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Chapter 49 – The Name in the Stone
The air beneath the shrine was colder than Celeste had expected.
Not the kind of cold that bit the skin—no, this was the sort that crept into bone and memory, that whispered of things long sealed and best forgotten. The deeper they descended, the more the stones seemed to pulse faintly beneath their feet, as though they were walking along the ribs of a sleeping beast.
Kairo hadn't spoken in a while. His jaw was tight, the furrow between his brows fixed. His grip on her hand remained firm, yet there was a tremor in his knuckles—a man carrying too many truths and not enough time to tell them.
Celeste finally broke the silence. "What is this place?"
Kairo paused at the bottom of the steps. Before them stood a massive archway, etched with runes that shimmered faintly in hues of silver and blood-red.
"A vault," he said, voice hushed. "Built by the Oldbloods before even the Empyreal Houses existed. A sanctuary for truth. And punishment."
Celeste's breath caught. The air shimmered, like mist soaked in memory.
"And we're here because…?"
"Because this is where the threads of everything unravel," he murmured, pressing his palm to the stone.
The runes glowed brighter, the door groaning open with the weight of centuries.
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Inside, the chamber unfolded in circles—concentric rings of memory. Each ring held massive stone slabs, floating mid-air like forgotten gravestones. Faces flickered upon them—some she recognized from portraits in the archives, others that seemed to look directly into her soul.
One slab hovered lower than the rest.
Celeste approached it instinctively.
Her name was carved upon it.
CELESTE RAINES.
She froze.
"I—I don't understand…"
Kairo stepped beside her, his expression unreadable. "Neither did I when I first saw my own."
Her head snapped toward him. "What?"
He turned toward another stone—hidden behind a veil of black flame. When he passed through it, the fire didn't burn him. The veil parted like shadow peeling away from light.
And there, carved in ancient ink, was his own name:
KAIRO VOLTTERI SEO.
Below it, a single line in Old Tongue.
Celeste read it aloud, shakily: "Born of fire, cursed by oath, chained by blood…"
"...Until the sins are sung," Kairo finished softly.
Celeste turned to him, the air growing heavier. "Why are our names here?"
"Because we are not just heirs, Celeste. We are conduits. Keys. And this vault... this place holds the echoes of every soul who's ever tampered with the heart of magic."
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Suddenly, a gust of wind screamed through the chamber. The slabs shuddered. The chamber dimmed.
Kairo's head snapped toward the upper ring. "He's found us."
Celeste drew closer to him. "Leoranzo?"
"No. Worse." His eyes darkened. "The one who gave Leoranzo his power."
Before Celeste could ask further, the stones began to bleed—slow rivulets of light dripping from their edges, pooling into a symbol at the center of the chamber.
It pulsed, and from it rose a form—not flesh, but shadow given voice.
It spoke in a language Celeste didn't know, but somehow still understood.
"You have opened the threshold. The price must be paid."
Kairo stepped forward. "I will pay it. Leave her out of this."
But the voice laughed, a thousand broken bells. "It is not you she owes. It is the blood in her veins. The name beneath her skin."
Celeste felt something tear open within her.
She stumbled to her knees, vision flickering. Her heartbeat stuttered.
And then—she remembered.
Not her life. But someone else's.
A woman with her face, standing in a battlefield of stars. Fire in her hands. A crown made of ash.
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When she came to, Kairo was cradling her, eyes wide with terror.
"Celeste? Celeste!"
She coughed. "I saw her…"
"Who?"
"Myself. But not me."
Kairo's hand trembled against her cheek. "Then it's begun."
She looked up at him, the pain giving way to something deeper. A calling.
"What's begun?"
He glanced toward the seal, now pulsing like a heart torn open.
"The Reckoning."
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To be continued in Chapter 50…