The world tilted sideways.
For a split second, Kael wasn't in the palace anymore. He was falling — through fire, through stars, through memories that didn't belong to him. Voices howled past his ears, whispering names he'd never heard, faces he'd never seen. Some cried out in pain. Others in rage.
And one voice, softer than the rest, cut through it all:
> "Wake me carefully, or I'll take everything."
Then light swallowed everything.
Kael's knees hit the glass again. Elira grabbed his shoulder, steadying him. She was pale, lips tight, eyes locked on the girl floating above the glowing pool.
She was awake now.
Not just blinking — not groggy.
Awake like a storm is awake.
The girl's eyes were solid flame, no pupils, no whites. Her skin pulsed with ember veins, glowing brighter with each breath. Hair lifted behind her in waves of fire that didn't burn the air but bent it.
Kael stood slowly, gauntlet at his side, not raised.
"Name," he said calmly. "I need your name."
The girl floated down slowly. Her bare feet touched the glass, and it didn't crack. Instead, it shifted beneath her like ripples on a lake.
"Name," she repeated. Her voice was quiet, but it echoed in the walls, bouncing between reflections.
She tilted her head, as if listening to something far away.
"I had one once. Before the sleep. Before the cage."
Kael nodded. "You were a Vessel. Like me."
The girl looked at him, and for a second, something flickered in her eyes. Recognition. Or warning.
"I burned a mountain," she said simply. "Before they locked me in that dream."
Elira tensed. "Kael…"
"I know," he said softly. Then, to the girl: "You're not in danger anymore."
The girl looked at her hands.
"No," she said. "You are."
The palace trembled.
Light pulsed from the walls as reflections distorted. Elira raised her blade, but Kael raised his gauntlet to stop her.
"Let her speak."
The girl didn't speak. She screamed.
Not out loud — in memory. Her fire surged from her body, slamming outward in a wave of emotion too big to control. Kael took the brunt of it, flames slamming into his chest and sending him skidding back across the glass floor.
The gauntlet flared, absorbing the worst of it.
But even it groaned under the strain.
She wasn't attacking.
She was remembering.
And it hurt.
Kael forced himself upright, coughing. His cloak was half-burned, but he stepped forward anyway.
"I know what they did to you," he said. "They did the same to the others. Or worse."
She looked at him again, this time without fire in her eyes. Just exhaustion.
"I dreamed of endless cities," she said. "Built on bones. Lit by stars that whispered my name."
Kael stepped closer. "What do you remember before the dream?"
The girl blinked slowly.
"A boy with a crown of flame. And a choice he couldn't make."
Kael froze.
That wasn't her memory.
That was his.
The chamber quieted.
The girl looked down at her hands again. The fire faded slightly, reduced to a quiet shimmer across her skin.
"I'm called Sena," she said finally. "That was my name."
Kael nodded. "Sena. I'm Kael. This is Elira. We're trying to stop what's coming."
Sena's head tilted. "You mean what's already here."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "You've seen it?"
Sena didn't answer. Instead, she raised her hand and pointed toward the mirrored wall.
A new reflection shimmered into view.
Not them.
Not this realm.
A battlefield — burned and broken. Towers toppled. Vessels impaled on spears of light. And behind it all… a figure cloaked in stars and shadow, wearing a crown of turning gears.
Elira gasped. "What is that?"
Kael answered quietly.
"An Unmaker."
Sena nodded. "The oldest one. The last god. It waits for us on the other side."
"And we're going there?" Elira asked.
Kael met her gaze.
"We have to."
Sena didn't speak again. She stepped forward and took Kael's hand.
The moment they touched, the flame from her skin wrapped around the gauntlet and fused into it — a mark burning into the metal: a spiral of fire inside a tear.
Another key.
Another Vessel awakened.
They left the palace as the city began to dim.
The Warden was gone. The thrones were gone. Only silence remained.
At the edge of the courtyard, Kael looked back once, watching as the tower of glass dissolved into air like it had never existed.
No one spoke as they walked.
Too much had changed.
Too much had begun.
Above them, the sky was healing — the rift sealing slowly, though not entirely. Light bled through the cracks like starlight from another world.
Kael looked up.
Three Vessels were now awakened: himself, Sena, and one still lost in the corpse of a world that forgot time.
There wasn't much time left.
But the flame inside him didn't flicker.
It burned steady now.
Waiting.
Ready.
> And the stars, once cruel, now watched in silence.