The wind howled through the broken teeth of Vaelgard's high spires as Seralyn descended into the old tunnels beneath the Citadel. No torches burned here — only pale lichen clung to the walls, casting an unsteady glow like a memory of moonlight.
Kaelen walked ahead, silent, sword at his hip, burden in his heart. But Seralyn — Seralyn had begun to drift.
Ever since she touched the sigil in the chamber above, something had followed her.
She did not tell Kaelen. She didn't know how to speak of the dreams.
The path wound downward, deeper than even the catacombs, past stone so old it pulsed with heat — the veins of the mountain, once thought sealed by the gods themselves.
Whispers curled in the air like mist.
They said nothing intelligible, not at first. Just fragments. Weeping. A name.
Ly… sarra…
Seralyn stopped, pressing a hand to the wall.
"Do you hear that?" she asked.
Kaelen turned, frowning. "Hear what?"
She didn't answer.
They entered a vast hollow where the earth had opened centuries ago. Broken columns jutted like bones from the cavern floor. And at the center: an altar of silver-black metal, veined with veins of starlight, surrounded by a broken circle of stones carved with the eclipsed sun.
Beneath it lay something half-buried in dust — a shattered crown.
Seralyn stepped toward it, compelled. Her fingers grazed the cold metal — and the world fell away.
She stood in a place that was not a place.
There was flame. Screaming. A dark hall filled with chanting. And a man — tall, robed in shadows, kneeling beside a woman. His hands trembled as he pressed her body to a stone bed.
He laid something on her chest. A sword — black as night.
"Forgive me," the man whispered. "Let them fear me, so they may never find you again."
Seralyn gasped and fell back. Kaelen caught her.
"Seralyn!"
She blinked. The vision faded. The whispers receded — but left her heart hollow.
"I saw him," she whispered. "Vorath. But not as he is now…"
Kaelen helped her up, eyes narrowing.
"What did you see?"
"I don't know," she lied. "I don't… I don't know."