Elora's POV
They say no path is easy—not ever.
But maybe the hardest ones hold us together.
The light faded slowly, not like a snap but like a curtain drawn after a long, painful show. Kael's hand stayed locked in mine, our fingers laced like armor plates. I half-expected another portal, another test, maybe a flaming sphinx or a riddle about death and taxes.
Instead?
Silence.
Not peaceful silence—ominous silence. The kind that buzzed under your skin and whispered, You forgot something.
We stood in a circular room made of obsidian. Perfectly smooth. Perfectly black. Not a single door. Not a single window. Not even a crack. Like we'd been swallowed by a pearl made of nightmares.
Kael turned slowly. "This feels... trap-adjacent."
"I was hoping you'd say it was a luxury spa," I muttered.
"No eucalyptus in sight."
"Just dread and trauma. My favorite aromatherapy blend."
He smirked, but it didn't reach his eyes. Not really.
Something about this room made it feel like we weren't done. Not even close.
A hum started up.
Soft, musical.
I looked down.
And saw it.
Carved into the center of the floor—a symbol.
The ember seal.
The mark I'd once seen in my dream, the one I'd half-convinced myself wasn't real.
Except now it glowed. Gold, then red. Then
Boom!!.
A pulse shot through the room.
Kael and I flew backward like rag dolls, slamming into opposite walls. The stone sucked the breath from my lungs. I gasped, twisted, and saw Kael sprawled on the other side, coughing.
Before I could move—before I could even scream,a shadow rose from the seal.
Not smoke.
Not mist.
Shadow.
It had a body. A shape,and two eyes like bleeding stars.
"Welcome, Champions," it said.
Kael groaned. "Can we just get a sandwich first?"
Kael's POV
I had exactly zero patience left for cryptic villains and their dramatic entrances.
Especially ones that looked like rejected ink blots from a therapist's worst day.
The shadow hovered, rippling like it was made of hate and old secrets. Its voice came from everywhere and nowhere. Like all the creepy voices we'd heard before had banded together to form a choir.
"You have passed the gates," it intoned. "But the Vault is not yet yours."
Of course it wasn't.
"Do we need to fill out more paperwork?" I asked, wincing as I stood. "Blood sample? Sacrifice a goat? Interpretive dance?"
The eyes narrowed. "You mock what you do not understand."
"No, I mock what won't shut up."
The shadow lunged.
I braced for pain, but instead it stopped inches from my chest. Its tendrils curled around the air, and suddenly I felt something.
Not mine.
Elora's pain.
Her fear.
Memories that weren't mine flooded my mind.
A fire. A scream. A loss that carved out something essential.
Then—
Another flash.
Me.
On my knees.
Blood on my hands.
Someone I couldn't save.
I staggered, clutching my head.
The shadow pulled back.
"Only by confronting what binds you can you wield the Vault."
I spat on the floor. "Try therapy next time."
But Elora...
She was quiet.
Too quiet.
Elora's POV
It knew.
This thing—this sentient oil spill knew.
It had ripped my past from its hiding place and dumped it all over the floor.
And now Kael had seen it.
Not the pretty pieces. The worst parts. The girl crying in the ash. The one who begged for her mother and got silence in return.
I couldn't speak.
Not because I was afraid but because the weight of shame sat like a stone on my lungs.
Kael reached for me. His touch was warm, grounding.
"Hey," he said softly. "Don't let it in."
Too late.
The shadow spoke again. "You carry your wounds like badges. But what will you sacrifice?"
"Nothing," I snapped. "We've given enough."
Wrong answer.
The room dropped out again but this time, it didn't split us.
It dragged us down.
Together.
Kael's POV
I've fallen into pits.
Punched through dimensions.
Leapt from crumbling towers mid-explosion.
But nothing—and I mean nothing compared to this fall.
Because this one hurt.
Not bones or bruises.
It cracked something inside.
When we landed, the world looked... wrong.
Sky the color of old parchment. Ground stitched together from torn fabric and fragments of cities that didn't exist anymore.
We weren't in the Vault.
We were in a memory.
But not just ours.
Everyone's.
A collective nightmare stitched into reality.
"This is the Vale," Elora whispered, awe and horror mixed. "The Vault's final test."
"Lovely," I muttered. "Do we fight a metaphor? Or hug a trauma?"
Neither.
Because from the edge of the horizon, things started crawling.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
All wearing faces we'd seen before.
Enemies. Friends. People we'd failed.
And leading them...
Was me.
And Elora.
But not us now.
The worst versions of us.
Elora's POV
This was worse than anything.
Facing your fears? Doable.
Facing your mistakes? Painful.
Facing yourself, if you'd chosen wrong at every crossroad?
Agonizing.
The other Elora—the one with fire in her eyes and no mercy in her posture lifted her hand, and storms cracked open above us.
She looked like a god.
A broken god.
"You always wanted power," she said. "This is what it costs."
My heart slammed against my ribs. Kael was at my side, tense, silent. His own shadow-twin stood behind the army, calm and cruel.
"Don't listen," I whispered to him. "They're not us."
"But they could be."
That was the terrifying part.
They could be.
The army charged.
Kael's POV
We fought.
Of course we fought.
Because running wasn't an option. Not here. Not with every footstep echoing with the sound of who we might become.
I slashed, dodged, spun. Elora danced beside me, fire and lightning twined around her like a living storm. But for every shadow we struck down, three more rose.
Until the worst part came.
The shadows began speaking.
Whispers in my voice.
Her voice.
"You're not worthy."
"You'll lose them all."
"You'll never be enough."
And god help me,I started to believe it.
Elora screamed. "Kael! Don't listen!"
But the doubt... it was crawling inside.
Until—
I dropped my sword.
Elora's POV
He fell.
Not physically.
But his shoulders sagged. His eyes lost focus.
The shadows swarmed.
"No," I growled. "Not like this."
I reached deep.
Deeper than before.
Deeper than I should have.
And I found something old.
Older than the Vault.
Older than Grimeva.
A wordless power.
It filled me, burned through me, and exploded from my chest like starlight.
The shadows disintegrated.
The other Elora screamed, then vanished in a gust of ash.
Kael blinked. His breath hitched.
"What... was that?"
"I don't know," I said. "But it listened to me."
The Vale cracked.
And the real world bled back in.
Kael's POV
We landed again—this time on solid marble.
The original chamber.
The ember seal gone. The shadows gone.
But in the center stood a pedestal.
A small box on top.
We approached together.
On its surface was a symbol neither of us recognized. A flame in a cage.
Elora touched it first.
Then me.
The box opened.
Inside?
Not gold.
Not jewels.
A map.
And beneath it, words carved in stone.
"The Vault was never the treasure. You are."
Elora's POV
Silence again.
But this time, it wasn't heavy.
It was... full.
Like something had clicked into place.
Kael stared at the map. "I don't recognize any of these places."
"Neither do I."
Which meant only one thing.
"This wasn't the end," I said.
"No," he agreed. "It was the beginning."
We looked at each other.
Scarred.
Shaken.
Alive.
"I guess we passed?" I asked.
"Or we're about to really fail."
We laughed.
Then the Vault began to shake.
Doors opened on every wall.
Outside, the world had changed.
Mountains in the sky. Rivers that flowed upward. A phoenix flying past a shattered moon.
Grimeva reborn.
And us?
We were walking out of legend...
...and into destiny.