Kael could feel it—like a tether behind his ribs, drawing breath in patterns he didn't recognize. Each shard hummed with a different frequency, like music composed in the language of memory.
But just as he stepped toward it, Ashhorn growled.
Low. Threatening. This time, not for him.
Kael turned sharply.
The runes on the chamber walls dimmed—as if the Vault itself sensed something wrong.
Then he heard it.
Footsteps.
Careful. Measured. Echoing down the same stairway he'd entered hours ago.
Kael dropped to a crouch beside the brazier, his pulse thudding in his ears.
Impossible. The wards should've hidden him. The Vault shouldn't allow the unmarked inside.
But the footsteps grew louder.
Ashhorn moved without sound, slipping into the shadow between columns—vanishing into the stones like a wraith of the ruins.
Kael didn't run. Something in his blood refused it.
He stood his ground.
A figure emerged from the stairwell. Tall. Wrapped in a dark traveler's cloak, but beneath the hood, a shimmer of something unnatural moved across their skin—like light trying to escape bone.
A Seeker, but not like the one Serin lured away.
This one looked human.
Until it smiled.
"You took long enough," the stranger said. Their voice was too calm. Too certain. "She died buying you more time than you deserved."
Kael's fists clenched. "Who are you?"
"I am what they made me," the figure said, stepping fully into the chamber. "I hunt the broken loops. The souls that don't stay buried. I hunt the Echo-born."
Kael reached for his magic.
Felt a flicker—but still not enough.
The stranger raised a hand. Shadows bent toward them unnaturally.
"But you're early," they mused. "Not fully awakened. A shame. We could've had a proper duel. Still—orders are orders."
From their cloak, they drew a blade that wasn't metal. It shimmered like regret and lightning.
Kael took a step back.
The mirror behind him pulsed.
Suddenly, Ashhorn reappeared—slamming into the figure's side with a roar that shook the stones.
The stranger stumbled, barely catching themselves.
Kael didn't wait.
He ran straight for the mirror.
The shards lit up.
As his hand touched the largest piece, the world shifted.
Memory flooded in.
A battlefield.
A tower of glass.
A girl with red hair screaming his name—not Serin. Another life. Another bond.
He gasped.
And then the world snapped back—
The Seeker stood again. Bleeding. Furious.
Kael turned from the mirror, and this time, his runes burned.
He didn't know what the mirror had done.
But he knew something had awakened.