The sky disappeared.
Not because night had come.
Because something enormous had moved across it.
I looked up, and my breath stopped.
The fifth world was falling.
It looked like another universe breaking apart above us. Mountains floated upside down. Rivers hung in the air like silver threads. Pieces of buildings and strange glowing trees drifted through the darkness.
And behind everything was a woman.
Lyra.
She was standing at the center of the collapsing world.
Her silver hair floated around her face.
Her golden eyes were fixed on me.
"Bjei…"
Her voice was weak.
"Come home."
I took one step forward.
Shawshank immediately caught my hand.
"No."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"You heard her."
"I did."
"She wants you to enter that world."
"Yes."
"And I don't know what will happen if you do."
I pulled my hand gently from his.
"I have to go."
His eyes darkened.
"Then I'm coming with you."
"Shawshank—"
"I already lost you once."
His voice broke.
"I won't lose you again."
My chest tightened.
Behind us, the First Queen raised her crown.
The blue stone glowed.
Then the silver stone.
Then the black one.
"The fifth world is collapsing faster than I expected."
Celestia looked at her.
"What happens when it reaches us?"
The First Queen stared at the falling world.
"All five worlds will collide."
Silence.
"And then?" I asked.
She looked at me.
"There will be no worlds left."
My heart dropped.
The sea began rising.
Waves towered above the land.
The sky cracked.
The fourth world shook.
People screamed.
Even Nerath stood completely still.
For the first time since I had met him, he looked afraid.
"You said you wanted this," I whispered.
Nerath slowly turned toward me.
"I wanted the boundaries destroyed."
His voice was quieter than usual.
"Not everything."
I stared at him.
"You knew this would happen."
"No."
He looked toward the falling fifth world.
"Lyra changed everything."
A deep rumble shook the ground.
A piece of the fifth world broke away and crashed into the sea.
The impact sent water across the shore.
Shawshank pulled me against him.
"Bjei!"
I looked toward the sky.
Another piece was falling.
But this one wasn't a mountain.
It was a doorway.
A golden doorway.
The same kind I had seen before.
My mark began glowing.
Shawshank's golden mark answered it.
The two lights connected.
The doorway opened.
And Lyra appeared inside it.
She looked weaker now.
Almost transparent.
"Bjei…"
I stepped closer.
"I'm here."
Lyra smiled sadly.
"I knew you would come."
"Who are you really?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I am the one who carried the first spark."
I frowned.
"The spark?"
"The power inside you."
She looked at Shawshank.
"And he carried the second."
Shawshank stiffened.
Lyra continued.
"But neither of you was created to belong to the other."
I looked at him.
"You were created to choose each other."
My heart skipped.
The words felt strangely familiar.
As if somewhere deep inside me, I had always known them.
Lyra reached toward me.
"You were never meant to be a queen."
I stepped into the doorway.
"You were never meant to be a weapon."
Another step.
"You were meant to be the choice that ended the war."
The doorway began closing.
Shawshank grabbed my hand.
"I'm coming."
We stepped through together.
The moment we entered the fifth world, everything changed.
There was no ground.
We were floating.
Around us were thousands of memories.
My childhood.
My mother holding me.
Angela crying.
Grandmother smiling.
Shawshank as a child.
The first queen.
The sea.
The sky.
The fourth world.
Everything I had ever seen was floating around me.
Then I saw something I had never seen before.
A woman holding a baby.
Lyra.
And the baby was me.
But there was another person standing beside her.
A man.
I couldn't see his face.
"Who is that?" I whispered.
Lyra looked at him.
Her expression changed.
"Someone you were never supposed to remember."
The man turned.
I saw his face.
My blood ran cold.
He looked exactly like me.
Not the first Bjei.
Not the second girl.
Not anyone I had seen before.
He was me.
Older.
His eyes were golden.
And he was wearing a crown made of all five worlds.
Shawshank stepped in front of me.
"Who are you?"
The man smiled.
"I am the reason Bjei exists."
My heart pounded.
Lyra closed her eyes.
"No."
The man looked at her.
"You lied to her for long enough."
Then he looked directly at me.
"It's time she learned the final truth."
The entire fifth world stopped collapsing.
Everything became silent.
Even the stars stopped moving.
The man lifted his hand.
And suddenly every memory inside me disappeared.
I screamed.
Shawshank grabbed me.
"Bjei!"
I fell into his arms.
Then I heard the man's voice inside my head.
"You were not born in the fifth world."
A pause.
"You were born before the worlds existed."
My eyes widened.
Lyra began crying.
And the man whispered the words that destroyed everything I thought I knew.
"You are the first world."