The path after the garden was quiet.
Not heavy quiet.
Hopeful quiet.
Like a breath held in the dark before dawn.
They reached a gate.
Not stone or metal.
But spun from light.
Circles within circles, each glowing with soft, moving words.
The keyhole wasn't a hole.
It was a memory.
"What now?" Sera asked.
Varn stepped closer. "It's a truth-lock. It won't open for power. Only for something remembered."
Elira stepped forward.
The memory inside the lock shimmered.
It was a child.
Not her.
A boy.
Crying.
Curled in a corner of a burning house.
Elira didn't know him.
But she felt him.
Then the key appeared.
Not in her hand.
In her chest.
A warmth.
A whisper.
A truth she had never said aloud.
"I was afraid to be wanted," she said.
"I thought being loved would make me weak."
The gate shifted.
One circle turned gold.
Another faded.
Amaryn stepped beside her.
"I was afraid to fail," she said.
"I hid behind music so no one could hear my silence."
The gate turned again.
Flick stepped up.
"I burned things when I was sad. Not because I wanted to. But because no one saw me when I cried."
Sera: "I fought to be heard. Because I thought loud was the same as strong."
Solin: "I left my home. Not for honor. But because I couldn't stand their eyes after what I did."
Varn: "I saved others to forget who I couldn't."
The final circle glowed.
The gate melted into wind.
Beyond it was a room.
Small.
Empty.
Except for a box.
Inside the box:
A piece of cloth.
A bone carved with names.
And a coin.
Elira reached out.
But the coin rose before she touched it.
It spun in the air, faster and faster, until—
It spoke.
In a voice too many to count.
"Who will you save?"
Images flared:
A village under red skies.
A girl in a cage of mirrors.
A city built on stolen time.
Her friends… crumbling like sand.
Then one face.
Bright.
Familiar.
Kind.
Kara.
Her sister.
Alive.
Trapped.
Elira gasped.
"But she's—"
The coin's voice:
"Not gone. Just cost."
"You can bring her back," the coin whispered.
"But the fire you stop for her…"
"…will burn another world."
The room dimmed.
The box closed.
Elira fell to her knees.
Sera moved toward her. "What did it show you?"
She didn't speak.
Couldn't.
The choice was there.
Burn the fire to bring Kara back…
…or let her go, and save the world waiting to burn.
The group stood around her.
No one pressured.
No one pushed.
Even though the floor trembled beneath them.
Even though the sky outside had cracked.
"I don't know if I'm strong enough," Elira whispered.
Solin touched her shoulder.
"You don't have to be."
"We're with you," Flick said.
"Whatever you pick," Amaryn added.
"We root for you," Varn said.
Sera simply nodded. "All the way."
Elira stood.
The coin hovered.
Waiting.
And slowly…
She reached out.