The moon hung low as the group stepped into the Temple of Echoes, carved directly into the cliff face. Moonstone walls shimmered faintly, pulsing with energy older than language.
Aelira's steps faltered.
He was waiting.
The Mirror King.
He stood before the second Vault's sealed door — tall, regal, dressed in dark silver robes. His gray eyes held storms. And sorrow.
"You've grown quieter in this life," he said softly. "But your fire still burns."
Kaelen stepped in front of Aelira, blade halfway drawn. "Who are you to her?"
The Mirror King smiled — not cruel, not kind. "Her husband."
Silence crashed into the room.
Aelira's heart twisted. Images from the Maze flickered: the vows beneath the eclipse, the kiss stained in blood.
"You're real," she whispered. "I thought the memories were illusions."
"They were warnings," he replied. "Of the power you sealed inside yourself."
He turned to the Vault behind him. Its surface shimmered like water, covered in mirrored runes.
"This is the second seal. You locked it yourself to keep the Starfire from consuming the realms. But now the bindings are failing."
Aelira stepped closer. "And you?"
"I stayed behind to guard it. To wait. To remind you — if the time ever came — that you are not just reborn. You are returning."
Kaelen's voice was low. "Why didn't you find her sooner?"
The Mirror King's gaze met his. "Because she would've loved me too quickly… and forgotten what it meant to choose."
The Vault trembled.
The closer Aelira came, the louder it whispered — voices of past selves, fragments of power trapped beneath the seal.
Kaelen touched her arm. "You don't have to open it now."
But Aelira shook her head. "We came all this way. The magic is unraveling. And I need to know what I buried."
She placed her palm against the door.
The runes flared.
A low, aching hum filled the temple. Wind howled through the stone. Her eyes glowed faint gold — not quite Seraiya, not quite Aelira, but both.
And the Vault… opened.
Inside, nothing but a single obsidian feather floated above a pedestal.
The Heart of the Starfire.
Her power.
Untouched. Undisturbed.
Until now.
Behind her, Kaelen flinched, clutching his side.
Blood seeped from a wound that hadn't been there seconds ago.
Aelira spun. "Kaelen?!"
He dropped to one knee. "I don't know… something—"
The Mirror King stepped back, eyes narrowing. "You bound your soul to his. That connection is now tied to the Vault's protection."
"The seal is rejecting him."
"Because he was never meant to bear your flame."
Aelira's breath caught.
She looked between the feather, Kaelen's pain, and the Mirror King's still, unreadable expression.
She had a choice.
Touch the feather — and awaken the rest of her power.Or leave it, and keep Kaelen safe.
Her hands trembled.
"I'm not ready," she whispered.
The Vault responded with a final hum and sealed shut once more — the feather vanishing in a flash of light.
Kaelen collapsed into her arms, breathing hard.
The Mirror King said nothing.
But for the first time, he looked… disappointed.
"There will come a time when choosing him over your power will cost more than blood," he said quietly."It will cost the world."
He turned and walked into the darkness of the temple.