The western sea stretched cold and iron-gray beneath a sky the color of bruised steel. Thorne flew low over the waves, wings skimming foam, salt spray crusting his scales. Elara clung to him, cloak pulled tight against the wind, the second absorbed shard at her belt humming in quiet counterpoint to the first. The resonance pointed west unwavering, insistent toward the small, fog-shrouded island known only as Queen's Lament.
No map marked it anymore. Sailors spoke of it in whispers: a place where the first queens had once gathered to forge the original Binding, a place where the Devourer's first scream had cracked the earth. Now it was cursed ships that approached never returned, or returned empty, crews vanished without trace.
They spotted the island at dusk: a jagged black rock rising from the sea like a broken crown, ringed by reefs that gleamed with unnatural violet light. Cliffs rose sheer on all sides except one narrow cove. Thorne banked toward it, landing on a strip of black sand littered with bleached bones and rusted anchor chains.
Elara slid down, boots sinking into wet sand. The air smelled of brine and ozone and something sweeter, like rotting flowers.
"Feel that?" she asked.
Thorne nodded, wings half-spread. "Echo residue. Thick. Old. Angry."
They followed the pull inland. The path climbed a steep ravine lined with petrified trees trunks twisted into agonized shapes, branches reaching like claws. At the top, the island opened into a crater-like basin. At its center stood a ruined temple: columns of black basalt toppled like fallen giants, roof long gone, altar cracked down the middle.
Violet light pulsed from the altar's heart a third Devourer fragment, larger still, shaped like a colossal serpent coiled around a glowing violet orb. Scales of shadow and frost, eyes like twin amethysts. It lifted its head as they approached slow, deliberate.
Anchor, it hissed, voice layered with a thousand drowned screams. You come to bind what should never have been bound.
Thorne stepped forward, curse-flame flickering along his arms. "We come to end you."
The serpent laughed sound rolling like thunder across the basin. End me? You are the echo of failure. The queens who birthed this curse are dust. Their chains are rust. And you… you are the last mistake.
Elara felt Isolde's memory stir sharp, painful. Images flashed: the first Binding ritual here, on this very island. Queens linking hands, blood dripping into the orb. The Devourer's birth scream shattering stone. Isolde's final words before the seal took hold: Forgive us.
The fragment uncoiled body slithering forward, tail lashing. I offer release. Shatter the last chains. Let the Devourer rise whole. No more queens. No more Anchors. Only freedom.
Elara's crown mark burned. "Freedom for you. Oblivion for everyone else."
The serpent struck fangs dripping violet venom.
Thorne launched skyward wings beating hard diving with fire roaring from his mouth. The flames struck the serpent's flank, sizzling against shadow scales. It recoiled, hissing.
Elara channeled Flameweave golden chains snapping from her palms, threading through Thorne's curse-fire. The merged helix lashed out, wrapping the serpent's midsection.
The creature thrashed tail sweeping low. Thorne twisted mid-air, dodging the blow, but the impact cracked stone and sent Elara staggering.
You cannot sever what is already broken, the fragment taunted. Look.
It exhaled violet mist rolling across the basin. The mist coalesced into figures: ghostly queens, dozens, standing in a circle around the altar. Their eyes were violet now same as the fragment's. They reached for Elara.
Join us, they whispered in unison. Become the final link. Complete the circle.
Elara's knees buckled. The resonance wavered doubt flooding in. Isolde's voice rose in her mind: They were me. They were us. But we chose. Remember the choice.
Thorne landed beside her wings shielding her from the mist. "Elara look at me."
She did. Amber eyes locked on hers fierce, real, unbroken.
"We chose," he said. "Every time. We choose now."
The resonance snapped back golden light blazing brighter than the violet glow. Elara rose.
The chains tightened. Thorne poured more fire black flames turning the gold molten, searing.
The serpent screamed body convulsing. The ghostly queens flickered, violet fading from their eyes. One by one they bowed grateful then dissolved into light that flowed toward Elara.
The fragment's orb cracked.
With a final, desperate lunge, it struck fangs aimed at Thorne's throat.
Elara moved faster chains wrapping the serpent's jaws, forcing them shut. Thorne drove the spear of merged flame straight into the orb's center.
Light exploded violet and gold clashing, then merging.
The serpent shattered scales dissolving into ash, orb crumbling to dust.
A third dark shard fell cold, spent.
Elara caught it. The resonance absorbed it instantly.
[Devourer Fragment (Drowned Scream) – Neutralized][Eternal Resonance Upgraded: Queen's Chorus – Summon purified echoes of past queens as temporary allies in battle (limited duration). Current count: 3/7 detected.]
Thorne exhaled wings drooping. "Three down."
Elara looked at the empty altar. The ghostly queens had vanished peaceful now, their echoes resting within her.
"Four left," she said. "And they're getting stronger."
Thorne pulled her close forehead to forehead. "Then we get stronger too."
Outside the temple, the fog lifted. Stars emerged over the sea clear, cold, endless.
The resonance pointed south toward jungles and forgotten cities.
The hunt pressed on.
And the Devourer's chorus grew quieter.
For now.
[End of Chapter 6 – Volume 2]