"Do we go in loud or silent?" Elara asked.
Lerder pulled her close, said. "Together."
Inside, the walls are shadows. Whispers crawled through the halls. Elara's pendant burned against her skin.
"HELP!" Rhys's voice, raw, echoing through bone.
They ran down a tunnel of skulls and screams, until they found him—shackled, carved with sigils.
"Don't touch the chains!" Rhys yelled. "They're linked to…"
BOOM. A wave of darkness exploded from him.
Elara and Lerder was thrown back, her eyes wide in horror.
"It's not just a gate," Rhys sobbed. "It's a resurrection chamber. They're bringing HER back."
"Who?" Elara whispered.
"Your mother."
"This place is alive," Lyra muttered, hand hovering over her blade.
"No," Elara said, her voice cold. "It's awake."
Lerder, leading the way down a spiral staircase carved into obsidian. "We're walking in a body... The Citadel is a vessel."
"For the Queen?" Rhys asked, hiding behind them, sweat beading across his pale skin.
"No," Elara whispered. "For her return."
They reached the threshold of a chamber unlike anything above. The air was colder, cleaner and holy. At its center lay an altar of white stone, the only clean surface in the entire damned fortress.
A blade hovered inches above it, suspended in the air. Carved from black crystal and bone, mixed in sigils older than their names.
Elara stopped walking.
Lerder stepped in front of her. "It's a trap."
"I know," she said. "That's why we're going in."
The moment she crossed the threshold, her pendant pulsed and shattered into dust.
The blade dropped, clink onto the altar.
Lerder shouted, shifting halfway, claws twitching. "It wants you."
"I think it remembers me," she said.
Rhys voiced, sinking to his knees beside Lyra. "That blade… it's not just a weapon. It's a key."
"Key… To what?" Lyra asked.
"To her tomb," he whispered.
Elara's head turned, slowly.
"…My mother's body?"
"No. Her soul." he responded.
From the ceiling, symbols blazed in fire, visions pouring into Elara's mind like hot oil;
'A woman with Elara's face, laughing as the world burned. A pact made in blood. A blade kissed by death.'
"She tried to seal herself in me," Elara whispered, eyes wide. "But the spell fractured. Half of her is still trapped."
"And the other half?" Lyra asked.
Elara reached for the blade. "She's looking at us right now."
The moment her fingers touched the blade, the chamber detonated. The floor vanished, the world flipped.
She landed hard on black glass beneath a red sky, alone. The air was heavy with ash and across from her, a woman stood barefoot in flame, a crown of thorns upon her head.
"Elara," she said, smiling. "My darling girl."
"…Mother." Elara voiced.
The Queen's beauty was monstrous and perfect, too sharp. Her eyes glowed like coals.
"You were never meant to bear the burden alone. I gave you power to rise."
"You cursed me." Elara yelled.
"I chose you."
Elara carried the blade. "I'm not yours."
The Queen stepped forward. "Everytime you use your gift, I breathe again. Don't you feel it? Your heart, it's not even fully your own."
"I don't need all of it," Elara hissed, raising the blade.
The Queen's smile cracked wider. "Then kill me. And watch what happens."
She slashed, but the blade passed through smoke.
Elara just to see the Queen behind her, whispering, "You'll come back to me, little flame. You have to."
Elara screamed and moved back into the chamber, blade in her hands, skin changing.
Lerder caught her before she fell. "What happened?!"
"She showed me what's coming," Elara stated. "And she's in me, Lerder… She is me."
"No. She's not," he screamed. "We carve our path. Together."
Rhys moved up. "She left something behind, Elara… Something in your mind, it's coordinates."
"What?" Jian asked
"A place, a tomb. Hidden below the citadel's lowest crypt."
"Then we go," she said, breathless.
Lyra swore. "You know, this can be another trap."
"Then let's spring it."
The path down was silent, too silent. And when they reached the lowest hall, it was there:
A gate of silver bones. Covered in chains and in front of it, Anya. Her dagger was drawn, her eyes hollow.
"I tried to stop it," she said.
Elara tensed. "Move, Anya."
"She's using me, I see it now. I feel her voice in my skull, like a parasite. But it's me that let her in."
Lerder took a step forward. "Let us help you."
Anya laughed. "Too late… She already won. You don't understand, this gate isn't just her tomb."
Elara's skin went cold. "…What is it?"
Anya's lips trembled. "It's your birthday."
Suddenly, the chains ripped open, and the gate flared with screaming light.
The Queen stepped through but not fully. Half-formed, a mass of burning limbs and flame-veined flesh.
Elara screamed as the power inside her surged, answering the call like a magnet to blood.
"Lerder!" she screamed. "She's trying to fuse with me!"
Lerder roared and lunged his claws reaching across the Queen's rising form.
"You'll break," the Queen whispered. "And when you do, I'll wear your skin like I never left."
Rhys yelled, "She's anchoring! She needs a vessel to stay! If you give the link…"
Elara didn't hesitate. She turned the blade on herself and stabbed it through her hand. Pain exploded. Blood sprayed across the gate. The Queen screamed and recoiled, shadows snapping like tendons.
And then she was gone, Elara collapsed. Blood poured from her palm.
Lerder caught her. "Why would you do that?!"
"Because I'd rather bleed… than be hers."
Rhys dropped beside them. "It worked. The gate is closing. But it won't hold. She's coming again."
Lyra's face was pale. "And next time, she won't come alone."
They turned as the altar behind them opened again.
This time, not red but white. An angelic symbol hovered above it. The prophecy's core, Elara reached for it, whispering, "It's not over."
Lerder's hand closed over hers. "Then let's finish it. Before she does."
Far above, in the Citadel's highest spire, Morwen watched through obsidian magic glass. "She's awake now."
Behind her, Malak stepped from the shadows, voice like broken bone.
"And next time, we'll make sure she never wakes up alone."