The Sanctum dimmed after the vision ended, but the air remained charged.
Everyone stood frozen, each one reeling. Then, "get out." Riven's voice sliced clean through the silence. Kaine blinked. "Excuse me?" Riven took a step forward, eyes dark. "You looked at her like a weapon. A threat. I saw it in every one of you." His voice cracked with something too raw to name. "So get. Out."
Sethis frowned but didn't argue. Lucien lingered for a moment, studying Mae, then Ashar, before nodding silently and ushering the others out. The door sealed behind them, humming with finality. Now, it was just Mae, Ashar, and Riven, in the heart of the sanctum, surrounded by ancient memory and possibility. Riven turned to Mae, softer now. "Do you want the truth?" he asked. "Not pieces, not guesses. The whole thing, from when Ashar's people fell, to when you formed. What happened the day he came into this dimension, and what that did to you."
Mae's eyes burned with unshed tears. She nodded. "Yes." Ashar didn't speak. But he didn't stop it either. Riven extended his hand, not to her, but toward the sphere. "Then let it show you everything." Mae stepped into the center. And the moment her fingers touched the light. The past ignited. The Truth of the Fracture A dying world. Ashar's home, twisted, broken, in its last days. A great collapse, the Divine Fracture. The cosmic thread that held creation together ripped apart. Ashar's people fell, not in battle, but in sacrifice, trying to preserve the last spark of balance.
They tore a hole into dimensions themselves to hide that spark. But it needed a form.
It needed her. That day, Ashar, the last of the Veydrin, stepped between worlds, and the spark became conscious. Mae was born, not of blood, not of womb, but of collision. Of bond. She was a product of everything broken and the only being capable of healing it. She had no family because none had existed yet. She was the first of what's to come.
Then, the Future, the vision shifted. Mae stood at a crossroads, two branching paths.
One, filled with ash and ruin. Everyone she'd come to care about, dead. She stood alone. Eternally alive. The last heartbeat in a dead cosmos. The other, bright and raw and filled with conflict, but also hope. Rebuilding. Healing. Love. In that path, Ashar stood beside her, worn but whole, protective, hers. So did Riven, half smirking, half undone, holding a small child who laughed like a sun reborn.
Mae, was glowing. Not divine. Human. But more. She was mother, creator, lover, guide, holding both their hands as they forged something across galaxies. Together. The vision faded. And all three were left staring at one another. Ashar's jaw clenched tight. His fists trembled slightly. Riven rubbed the back of his neck, eyes avoiding hers. Mae's voice was barely a whisper. "I don- I don't understand. I love both of you?" She looked between them. "Is that even possible with this bond thing?"
Ashar spoke first, quiet and sharp. "A divine bond was thought to be exclusive. Singular. Sacred." Riven let out a breath. "But it wasn't the bond that chose. You did."
Mae shook her head slowly, still overwhelmed. "And I have a child, with both of you?"
Ashar's eyes met hers, piercing, intense. "We rebuild existence together. We raise the child that becomes the next thread of creation." Riven muttered, stunned, "That's, heavy." She turned to them again, slowly. "So, is it possible? Two bonds?"
Ashar didn't answer right away. His voice was gravel when he did. "Not in any lore." A pause. "But nothing about you is in the lore." Riven looked at her, no more smirking, no mask. Just vulnerability. "If this is real, I'll follow it. Even if I'm not the one you choose." A beat. "But I hope you do." Mae's heart twisted. Ashar turned away, tense, brooding. But he didn't walk out. He stayed. Just like Riven. Just like her future said they would. Mae didn't say a word.
She stepped away from the Sanctum's warmth, past the silent stares of Ashar and Riven, and slipped through the nearest corridor, out of the glowing halls, the memory-soaked walls, and the choking weight of a future too big for her heart to hold. She didn't know where she was going. She just knew she needed to leave. The doors at the end of the castle's west wing groaned open, not resisting her this time, but recognizing her.
As if the very walls whispered, welcome home. And then, she was outside.
For the first time since the world had bent itself back into something real, something living, since she had changed everything without meaning to. Mae saw what had become of the fractured lands. And it stole the breath right out of her lungs. This was the place I broke. But it didn't look broken anymore. The world stretched wide, rolling hills, crystalline rivers that sparkled like veins of silver-blue lightning.
Trees swayed softly in a wind that smelled faintly of ozone and sunlight. The sky above shimmered in layers, blues and pale violets melting into radiant gold streaks across silver-edged clouds. The ground beneath her feet was unlike any soil she'd seen.
Black like volcanic ash, but warm, soft, pulsing faintly with life. Flowers bloomed in impossible colors: pearlescent whites, dusky pinks edged with deep blue, gold-veined black petals that hummed in tune with her heartbeat. It looked like earth. But it was more.
Earth if the gods had taken the shattered pieces of memory and sorrow and made something better. Mae's legs finally gave out as she reached the edge of a silver-lit stream. She sat, silent, knees to her chest, watching light ripple over the water's surface. Here, it felt like nothing was chasing her. Not her past. Not the bond. Not destiny. Just existence. Still, her thoughts wouldn't still. Ashar, and Riven.
That vision. That future. Two children. Two bonds. Two paths somehow woven into one. She'd felt something for both of them. Different, but powerful. Ashar was quiet gravity. He steadied her chaos.Riven was wildfire. He challenged her. Matched her spark for spark. And now, the universe had the audacity to say they were both hers.
Or worse, that she might be theirs. How is that fair? Her chest tightened. She dipped her fingers in the stream just to remind herself she was real.
She didn't hear the soft crunch of boots on strange soil behind her. Didn't sense the presence until it stood at a respectful distance.
Ashar.
Of course.