Reunion in the Dreaming Path
The stars folded around them like petals of a cosmic flower. The Dreaming Path was not a place, but a tapestry of memory, will, and truth—a corridor between what was and what could be. As Elric, Lena, and Bram stepped fully into it, the rules of their world unraveled.
They did not walk but remembered walking. The bridge beneath them was spun of stories and echoes. And across it, Mira waited.
She looked different. Her eyes now shimmered with the same violet hue that danced across the Between. Threads of light trailed from her hair and robe, and the orb—no longer an orb—floated behind her like a small sun.
"You found it," Elric said, voice tight with awe.
"I became it," Mira replied. "Or it became me. I can't tell anymore."
They embraced, and for a moment, the Dreaming Path pulsed with warmth and memory.
"But we're not done," Mira said. "The Source is near. I've seen it. It's… beyond comprehension. It's the first breath of magic. The spark before the flame."
Lena stepped closer. "And Caelen?"
"He's here too. Further in. He's not trying to destroy the Balance anymore—he's trying to rewrite it."
A ripple of fear passed through them. The idea of rewriting the Balance was more terrifying than shattering it.
Bram looked ahead. "He'll be at the Source."
The path shifted again. Now it stretched into a dreamscape of floating islands, each one shaped from moments of their past. Mira's childhood home. The ruins where Lena first met the Tree. The battlefield where Elric lost his brother. Bram's old village, frozen in a memory before it was consumed by magic.
They moved together, crossing each memory-island, resisting the pull of what might have been.
Finally, at the center of the dreamscape, they found the Source.
It was not light. Not dark. It was a heart-shaped convergence, pulsing with raw creation. Every color and none. Every song and silence. The birthplace of Balance.
And standing before it—Caelen.
He turned as they approached, eyes bright with knowledge and madness.
"You understand now," he said. "This isn't about keeping the Balance. It's about choosing what it becomes."
Mira stepped forward. "You don't get to choose for everyone."
"No," he said. "But someone must."
The Source responded. Threads of it reached for them—each one a path, a future, a truth.
And once again, a choice loomed.