Chapter 35
The sky didn't break—it peeled.
Like paper set too close to flame.
And through the opening came a figure wrapped in shadowed light, face veiled, cloak stitched with stardust and ash. The world bent around his presence. Even the Hollow seemed to pause.
Eliendara felt it immediately.
He did not belong to this time.
He didn't belong to any time.
The stranger stepped forward, feet never quite touching the ground.
Kael drew his blade instinctively. Ravien's stance shifted.
But the stranger raised a single hand.
"Peace," he said. His voice was many. A chorus of what might have been.
And then—
He knelt before Eliendara.
"Gate. Flame. Unwritten One. I bring you your weapon."
From beneath his cloak, he drew a blade.
Forged of no metal known to man. Its edge shimmered like a wound in time—rippling, splitting echoes of futures that hadn't happened yet.
The hilt bore her name.
Not "Eliendara."
Not "Flamebearer."
Just a symbol.
The one written above the Eighth Gate.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The stranger looked up.
"I am a shadow left behind by your last awakening," he said. "In a version of time that no longer exists."
Kael's grip on his sword didn't ease. "Why are you here now?"
"Because she stands on the edge again," the stranger replied. "And this time, she deserves a choice."
Eliendara stared at the blade.
It hummed when she looked at it—like it knew her.
"What does it do?" she asked.
"It cuts not flesh," the stranger said, "but threads—of time, of memory, of prophecy. It is the only weapon that can defy the flame-script written at the beginning."
Ravien's eyes narrowed. "You're saying she can rewrite the prophecy?"
"No," the stranger said.
"She can burn it."
Eliendara stepped forward. The blade called louder now.
"But there's a cost, isn't there?"
The stranger nodded.
"If you use it, the crown will no longer guide you. You'll sever its binding to the Gate. You'll be free. Whole. But not protected."
Kael moved to her side. "You'll be vulnerable."
"To gods," Ravien added. "To the Seventh. To the flame that sleeps beneath the world."
"And to yourself," the stranger finished.
Eliendara's hand hovered over the blade.
She looked to Kael.
"Will you remember me if I choose this?"
His jaw tightened. His voice was steady—but not certain.
"I'll try."
Her fingers touched the blade.
And visions flooded her.
Not memories—options.
Paths of light and ash. Lives unlived. Fires unburned. A thousand versions of her crying out from the seams of reality, begging her not to take the step.
Because once she held this weapon—
She would no longer be the Gate.
She would become the Key.
She closed her hand around the hilt.
And the Hollow of Names screamed.
The crown cracked.
The flames bent around her.
And the stranger bowed low.
"Then may the world survive your choice."
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 36: Key to an Unwritten End
Eliendara now holds the blade that can unravel prophecy itself—
But time is already warping.
Cities vanish.
Voices forget.
And in the ruins of the Seventh Gate,someone long believed dead stands with open arms…
"Welcome back, my Queen of Ash."