Zara braced herself when Solan's corrupted Shard erupted with power. The ancient Aether surged from the pedestal in waves of red and purple fire, scorching the black rock of the temple and making the ground tremble.
Her own Shard responded in response—at first in warning, then in defiance.
"You've been holding back," Solan growled, his voice echoing with more than one presence, as if several entities spoke through his mouth. "I can see it in your stance. You've tasted power, but you're still afraid of what it does to you."
Zara's shadows erupted outward, coalescing into tendrils of solid darkness that twisted around her like snakes. "I'm afraid of what it does to people," she said, eyes glinting silver. "Like you."
Solan sprang like a ghost, disappearing and reappearing behind her in a flash of corrupted light. His strike was immediate—a blast of Aetherfire for her back—but Zara spun around in time, her shadows forming a shield that absorbed the blast and riposted it in sparks.
The temple shuddered.
They clashed again and again, darkness versus fire, corrupted versus pure Aether. Zara's skill had grown, but Solan's centuries of wielding the Shard gave him a brutal advantage. Every one of his strikes was imbued with the past, every action honed by lifetimes of warfare.
But Zara had something he lacked—hope.
"You think this is good vs. evil?" Solan sneered, deflecting a vortex of shadow spikes. "It's survival. The Shards weren't crafted to be in balance—they were crafted to dominate. To preserve what mattered and eradicate the rest."
"I don't believe that," Zara retorted icily. "The Shard chose me for a reason. Not because I wanted power, but because I needed to protect people. That still means something."
Solan snarled and raised both hands. The corrupted Shard on the dais throbbed once, twice—then exploded. Power surged out, blinding and deafening. When Zara's senses cleared, the temple walls had ripped open, revealing strange, glowing glyphs underlying their surface—ancient warnings, in the same script as her visions.
He was unlocking something. She could feel it.
Solan's voice turned guttural. "This prison held more than me. Below it lies the Wound—a tear in the world the Shard War left behind. I'm going to open it. And from it, I will unleash the rest."
"No," Zara whispered.
"Yes," he smiled. "You think there are only six Shards? There were thirteen."
The words struck her like a blow. Thirteen.
Zara stepped ahead, her power dancing around her in an almost divine pattern. She called on all the Shard would give her—not to slay Solan, but to bind him. To hold him long enough to stop what was happening below.
"I didn't come to fight you, Solan," she said to him. "I came to find out. But if you force me—"
"Then attack, girl," he growled. "Let the world witness what you're becoming."
Zara let out a tight breath and slapped her hands together.
The ground cracked, the temple roared, and her magic tore through the ageless room in a pillar of silver light. Her shadows didn't spread—they rose, a cocoon of shimmering dark that covered the pedestal and began to encase the corrupted Shard within.
Solan screamed. "No—"
She poured herself into the cocoon. Her hopes. Her fears. Her memories. The energy of the Shard vibrated in perfect harmony with her heartbeat. Zara Kane was no longer a girl with a powerful artifact in that instant.
She was the Aether.
The cocoon closed itself off with a final, blinding flash. The shockwave sent Solan to his knees, his corrupted bond flickering.
When the light faded, the corrupted Shard had been sealed in a black crystal cage, pulsing feebly with runes of Zara's own devising.
Solan collapsed to the earth, struggling for breath. His eyes faded to a greyish hue. "You. don't know what you've just done," he whispered. "You've delayed it. But it's coming. The others will wake. The Wound will open. And the world will beg for order."
Zara knelt alongside him, her shadows pulled in, her own Shard still aching in her chest. "Then I'll be ready. And I won't be alone."
Solan's smile was nearly. proud. Then he fell unconscious.
Zara stood, surveying the devastation. The temple had been partially destroyed, but its secrets had been revealed. She knew what she had to do now.
The world thought the Eclipsed Order was the threat.
But they were only the start.