Chapter 40
Eliendara stood in the dying Hollow with the shard of the Heartgate pressed to her palm.
It pulsed—softly, like a heartbeat trying to sync with hers.But hers had grown quiet.Weaker.
Every second she waited, another thread of her existence slipped into the Mirror's grasp.
Outside the Hollow, the skies bled a pale silver—proof that the world itself could no longer tell which version of her was true.
Kael watched her, eyes filled with something between worry and distance. His presence was the same, but his connection to her felt thinner… like a letter left too long in the sun.
She turned to him.
"What was the first thing I ever said to you?"
He blinked. "That's easy. You said… you said…"
His voice trailed.
His brow furrowed.
"I… I know this."
She didn't press. The answer was already clear.
He was forgetting.
Meanwhile, in the Capital, Mirror Eliendara stood atop the Grand Wall, watching as the city lit bonfires in her name.
Her voice echoed from every flame.
"I am the True Flame Returned. The Crown Reforged. The Only One Worth Remembering."
And they believed her.
Because they couldn't remember anyone else.
In one temple, the old mural of the Gatebearer cracked—and behind it, her face emerged, already painted beneath layers of dust.
She was rewriting time backward now.
Undoing Eliendara not just from memory, but from history.
In the Hollow, Ravien placed a hand on Eliendara's shoulder.
"You're losing this battle."
"I know."
"You have to awaken the Gate."
"I know."
"But you won't," he said.
She looked up, tears brimming.
"Because if I do… I'm not me anymore. I'll become the Gate. Not Eliendara. Not the girl Kael loves."
Kael stepped forward.
Quiet.
Shaking.
He looked at her—and for the first time, there was fear in his eyes.
Not of losing the world.
But of losing her.
"I don't care if you change," he said. "I don't care if your name becomes fire or your skin becomes light. I just want you to keep existing."
"Even if I stop being human?"
"Even if you forget me," he said softly.
"Because I won't stop remembering you."
She swallowed hard.
The Heartgate shard pulsed louder.
Inside it was a whisper now—an old flame speaking her forgotten truths.
She held it up to the sky.
And the skies answered.
Across the realm, flames erupted from every gatepost, every lost shrine, every half-burned altar that still remembered her name.
And in the capital—
The Mirror paused.
She turned slowly.
Eyes wide.
"No," she whispered.
Far above her, a circle of flame opened in the sky.
Not hers.
The original.
The true Heartgate.
And from its center stepped Eliendara.
No longer fading.
No longer uncertain.
Crowned in memory.Wrapped in fire.And burning with the light of every version she had ever been.
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 41: The Flame That Refused to Die
Eliendara has awakened the full Heartgate—But with it comes a reckoning.
Only one version of her can exist.
And now, the world must choose:The Mirror of Comfort—Or the Flame of Truth.