echoing Divide
The mountain trembled like a dying beast.
Elanora staggered as the ground split beside her, molten veins of light spilling through the fissures like bleeding memories. Her chest heaved not from exertion, but from the ache. The ache she didn't yet understand.
"Aryan..." she whispered, but the name stung on her tongue.
Somewhere, past the veils of flame and shadow, she felt him slipping. As if an invisible thread connecting them had started to fray.
Suddenly, her surroundings blurred, swallowed by a silver mist. Time twisted. Space cracked. Her trial had ended but the final seal had not. Something greater waited beyond comprehension.
A door opened before her.
And she stepped into the vision.
Aryan in the Abyss of Choice
He stood at the heart of the abyss, surrounded by a great circle of runes that pulsed with ancient energy. The seal loomed ahead a monolithic wall of stone etched in countless names, many of which shimmered and vanished as if being erased from time.
At the center was her name.
Elanora.
And beside him, a spirit a robed figure, face obscured, glowing eyes like twin moons.
Spirit: "To save her, you must unbind your soul from hers. The final seal does not break with blood it breaks with memory. One must forget. Forever."
Aryan stepped back.
Aryan: "You mean... I have to choose to forget her? But I—I came here for her. I've bled, burned, broken... for her."
Spirit: "Love is not always the key. Sometimes, loss is the door."
The air grew heavy with unshed tears. Aryan clenched his fists. He could almost hear her voice echoing faintly through the abyss.
Elanora (vision-murmur): "We promised to remember. In every life."
He fell to his knees.
Aryan: "You want me to break that promise?"
The spirit knelt beside him, its voice gentle but resolute.
Spirit: "Promises bind souls. But sometimes, to save the soul you love... you must release it."...................