The castle had gone silent. Below, Kaine thrashed once more against the reinforced trapdoor of the makeshift cellar, before another surge of Riven's energy reminded him resistance was useless. Upstairs, the others drifted to their rooms, heavy with everything left unspoken. But Mae wasn't alone. Ashar lay on one side of her bed, sitting upright, back against the carved headboard. Riven stretched out on the other side, one arm resting behind his head, eyes open even in the dark. Neither said a word. Neither slept.
Mae curled between them, breathing soft but uneven. When her eyes fluttered closed, her mind opened. It didn't begin with Kaine. It began with fire. Mae stood in a place that looked like the castle, but warped, half-melted, dripping with shadows and light. Screaming echoed in the distance. She ran. Each room she passed twisted more than the last, memories carved into the walls, faces she knew but couldn't place. Ashar, crumbling into ash before her eyes. Riven, impaled and smiling like he chose it. Lucien, turning away from her. Sethis, gone. And Kaine, again. But this Kaine didn't fight her.
He begged. "Please. Please don't. I was trying to protect you." But her hands, they were glowing. Light poured from her fingertips. It wasn't red or blue this time. It was gold. Pure. Beautiful. And then the castle exploded. She stood in the middle of ruin. Everyone was gone. Everyone, because of her. "You will either rebuild the world, or you will burn it all alone." A voice. That same voice from before. Deep, ancient, genderless. Not kind. Not cruel. Just true. Mae fell to her knees in the dream. "I don't want to choose."
"Then the power will choose for you." She jolted awake with a sharp gasp. Sweat clung to her skin. Her chest heaved. Ashar's hand was already at her back. Riven leaned up on one elbow, eyes sharp, jaw tight. "Mae," Riven said quickly. "You're okay. You're here. You're safe." She couldn't speak for a moment. Her lips parted but the words wouldn't come. Her eyes stung. Ashar didn't ask questions. He simply pulled her into his side. Riven reached over and took her hand across her lap, gripping it like she might disappear.
She closed her eyes again and whispered, broken, "I remembered." Neither of them asked how. Ashar pressed his forehead gently to hers. Riven rubbed small circles into the back of her hand. She didn't say anything else for a long time. And they didn't make her. They just stayed. Wrapped around her. Hoping the nightmares wouldn't return before morning. The night didn't end with silence. Mae sat between Ashar and Riven, knees pulled to her chest, still wrapped in the same blanket they had tucked around her after the nightmare. Her hands trembled, though she didn't seem to notice. Her eyes were far away.
Ashar hadn't moved since pulling her close. Riven sat across from her now, cross-legged at the edge of the bed, waiting. "I remembered," she said softly. "Everything." Neither of them spoke. They let her breathe. Let her gather it. "The dream, it wasn't just a nightmare. I saw all of you." Her voice broke, not with tears but exhaustion. "Dying. Burning. Crumbling. Leaving. All of it, and I was the one who did it."
Riven's jaw clenched. "You'd never-"
"But I did," she cut in. "In that version, I did." Her voice shook, but she kept going. "And then I remembered what happened after I fainted outside. Where I went." She finally looked at both of them, wide eyes glinting in the low light. "It was like, a tomb. But not for death. For memories. For truths." Ashar tensed beside her. "The place beyond time." Mae nodded. "Someone, something, spoke to me. They told me my battles hadn't even begun. That the longer I waited to understand this power, the harder it would be to stay pure."
Her fingers curled into the blanket. "They told me Kaine needed to be rewired. And then I was back. I remember grabbing him. I remember the words, rewire. Rewire family. And then, nothing."
"You glowed," Riven said, voice low. "You burned, like divinity." Ashar finally spoke. "You changed him. Without destroying him." Mae looked between them. "But what does it mean? The dream, the tomb, Kaine, the animals that came back, What do you think it means?" Riven ran a hand through his hair, exhaling. "I think, you're becoming what you were always meant to be. Whatever that is. Creator. Healer. Wrecker of worlds. Or all of them at once." Ashar added, quiet but firm, "And I think your heart is what keeps you from tipping too far toward any one path. The fact that you're still asking what it means instead of declaring it."
He looked into her. "That's the difference between power and purpose." Mae absorbed their words slowly, eyes dropping to her hands. "Then maybe it's time I stop running from it." Riven reached over and touched her knee. "You don't have to run, Mae. You have us." Ashar said nothing, but he placed his hand over hers. No sparks this time. No glowing. Just touch. Just warmth. For the first time since waking from the nightmare, she exhaled. The air was different now, lighter somehow.
Mae stood with Ashar, Riven, Sethis, Lucien, and even a still-watchful but subdued Kaine. No one spoke of the nightmare, the vision, or what had passed. For now, they all needed something else, movement. Discovery. Direction. "I need to learn this power," Mae said. Ashar nodded. "Then we'll find the place where it began."