Darkness throbbed within the chamber, pulsing like a living thing.
The shattered runes on the summoning circle sparked faintly—red, violet, and silver threads of corrupted magic crawling across the stone like vines of memory. The air felt charged, like the calm before a storm where breath trembled and silence cracked under unseen weight.
They shouldn't have touched it.
And yet… he had.
His hand still hovered over the last rune, fingers aching from the magical recoil. Kaela's voice echoed behind him—sharp, warning—but it was too late.
The seal had responded to him.
The magic responded to him.
And now, something ancient stirred beneath the circle.
Kaela shouted. Lyss unsheathed her wind-etched blade, crackling with condensed air currents. But neither of them moved forward. Something unseen pressed back—some invisible barrier, or maybe just fear.
Then came the voice. Soft at first, a whisper so intimate it felt breathed directly into the skin.
"Don't leave me here again… Master."
The center of the circle burst open—not like stone shattering, but like shadow unraveling. A shape began to rise from it. Feminine, bound in flickering strands of dreamlight and obsidian silk.
She floated inches above the circle, her body curled, breathing shallow.
Delicate horns curved gently from her head like blackened rose stems. Her hair—deep violet laced with ash-gray streaks—drifted as if underwater. Chains still bound her wrists, spectral and half-faded. Her lips trembled, stained with runes, as if she'd been speaking spells in her sleep.
His heart clenched.
He didn't know her. And yet… he did.
The girl opened her eyes—burning violet, like dying stars in winter skies. They met his, and the world tilted.
She inhaled sharply. "You're… awake."
Kaela's voice turned urgent. "Step back! Don't listen to her—!"
But before anyone could react, the girl fell forward.
Straight into his arms.
Her body felt cold—unnaturally so, like frost coiled beneath her skin. Yet it was the kind of cold that demanded warmth, that leaned into him with trembling need.
He caught her on instinct.
And the moment he did, the chains vanished.
The circle flared one last time… and then died.
Silence.
Lyss took a step forward, magic rippling down her blade. "She's a succubus."
Kaela flinched. "And bound to you now."
But the girl wasn't attacking. She was watching him. Searching.
"Do you…" Her voice cracked. "Do you not remember me?"
His throat tightened. "I don't even remember myself."
Her eyes shimmered. She lifted a hand slowly, placing her palm against his cheek.
"You were the Ashen Sovereign. My Master. My… bond." Her voice fractured. "You left. You died. And I—I waited. I dreamed of you until I forgot my own name."
Emotion rushed forward—foreign, overwhelming. Not his, but hers. A storm of grief, longing, devotion. Echoes from another lifetime slammed into him.
Then—
She kissed him.
It wasn't hunger or seduction.
It was ritual.
A mark burned against his chest, just below the collarbone. It felt like a heartbeat forging itself into memory. He gasped as magic spiraled outward—silent and pure.
The pact had formed.
She collapsed into him again, drained.
Kaela's flames surged around her fists. "You—! What did you just do?!"
Lyss stepped forward, blade half-raised. "That was a soul pact. You let her imprint on you."
"She didn't force it," he murmured. "It just… happened."
Nyzaria—her name finally surfacing from the fog—curled into his chest.
"I had to," she whispered. "Before they come. Before the others find you."
Kaela's eyes flared with pain. "You let her in, just like that?"
"I didn't choose—"
"No," Lyss said. "You did."
Kaela turned away, her hair flickering with tiny embers.
"I trusted you," she said. "I followed you, even when it meant burning every bridge I had left. And now you bond with… her?"
"She saved you," Lyss muttered. "But it still feels wrong."
"She didn't save me. She claimed him." Kaela's voice was cold steel.
"I'm still me," he said.
"No," Lyss said, stepping forward. "You're becoming someone else. That seal. That name. The Ashen Sovereign. It's changing you."
Nyzaria looked up, her voice soft. "He isn't changing. He's remembering."
A long silence stretched between them.
Finally, Kaela spoke again, voice quieter. "We should leave. This place… it's waking up."
"I can walk," Nyzaria said faintly. "Just… not fast."
He supported her. Her fingers, though trembling, clung to his wrist like memory clinging to life.
They made their way back toward the entrance, only to find it gone—collapsed into rubble behind them.
Lyss let out a sharp curse.
"We're trapped."
"No," Nyzaria said. "There's another path. One only marked by those who have tasted shadow."
The phrase made him shiver. His palm still tingled from absorbing the shadow beast days before.
"You mean me?"
"Yes," she said. "You're still bound to the Ash. You can open the path."
Kaela folded her arms. "And we're just supposed to follow you?"
"I swore myself to him long before you knew his name," Nyzaria said, voice no longer weak.
A long, slow beat.
Lyss looked away. "Just find us a way out."
The ruined walls around them began to pulse with low, ancient light. Symbols lit up, one by one, in response to his presence.
And the path opened beneath their feet.
A staircase spiraling downward into violet fog.
He swallowed.
Whatever waited below was older than shadow, older than betrayal.
And now, with a succubus on his arm and his past awakening in whispers, he could feel the weight of what was coming.
He wasn't sure if he feared the truth.
Or what he would become once he remembered it.