The storm over the Skyvault Peaks had not ceased for three days. The winds howled like mourning spirits, dragging sleet and starlight across the obsidian ridges. Lynchie Fuentes Regino stood at the very edge of the cliff, the Spiral Ward on her wrist pulsing in defiance of the cold. Her breath clouded in the air, mingling with the mist that rose from the abyss below.
She had seen it in her dreams. The shattering Spiral. The red horizon. Zev's silhouette vanishing into a rain of embers. And now, standing here, Lynchie could feel the moment was coming—rushing at her like a tidal wave she could not outrun.
Behind her, Vyen approached silently. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes carried the weight of what he would not say aloud.
"They're moving," he said, voice tight. "Abyssal scouts near the eastern bastion. Just like the vision said."
Lynchie closed her eyes. The Spiral had shown her many things. But not what she needed most—how to stop the war. Or how to save him.
"Zev hasn't returned," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "Three days since he crossed into the Marrow Pass."
"He knew the risk," Vyen replied, though the edge of worry in his tone betrayed him.
Did he know the risk—or did he know something else entirely? Something about the Spiral's original fracture? Something about her?
The Spiral Ward flared once, then again. Beneath her skin, a heat built like a second heartbeat. Lynchie clenched her fists. Her training had accelerated beyond all logic, pushing her deeper into resonance with the Spiral than any wielder since the Ancients. And yet, the deeper she went, the more she felt like a stranger in her own body.
The memories weren't all hers anymore.
There was a woman. Golden-eyed, burning, crowned in chains. She screamed through Lynchie's veins. She wasn't just a vessel—she was a reawakening.
"Regino blood," she murmured, "was never meant to be dormant."
Vyen stiffened. "What did you say?"
She turned slowly, her eyes glowing faintly with Spiral light. "He's not just my brother," she said. "He's a key. A fragment of the First Spiral. And they know."
"You mean…"
"They'll come for him first. Then for me. Then for everything the Eternal Heavens ever blessed."
A silence fell between them as thunder cracked overhead. The storm had turned a shade too dark. The sky churned with an unnatural pressure.
Suddenly, a sharp crack rang out from the stone ridge above them. Both Lynchie and Vyen turned as a figure emerged from the mist—bleeding, cloaked in ash, eyes wild.
Zev.
He collapsed to his knees.
"They've opened the gate," he rasped. "The Abyss is no longer sealed."
Lynchie rushed forward, catching him before he fell completely. His body trembled against hers.
"They wanted me to see it," he said. "The Spiral—the real Spiral—was never whole. It was a prison. And you, Lynchie… you're its last wall."
Her heart dropped. Her mouth went dry. The Spiral Ward glowed furiously now, nearly burning her skin.
"You saw it," she whispered. "The Abyss—what's inside?"
Zev's eyes, fevered and lost, locked onto hers.
"I saw the one who remembers your first name."
And then the wind shifted, carrying with it the sound of a thousand whispering voices. A darkness thicker than shadow unfurled over the mountains like a serpent awakening.
The Spiral cracked.
And Lynchie screamed.