📖 Chapter Ten – Part One
When Alexander woke, the world was gone.
No amphitheater. No Citadel. No Nyx or Eryndor or Lira. Only an endless plain of black glass reflecting a blood-red sky. Above, seven runes hovered like moons, each dripping ash that fell but never landed. The air tasted of iron and burnt dreams.
He rose slowly. His chest still ached where the Guardian's core had fused into him. Each heartbeat sent ripples across the glass beneath his feet.
"Trial of Control…" he whispered. "Zeryn wasn't kidding."
You asked for this. The voice slithered out of the air, sounding eerily like his own but older, rougher. You claimed the Heart. Now prove you're worthy.
A figure emerged from the ash storms — tall, cloaked, crowned with jagged runes. Its face was Alexander's, but older, with eyes like burning coals.
"I'm not playing games," Alexander said.
"You already are," the Shade said. "I am the Ashborn Heart given form. I am what you will become if you fail."
Alexander's hands trembled. "I'm not you."
"You're exactly me," the Shade countered. "Every power you wield, every choice you've made, every time you've thought about destroying this world — I am the sum of it."
He charged. Ash rose beneath his feet, forming a blade of silver flame. The Shade mirrored him instantly, wielding an identical blade. Their weapons clashed, spraying sparks of black and white fire.
"You think you can control the Heart," the Shade snarled, pressing forward. "But the Heart controls you."
Alexander broke away, sliding backward across the glass. He summoned wings of cinders and launched himself upward, only to have the Shade sprout the same wings and slam him back down. The ground cracked, revealing molten ash beneath.
Visions exploded around him: cities burning under his command, Alan kneeling in chains, his parents turning away, Mara weeping. Each vision whispered inevitable.
"No!" Alexander shouted. "That's not me!"
He drove his blade into the glass, sending a shockwave of ash outward. For a heartbeat the Shade staggered. Alexander drew in a shuddering breath, the Heart inside him pounding like a drum.
Break the chains, it whispered. Or become the chains.
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