Dawn came bruised and restless.
The Sanctuary's bells had not yet rung, but the sound that woke Elara was far older—a vibration beneath her ribs, like the world exhaling in fear. She sat upright, breath sharp. Her chest glowed faintly, pulsing in a rhythm she did not recognize.
Not hers.
Not Kael's.
Not Aren's.
Something else.
A foreign pulse. A watching presence.
"Elara?" Liora stirred from the bedside chair, rubbing her eyes. "What is it?"
Elara pressed her palm to her sternum. "Something's wrong at the border."
Before Liora could respond, the Sanctuary's alarms cracked open the morning.
A shrill note ripped through corridors—one used only for catastrophic breaches. Elders sprinted past the chamber entrance, robes snapping, runes igniting in the halls. Boots thudded. Voices shouted orders.
"Elara!"
This one wasn't an Elder.
This one was Kael.
He burst into the doorway, hair unbound, eyes bright—a shimmering red-gold, the color they took when hunger and instinct tangled. But it was not uncontrolled hunger this time.
It was fear.
"It's the north border," he said. "A Hollowborn titan. The Watchers barely sent word before the wards collapsed."
Elara swung her legs off the pallet. Her limbs trembled but she forced them steady. "A titan? At dawn? That shouldn't be possible."
"No," Kael growled. "It shouldn't."
Aren appeared behind him, leaning heavily against Elias's shoulder. His breathing was shallow. The Mirror's third anchor had relieved him, but not fully. Every surge of Hollowborn energy pulled at him like a hook.
"Elara…" Aren whispered. "We feel it because it's testing the Mirror. It's… it's seeking weak points."
Liora's face drained of color. "Then the Devourer is watching."
Kael crossed the room and lifted Elara as if she weighed nothing. "You should not go to the battleground."
Elara pressed her forehead to his, breath shuddering. "You know I have to."
His eyes closed, a small, breaking exhale leaving him. "Yes," he said. "I know."
🔥 The Northern Wall — Roshold's Edge
By the time they reached the Watchtower, the sky above the northern cliffs churned with gray-black tendrils. The air burned cold, unnatural, like the breath of something older than winter.
The Watchers were already in formation—bows glowing with runic fire, blades humming with sigils. Their captain, a scarred woman named Yrene, shouted above the wind:
"Stand your ground! Do NOT let it cross the ridge!"
Elara inhaled sharply.
Below the cliff, lumbering into the valley, was the titan.
It was not the largest Hollowborn—others in stories reached mountains—but it was enormous enough that its shadow covered entire fields. Its body was a ruinous mass of bone and smoke, joints stitched by dark sinew, skull glowing with cracks of molten crimson.
Its roar shattered frost off stones.
Kael stepped in front of Elara instinctively.
"It's the Devourer's test," Aren whispered beside them. "It wants to see what the new anchor structure will do under assault."
"It will not break us," Kael muttered.
But even as he said the words, Elara felt a pull—like someone tugging on a thread tied to her soul. The Mirror responded involuntarily, the anchor bond tightening.
"Kael—Aren—stop resisting," she gasped. "It's trying to unbalance us. Breathe with me."
Aren leaned against her shoulder. Kael grabbed her hand in both of his. Three breaths. Four. Five.
The pressure stopped.
The titan paused.
Then it turned its head toward them, despite being almost a mile away.
"That's… impossible," Yrene whispered. "It senses you."
"No," Aren murmured.
Kael's eyes narrowed. "No. It recognizes us."
The titan shrieked and charged.
The earth shook—an avalanche of claws and bone. Watchers fired volleys of fire-arrows. The titan shrugged them off like sparks.
Elara's pulse pounded. A strange instinct rose in her—something carved by the Mirror itself.
She stepped forward.
"Elara!" Kael growled, catching her wrist.
"I can see its lines," she whispered.
He frowned. "What?"
"It's like—threads. A lattice of shadows. Weak points." She pointed, eyes narrowing. "Its left hinge. The marrow seam under the rib. And… gods, its core isn't sealed."
Aren inhaled sharply. "You're seeing its internal binding. That means the Mirror wants you to intervene."
Kael's expression hardened into something ancient and protective. "Show me where to strike."
⚔️ The Battle Begins
The titan lunged, claws sinking into the cliffside. The ridge cracked. Watchers staggered as earth split beneath them.
Kael blurred forward—faster than wind, faster than thought—leaping from stone to stone toward the titan's ribcage. His movements were precise, guided by Elara's vision.
"Left hinge!" Elara shouted.
Kael's blade carved a seam of glowing black marrow. The titan screamed, reeling back. But instead of dying, the wound shifted—trying to heal.
"It's regenerating," Elias shouted. "We need synchronized strikes!"
"Anchor it!" Yrene cried. "Before it climbs!"
Elara pressed her palm to the ground. The Mirror responded instantly—light spiraling from her chest into the earth. Sigils burst like blooming flowers across the ridge.
The titan's massive limb froze mid-lunge.
Gasps echoed behind her.
"Elara," Liora whispered, stunned. "You anchored a Hollowborn. That's—no one has done that since the First Era."
Elara didn't hear her.
Her focus tunneled.
"Kael! There's another weak point—beneath the third rib!"
Kael leapt, drove his blade in—
—and the titan convulsed violently. Dark tendrils lashed the air.
Aren screamed.
Elara spun toward him just in time to see him fall to his knees, clutching his chest. His veins pulsed black for a heartbeat—then red—then black again.
"Aren!" she lunged toward him.
He shook his head violently. "Don't—focus on it—Elara, if you break the anchor now—"
Kael shouted from the titan's ribcage, "Elara, finish it!"
She turned back. The titan roared, snapping one of the anchoring sigils. It wrenched free and swung toward the Watchtower.
Yrene cursed. "We're losing ground!"
Elara lifted both hands, chest burning.
"I see it," she whispered.
The Mirror inside her flared, filling her veins with light—searing, cold, holy.
She reached into the titan's body—not physically, but through the Mirror's map. She tugged a single invisible thread.
The titan froze.
Then it collapsed into itself, a whirl of bone and shadow, until nothing remained but dust and a single echoing roar.
Silence fell.
Wind carried the dust away.
The Watchers stared at Elara like she was something they had prayed for and feared.
Kael landed beside her, grabbing her shoulders, searching her face. "Are you hurt? Elara, tell me—"
She smiled weakly. "Not hurt. Just… tired."
Aren tried to stand. Elias helped him. But Aren's face was bloodless. Sweat beaded at his hairline.
"Elara," he whispered. "It spoke to me."
Kael stiffened.
Elara turned slowly toward Aren. "What do you mean?"
Aren swallowed hard. "When the titan died. A voice. Deep as the ocean floor." His eyes trembled. "It said… You have rewritten the Seal. But every new shape has breaking points."
The air grew heavy.
"What else did it say?" Elara whispered.
Aren's voice cracked.
"It said… I will find them."
Kael pulled Elara close, eyes burning with a terrifying intensity.
"It will not touch you," he growled. "Not while I breathe."
Elara swallowed, clutching his coat.
But the Mirror inside her pulsed once—cold and foreboding.
The Devourer had felt them.
And it was learning.