The journey to Liora's final sanctuary took them through the Shattered Expanse—a desolate realm where time faltered and reality bent under the weight of forgotten magic. Faelan rode ahead, his blade drawn, senses tuned to danger.
Serelith followed closely, the Codex pulsing faintly with each step. She had not spoken the god's name aloud since the vision.
> Avaeth.
Just thinking it twisted something inside her.
As if the name had roots.
---
The ruins of Liora's sanctuary stood half-buried in moon-burnt sand, columns cracked, its heart swallowed by shadow. Once, this had been a place of peace, where the last Queen of Flame had hidden those fleeing the gods' wrath.
Now, it echoed with silence.
Faelan touched the scorched archway. "Do you feel it?"
Serelith nodded. "A wound. Like something sacred was torn away."
They stepped inside.
---
A shimmer of memory rose as soon as Serelith crossed the threshold.
Images flickered around her—phantoms of her mother cloaked in firelight, offering sanctuary to those deemed unworthy by the courts.
> "She was mercy in a world of teeth," Serelith whispered.
Faelan reached for her hand. "And her blood lives in you."
But another presence watched them.
An old man stepped from the shadows of a broken altar—his cloak stitched with stars, eyes like polished obsidian.
> "You bear her face," he said to Serelith. "And you carry her mistake."
> "Who are you?" she asked.
> "I was her shield. Her scribe. Her lover, once." He bowed. "Call me Corren."
He studied the Codex, grimacing. "You awakened it, didn't you?"
> "Yes."
> "Then the world has begun to bleed."
---
Corren led them deeper into the sanctuary, where a hidden chamber held an ethereal flame—still burning after all these years.
> "This is her final gift," Corren said. "She poured the last of her power into it—hope, sealed in fire."
Serelith approached, and the flame rose to greet her, wrapping around her fingers.
Visions surged into her mind—Liora whispering to a younger version of herself, planting the first seed of defiance, the first thread of a plan that spanned generations.
And then Serelith saw it—herself, standing between two thrones:
One of ash.
One of light.
The Hollow Queen on one side.
Avaeth on the other.
And she, holding the Codex, torn between them.
---
Serelith gasped and fell to her knees.
Faelan caught her.
> "What did you see?"
> "A choice," she whispered. "One that might unmake me."
---
Outside the sanctuary, the sky began to fracture.
Storms of magic cracked the heavens.
The Hollow Queen was drawing closer.
> "She's summoning Avaeth," Corren warned. "And the courts are already shifting toward her side."
Faelan looked to Serelith. "Then we'll need allies."
She nodded slowly.
> "Call the thorned, the forgotten, and the cursed. Anyone left who remembers what Liora stood for."
> "And you?" Faelan asked.
> "I'll give them something to believe in."
---
As the flame of Liora's memory rose behind her, Serelith stood tall.
Her path wasn't clear.
But her purpose had never been sharper.