The observatory shook as the Recollector forced itself through the door. Splintered wood exploded across the floor, the shards skittering like frightened insects. The creature's segmented claws dragged against the metal threshold, shrieking with a sound that stabbed straight through Arden's skull.
Seris moved in front of him without hesitation.
Her stance shifted—feet planted wide, dagger reversed in her hand, her body angled like she'd done this a thousand times. Maybe she had.
"Stay behind me," she whispered.
Arden didn't argue. His pulse hammered so violently he felt it in his throat.
The Recollector slid into the room, its limbs expanding unnaturally to fill the space. Its faceless head rotated, a ripple of static crossing its mirror-like surface.
"Return… forgotten… return…"
Then something unexpected happened.
The stars above them moved.
The mirrored ceiling of the observatory shimmered, constellations unraveling into streaks of light that fell like slow, silent meteors. The air vibrated with ancient power, stirring Seris's hair and tugging at Arden's clothes.
Seris stiffened. "It's drawing on celestial memory."
"Is that bad?" Arden asked.
"Yes," she said. "It means the Recollector is evolving."
The creature's limbs stretched further, its claws elongating into thin blades of shimmering light.
The House was feeding it.
Strengthening it.
"Return…"
"Return… fragments…"
Seris stepped forward, her dagger glowing faintly as she whispered something in a language Arden didn't recognize.
The blade rippled, its edge sharpening with a soft hum.
Arden whispered, "Seris—where did you learn that?"
She didn't answer.
She lunged.
Her dagger sliced across the creature's arm—if it could be called an arm—sending sparks of blue-white light scattering. The Recollector staggered but did not falter. It simply turned its head toward her, static flickering more violently.
Seris darted back. "Arden! If it touches you, it will tear the memory from you. Including everything you just learned."
"Then I won't let it," he shouted.
The Recollector lunged again—fast, impossibly fast.
Seris shoved Arden aside and dove under its strike, rolling across the mirrored floor. The blade-hand smashed into the ground where she'd been standing, cracking the stone.
Arden scrambled to his feet. "Tell me what I can do!"
"You?" Seris shouted. "Pray the House remembers you need to survive!"
"THAT'SNOT A PLAN!"
"It's the best we have!"
The Recollector's head snapped toward Arden.
"Fragment… keeper…"
It lunged.
Arden barely dodged, falling hard onto his hands. The creature's blade carved a thin line across his shoulder, burning cold like frostbite.
Seris's scream pierced the observatory.
"ARDEN!"
She ran toward him, eyes blazing—too bright, too desperate. The Recollector shot a second limb at her, but she spun mid-stride, slashing the attack aside and landing beside Arden with unnatural grace.
Blood trickled down Arden's arm.
Seris cupped his face roughly. "Look at me—look at me!"
"I'm fine—"
"DON'T LIE TO ME!"
Arden froze.
Her voice cracked—raw and sharp.
"I can't lose you too," she whispered.
His breath caught.
Then the Recollector attacked again.
Seris rose in one fluid movement, dragging Arden behind her as the blade slammed into the ground with enough force to crater the stone.
The stars above them continued to fall.
Their reflections scattered across the mirrored floor, warping into fragmented memories—Arden as a child, Arden as a soldier, Arden holding Lysandra on the balcony, Arden kneeling before the Architect.
Seris's head snapped up. "Arden—the memories are projecting. The observatory is responding to you."
"What does that mean?"
"It means this room recognizes you," she said. "And it's giving you what you need to survive."
"Which is?"
"A way to fight back."
Arden looked at the fractured constellations swirling above, their light gathering near the edges of the observatory. The fallen stars began clustering into a shape—a circular pattern, forming an intricate sigil of woven light.
Seris paled. "That's one of your old spells."
Arden blinked. "I had spells?"
"You had everything," she whispered. "Power, knowledge, whole lifetimes of magic. Before you scattered yourself, you were one of the most terrifying mages the world had ever known."
Arden stared. "And you remembered all this… without telling me?"
Seris swallowed hard. "Because remembering hurts. And because I didn't want to push you into becoming him again."
A blade whistled past Arden's cheek—barely missing him.
The Recollector screeched.
"RE...TURN."
Seris pulled him close. "Arden, listen to me. This sigil forming above us? It's tied to you. Only you can activate it."
"I don't know how!"
"Your soul does," she said. "You don't have to remember. Just—feel it."
"I don't—"
Seris grabbed both sides of his face, forcing his gaze into hers.
"Arden. Stop thinking. Trust yourself. And trust me."
The world narrowed to her eyes.
Amber, intense, unbearably sincere.
He nodded.
The sigil overhead blazed.
The Recollector charged.
Arden closed his eyes.
And he reached.
Not with memory.
With instinct.
With longing.
With pain.
With the raw, unfiltered love he had felt the moment Lysandra died…
…and the moment Seris pulled him into the alcove to save him…
…and every moment she stood between him and danger.
Light surged through him.
The sigil descended like a falling star.
Arden's hands moved on their own—forming shapes he had never learned, tracing patterns he didn't remember knowing. His fingers burned with radiant power.
The sigil snapped into place.
A shockwave of light burst from Arden, slamming into the Recollector and hurling it across the observatory. Its limbs shattered into static. Its body twisted, glitching and contorting as if switching between shapes.
Seris shielded her eyes, stunned. "Arden—what did you—"
The creature shrieked, louder than anything they had heard inside the House.
It lunged again—half-formed, desperate, broken.
Arden raised his hand.
Light surged.
A barrier appeared between them—a dome of shimmering energy that rippled with fractured constellations. The Recollector slammed into it, screaming with distorted voices as the barrier burned its form away piece by piece.
Seris grabbed Arden's arm. "That's enough. You're killing it."
"It's trying to erase the best thing that ever happened to me," Arden whispered.
His voice wasn't angry.
It was steady.
The Recollector shattered into dust.
A long silence followed.
Seris stared at Arden—not in fear, not in awe, but with something deeper. Something trembling behind her eyes.
"You remembered how to use magic," she whispered. "Without remembering the spell."
Arden lowered his hand slowly. "I didn't remember anything."
"Then how did you—"
"I just…" Arden looked at her. "I didn't want to lose you."
Seris inhaled sharply.
The observatory lights dimmed.
Stars stilled.
The room went quiet once more.
Seris stepped forward, her voice softer than the falling dust. "Arden… I shouldn't say this. Not yet. Not when everything is changing. But—"
The floor beneath them rumbled.
Seris's eyes widened. "Not now—"
The observatory cracked.
A wind tore through the room.
A voice whispered through the walls:
"You are changing the script, Arden."
"And the House will not allow it."
The floor split open.
Arden and Seris fell.
Together.
Into the next nightmare the House had prepared for them.