The ruins of Vaerethryn rose like the bones of a long-dead god.
Black spires half-swallowed by the earth. Runes etched into stone that wept starlight. The air hummed with a silence too full, too alive. As if the place remembered being more.
Serelith stood before the broken gate, her cloak whipping in the cold wind, the Codex pulsing beneath her ribs—though she still did not know its name.
Faelan's voice broke the hush. "This was once a sanctuary. A cradle of origin magic before the Courts ever rose."
"And now?"
He looked around grimly. "Now it's a tomb."
---
The air shimmered as they stepped through the gate. A pressure settled over Serelith's chest, not painful—just present, like a hand pressed to her soul.
She heard whispers that were not words.
Felt eyes that were not eyes.
At the center of the ruins stood an altar formed from obsidian and bone-white marble. Carvings circled it, spiraling inward—images of wings, veils, flame, and a woman marked by light.
Serelith stepped forward, hand outstretched.
"Don't," Faelan warned, reaching for her arm. But she had already touched the stone.
---
The world blinked.
For a breathless moment, Serelith stood outside herself. Or perhaps inside everything.
The ruins around her vanished, replaced by endless stars and strands of light woven into the shape of a woman cloaked in shadow.
> "You came at last," the voice echoed.
> "Who are you?" Serelith whispered.
> "You," the shadow-woman replied. "Or what you were meant to be, before they stole your name."
Serelith staggered back, but the vision held.
> "The Codex is not a book. It is a remnant. A shard of truth the gods tried to unmake."
> "Why me?"
> "Because you are not of the line. You are the break. The wound. The choice they fear."
Serelith saw herself reflected in the stars—eyes like burning dawn, power coiled like storms inside her skin. Then everything shattered.
---
She collapsed to the stone floor, gasping. Faelan caught her before she hit the ground.
"Serelith," he said urgently. "What did you see?"
She stared at him, voice ragged. "I saw me. Not who I was. Who I could be."
He studied her, his expression unreadable. "You're changing."
"No," she said softly. "I'm becoming."
---
Far away, in a mirror of ash and silence, the Hollow Queen felt the shift.
She turned from her crystal map of realms and closed her eyes.
"She's awakened it," she whispered.
And the court around her shuddered.