The battlefield echo dissolved like ash caught in a strong wind.
One moment Eris was gasping on scorched stone, the next he was back inside the Shrine of Echoes—kneeling, palms pressed to the cool marble floor. The sudden silence felt wrong after the roaring chaos of the First War's remnants.
His body trembled.
Not from fear—
from change.
Kaelion stood a short distance away, sword already sheathed, watching him with the sharp, unblinking focus of a commander assessing a soldier after their first real test.
"You didn't just survive," Kaelion said. "You adapted under pressure."
Eris pushed himself upright slowly. "It didn't feel like adapting. It felt like… being torn apart and stitched back together."
Kaelion nodded once. "That's growth when destiny accelerates."
Eris frowned. "The Watcher… was it really watching the whole time?"
Kaelion looked toward the far wall of the shrine, where the shadows seemed a little deeper than they should have been.
"Yes," he said quietly. "And it left something behind."
Eris's pulse quickened. "What do you mean?"
Kaelion gestured. "Check your Core."
Eris focused inward.
The Sevenfold Crest on his chest glowed faintly—and then he felt it. A thin, unfamiliar presence coiled at the edge of his power. Not hostile. Not friendly.
Observant.
Eris opened his eyes. "There's… a mark."
Kaelion's jaw tightened. "A Watcher's Trace. It doesn't control you. It records you."
Eris clenched his fists. "So I'm being studied."
"Yes," Kaelion replied. "Every battle. Every choice. Every deviation from fate."
Eris exhaled sharply. "Great."
Kaelion actually allowed himself a brief, grim smile. "If it helps, most beings marked by Watchers don't live long enough for it to matter."
"That… does not help."
Before Kaelion could reply, the shrine trembled.
Not violently—
deliberately.
Ancient runes ignited across the walls, glowing a deep amber. The crystals hovering near the ceiling rotated, forming a complex pattern Eris had never seen before.
Kaelion's eyes widened slightly.
"The shrine is responding to you now," he said.
"To me?"
"Yes. The Sevenfold Core has reached a recognition threshold."
The floor in front of Eris split open silently, revealing a descending stairway carved from obsidian and light.
From below came a low, steady hum—older than the vault, older than the shrine.
Eris stared down the stairs. "What's down there?"
Kaelion hesitated. Just for a moment.
Then he answered.
"A record the Clan of Seven sealed away. Something even I was forbidden to see."
Eris looked back at him. "And now it's opening because of me."
"Yes."
Eris took a slow breath. "So this is another trial."
Kaelion shook his head.
"No. This isn't a trial."
He met Eris's eyes.
"This is a truth."
The hum from below grew louder, resonating with Eris's Core. The Watcher's Trace stirred—alert, attentive.
Whatever waited beneath the shrine…
…it was something the world had tried very hard to forget.
Eris stepped toward the stairs.
Kaelion followed.
The descent began.