She rose from the ash.
Slowly. Like something reborn—not as flame, but as ruin.
Bella's limbs trembled, her breath catching in short, ragged bursts. The ground beneath her feet had changed. No longer soft ash—but cracked obsidian, veined with glowing red fissures. Magic pulsed beneath her like a second heartbeat.
The crown rested on her head.
She hadn't put it there.
It had chosen her.
Her body felt... heavier. Like her soul had grown roots. Her fingertips pulsed with energy she didn't understand, and when she exhaled, the air shimmered.
And her reflection—
She turned toward the pool of glass-like water forming near her feet.
Her face stared back—but different. Her eyes were brighter, almost unnatural, glowing faintly violet. Her skin had paled, her lips slightly fuller, more defined. There was something ancient in the way her features moved, like a memory wearing her skin.
"I'm not... me," she whispered.
But the wind said otherwise.
You are more than you've ever been.
From behind her, slow footsteps crunched over the newly-formed obsidian. Bella spun, hand raised on instinct. Fire sparked at her fingertips, coiling into her palm like a living creature.
The woman from before stepped through the mists again—only now, she knelt.
"Queen Lilith," she said, head bowed low.
Bella blinked.
"No," she whispered. "I'm not her. I'm not—"
"Your soul has worn many names," the woman murmured, rising. "But the crown knows its own. And you are not Bella anymore. You are what the world tried to erase."
The fire in Bella's palm flared.
"I didn't ask for this."
"Power never waits for permission," the woman said, walking a slow circle around her. "It waits for hunger. You've been starving for too long."
Bella closed her eyes.
Kael's face flickered behind her lids—his voice, his scent, his warmth.
She opened them again, heart hammering.
"Where is he?"
The woman paused.
"He shattered the veil," she said. "For you."
Bella's breath caught.
"He's here?"
"Bleeding. Lost. Drowning in echoes that don't belong to him." The woman looked up. "If you go now, you may find him before the Realm finishes him."
Bella's fists clenched.
But as she took a step, something inside her pulled—tight and sharp, like thorns wrapped around her ribcage.
She gasped.
The ground trembled.
Cracks shot outward from where she stood. The crown pulsed.
"You can't leave now," the woman whispered.
"Why not?"
"Because the Realm knows what you are," she said. "And it's waking up."
The skies split above them.
Lightning cracked—not gold or white, but black, searing through the twilight dome like the universe itself had been wounded.
Bella looked up—and what she saw stole the breath from her lungs.
Above the dome—
A figure.
Massive. Shrouded in flame. With wings made of bone and shadow. Its eyes burned with recognition.
"Lilith," it roared, voice like thunder crashing through glass.
Bella took a step back.
"What is that?"
"Your first visitor," the woman said, her face pale. "A god of the Forgotten Realm. One you once killed."
The crown blazed with light.
Bella screamed.
And the sky came down to meet her.
A god from the Forgotten Realm has awoken, and it remembers what Lilith did.
Bella's powers are awakening—but so are her past sins.