The wind howled through the mountain pass, a steady, biting force that felt like it was gnawing at Kael's bones. He didn't notice it, though. His mind was far away, caught in a storm of his own making. His boots scraped across the frozen earth, his path determined, even if his heart was uncertain.
Sarya walked ahead of him, her steps silent, though her fire smoldered in the air around her. She had not said much since they'd left the tower. She had not needed to. Kael could feel her struggle with the weight of her awakening. He knew she felt it too, the pull of ancient power, the connection to a past that had both destroyed and defined her.
But for Kael, there was something darker pulling him now.
It was the Sleeper.
He had been avoiding it for days. The dreams, the whispers, the gnawing sensation that something—someone—had stirred in the dark.
The battle at the tower had been the first sign.
The Harbinger had come and gone, and with him, the shadow of a memory that had long been buried.
Kael had done it. He had made that choice.
To destroy the one who had once been his sister.
Eldrin.
No, not Eldrin the Sleeper.
The girl he had loved, the one who had been beside him as they were trained, shaped, burned together in the crucible of the Obsidian Sanctum.
Her name had been Aelira then, but that name had been taken from her the moment she chose to fight back. The Sleeper had risen because she refused to be a puppet. She had rebelled against their shared fate.
And Kael had burned her down.
He had stood beside the Elders of the Order, his heart twisted with loyalty and fear. They had told him it was necessary. They had told him it was for the good of everything of the world, of their people, of the future. She was too dangerous. Too wild. Too uncontrolled.
The fire inside her had been too strong to bend.
And in the end, Kael had chosen.
He had chosen the Order's promise of order and control over her.
He had stood in that blackened chamber, the twin flames of his and her power clashing in the air, the room trembling under the weight of their fury. She had screamed at him.
"Why, Kael?"
The words had torn through him, but the flame had answered instead.
"You have to stop. For everything. For us."
Kael stopped walking.
He wasn't sure when the realization had come to him, but now it was undeniable.
He had never truly chosen the Order.
He had never truly chosen the flame.
He had chosen to lose her.
And he had been willing to sacrifice everything for it.
"Sarya," Kael's voice cracked as he called to her. She turned, her face expressionless.
Kael stepped forward, his pulse thrumming in his chest.
"I need you to understand something," he began, his voice unsteady. "I have to go back. To where it all started."
Sarya raised an eyebrow, her gaze unwavering.
"What do you mean?"
Kael looked away, his breath visible in the cold air. His hands balled into fists at his sides. "I need to face what I've done. What we've done. I need to see if there's anything left of her."
Sarya's face softened, her expression unreadable. She stepped closer to him, the warmth of her fire brushing against his skin, but Kael couldn't feel it. He was lost in the fog of his memories now, the weight of his past crushing him.
"You're not responsible for her choices, Kael," Sarya said quietly, but Kael shook his head.
"But I am." His voice was cold. "I am. I chose to let them bury her. To let them twist her into something she was never meant to be."
The words were bitter, burning like acid on his tongue.
"I have to see her again," he whispered.
Sarya didn't say anything more. She simply nodded, turning back toward the road ahead. Kael followed her in silence, each step heavier than the last.
They continued their journey in silence, but the weight of what Kael had to confront pressed on him like a suffocating weight. He didn't know what he would find. He didn't know if she would even be there. If the Sleeper even existed anymore.
The mountains loomed overhead, jagged and unforgiving, and the distant landscape stretched on like a canvas of lost time. As they made their way through the vast forest, the air grew thicker with tension. It wasn't just the journey ahead that made Kael uneasy. It was the knowledge that he had played a part in creating the very monster he had once sworn to protect.
By the time they reached the edge of the Sanctum, the night had fallen. The eerie glow of moonlight bathed the landscape, casting long shadows that seemed to stretch unnaturally in every direction. The entrance to the Sanctum was nothing more than an ancient, twisted archway, an entrance to a place where the past had been buried, twisted, and hidden away.
As they approached, Kael felt it.
The pulse of dark energy beneath the earth.
The truth.
He stopped at the entrance.
His throat tightened.
"This is where it all began." His voice was barely above a whisper, but Sarya heard him clearly.
The stones beneath their feet began to tremble, the air thickening with the pressure of a memory long buried.
"You're sure about this?" Sarya asked.
Kael nodded, his face grim.
"I have to be."
They descended into the darkness, the air cold and heavy with the weight of ancient history. The walls seemed to breathe, shifting and groaning as they made their way deeper into the Sanctum. The deeper they went, the more Kael's heart beat in time with the growing darkness.
And then they reached the chamber.
The heart of the Sanctum.
The vault.
There, in the center of the room, lay the relic—the sarcophagus that had once held her.
Aelira.
The Sleeper.
Kael's chest tightened as he approached. His memories flashed before his eyes—the moment he had made the choice. The moment he had buried her.
He reached out, his fingers brushing the cold stone.
And the air in the chamber shifted.
A voice whispered, broken and fractured, but unmistakably familiar.
"Kael…"
Kael froze. His body went rigid, his heart pounding in his chest.
"Kael, you destroyed me."
The voice was a twisted reflection of her.
No longer human.
No longer what he had known.
But she was still there.
And for the first time in years, Kael understood the truth.
He had never truly destroyed her.
He had only made her stronger.
The Sleeper had survived.
"I never wanted this…" Kael's voice cracked. "I never wanted to destroy you."
But there was no answer.
Only the sound of the wind and the darkness closing in.