Ayame didn't move. Not even to breathe.
"The Gate… is me?"
The Custodian nodded slowly, her expression unreadable. "Not just symbolically. Not as a metaphor. You are the living anchor between this world and the Source beyond. The path. The breach."
Kael stepped in front of Ayame protectively, instincts screaming. "You mean to tell me she's just… been a ticking time bomb this entire time?"
"No," the Custodian said. "She's been the *containment.* Until now."
Ayame's lips parted, but no sound came out. The revelation wasn't just surreal—it was terrifying. She remembered the strange pulses of energy she couldn't control. The dreams that felt more like bleed-throughs. The feeling that something *ancient* was always stirring just beneath her skin.
"Why didn't anyone tell me?" she finally whispered. "Why didn't *you* tell me?"
"Because until this moment," the Custodian said, "you weren't ready to remember."
Kael clenched his fists. "And now that she does?"
The Custodian looked at them both with something close to sorrow.
"Now… the Gate begins to open."
---
Ayame collapsed.
Kael caught her again—her skin radiating warmth and light, like her body couldn't decide if it was flesh or starfire. Her eyes rolled back, glowing softly, as if a second consciousness was pulling at her from somewhere deep inside.
"AYAME!"
The Custodian's voice was steel. "Don't touch her too much. She's phasing. If you interfere—"
"I *don't care.*" Kael cradled her anyway, ignoring the heat burning into his arms.
Ayame twitched. Then she spoke—not in her voice, but in *layers.* Her mouth moved, but it echoed with a thousand other versions of her. The girl who ran. The warrior who fought. The mage who watched worlds fall. All speaking in unison.
**"The Gate was never meant to be locked forever. Every age ends. Every tether frays. The Source will bleed."**
Kael gritted his teeth. "You're stronger than them, Ayame. Come back. Fight it."
Her hand reached up—blindly—and clutched his chest.
He placed his forehead to hers again.
And this time, he *felt it.*
The vastness behind her eyes. A memory not his own.
*Flashes of a golden realm. Of her laughing beside a different him, in armor. Of a choice made beneath shattered moons. Of a vow to hold the breach alone.*
Ayame had been *this* before.
And she'd let it all go… just to live again.
---
She gasped sharply and returned to herself.
Kael held her tighter.
"Still here," she whispered.
"Always," he said.
The Custodian exhaled. "We don't have long. The Warden knows now. He's felt the Gate stir. He'll come, and when he does… he'll rip her apart to find what's inside."
Kael stood, lifting Ayame gently to her feet. "Then we face him."
The Custodian tilted her head. "You don't even know what he wants."
Ayame looked up, her voice steadier than expected. "Then tell us."
The Custodian stared into the distance, eyes shadowed.
"He wants to reset everything. Not just the timelines. Not just this world. But *everything*. All of existence, rewritten in his own image. And the Gate—you—are the last lock in his way."
---
They began to descend from the Hollow Horizon.
A winding path spiraled through nothing, steps that formed only when faith touched stone. Kael kept one arm around Ayame, and she leaned into him, not just out of fatigue—but to anchor herself.
The further they went, the more *echoes* stirred.
Not shadows this time. Not malevolent.
Just… remnants.
A version of Kael sparring with a fire-haired girl.
Ayame alone in a glass garden, her eyes gray and stormy.
They passed a version of themselves dancing in the rain on a floating island.
Kael smirked. "We had style."
Ayame gave a weary smile. "At least in some lives."
He stopped suddenly. "Wait… that one."
They turned toward a floating image where *both* of them wore black armor, wielding identical blades. Fighting side by side against a sky full of dragons.
The Custodian watched them. "You always end up together. Even when everything else changes."
Ayame looked at Kael, her heart tight. "Why does it still hurt so much?"
He took her hand. "Because we still keep losing."
---
They reached the bottom of the spiral and found themselves in a chamber of starlight—light trapped in crystal veins pulsing along the walls. At the center stood a pedestal. Upon it… a sword.
Kael narrowed his eyes. "I know that blade."
"It's yours," the Custodian said. "From your first life."
Ayame tilted her head. "It looks… alive."
"It is," the Custodian replied. "Made from stardust and oathbinding. Forged the day you swore to protect her—even from herself."
Kael reached out and gripped the hilt.
The chamber *sang.*
Light pulsed from the sword into him, and memories not his own coursed through his veins. Battles. Sacrifices. A promise made with blood.
He turned back to Ayame.
"Then let's finish this. Together."
---
Before the Custodian could answer, the walls cracked.
A voice slithered in—not spoken, not even thought. Just *present.*
**"At last. The Gate awakens."**
The Warden's presence hit like a storm.
Kael turned, blade raised.
Ayame staggered back, her entire body glowing again. "He's… inside me."
Kael gripped her hand.
"Then I'll be your anchor. Like always."
And for the first time, Ayame didn't feel fear.
She felt ready.
---