Her lyrics alter Keitha's atmosphere. Literally.
The air inside Keitha's Echoing Vale was unusually thick. It pulsed—not with magic, not with wind—but with a strange hum that thrummed beneath the skin like a beat waiting to drop. Blair felt it immediately.
She stood at the center of the Vale, a dome-shaped cavern where the acoustics twisted sound into something almost alive. The others watched from the rim, nervous but trusting. This was Blair's realm now.
"She's been humming that same tune for the past hour," Axel muttered.
"It's not just humming," Athena said. "She's syncing with the frequency. Like a tuning fork to Keitha's soul."
Blair's eyes were closed. Her lips moved silently, whispering lyrics she'd been crafting in her journal since they arrived. Words came to her in dreams, in echoes, in the pulse of enchanted stones. Songs about longing, about home, about loss—and power.
Today, she sang them out loud.
Her voice lifted, soft but resonant, wrapping around the Vale like silk. "Hear me now, your mirrored flame, bind the fear, release the name..."
Instantly, the atmosphere changed. The ceiling rippled like a pond struck by raindrops. The vines along the walls twisted upward, blooming violet flowers that hadn't been there seconds ago.
Enzo gasped. "She's rewriting the environment... with lyrics."
"She's spell-casting through music," Zora whispered. "This is beyond anything we've seen."
Blair didn't stop. The song swelled. The Vale began to glow. Symbols emerged along the floor, reacting to her voice—some ancient, some shifting into new runes no one had ever documented before.
Sylvia pulled out her sketchbook and frantically began to trace them. "These aren't just spells. They're choices. Her lyrics are triggering events we haven't experienced yet."
Then Blair sang a single, haunting line: "Keitha, we are not intruders—we are echoes of you."
The ground shook.
A gust of warm wind whooshed through the chamber, sending their cloaks fluttering. The atmosphere brightened, golden threads weaving through the walls like veins lighting up. A new path opened up behind Blair—a staircase of music bars, literal glowing staff lines floating in the air.
Ace stared. "Is that a... music bridge?"
"She's shaping the world with melody," Asher said, eyes wide. "She unlocked Keitha's next phase. We can't move forward without her songs."
Blair's voice slowly faded. The Vale dimmed but didn't go still. The symbols remained, waiting for more.
She turned to the group, voice raspy but firm. "Keitha doesn't respond to force. She responds to truth. Emotion. Expression. That's the spell."
Zora gave a slow, stunned nod. "Then keep singing. We're listening."
And Keitha was too.