The Rift's voice lingered in Raine's skull like a parasite, its whispers threading through her thoughts, twisting them into knots. She pressed her palms to her temples, the crystals in her arms pulsing erratically, their light flickering between emerald and void-black.
The wind howled through the ruins of the Shattered Peaks, carrying with it the scent of ozone and something oldersomething that tasted of forgotten blood.
Kaios gripped her shoulder, his fingers cold despite the heat radiating from her corrupted skin. His silver hair, now bleached entirely white, fluttered like a tattered banner in the storm.
*Fight it," he hissed, his voice raw. *The Embers are yours. Not its."
But the Rift's presence was a vice around her mind.
*You are the spark. The conduit. The vessel.*
A memory surged unbiddenher mother's hands braiding her hair, her voice soft but edged with sorrow: *The crystals in our blood arent a curse, little spark. Theyre a choice."
Then the vision twisted.
The Conclave's sanctum. A child*her* face, *her* eyesstrapped to an altar of black basalt. Elders in bloodstained robes chanting as liquid void dripped into her veins.
Needles of gold piercing her skin, drawing forth not blood, but *light*the same light that now thrummed in her crystallized arms.
*They didnt just experiment on you. They made you.*
Elysa's words slithered back. *Youre the bridge."
Raine gasped, wrenching herself free of the memory. The ground beneath her trembled, not from the Rift's hunger, but from the Earth Ember's rage*h er* rage. *We need answers," she snarled.
*The Conclave's Sanctum. Now."
Kaios's jaw tightened. *'t's a trap."
*Then we spring it."
---
The path to the Sanctum was a wound in the world.
What remained of the Conclave's stronghold was a skeletal ruin, its spires broken, its halls choked with vines that pulsed like veins. The air here was thick with the scent of rust and rotting parchment, the remnants of a thousand forbidden texts left to decay.
But beneath it all lurked something worsethe metallic tang of fresh blood.
Kaios's dagger, though dulled, glinted in the dim light as they crept through the shattered archway. *The Sanctum was where they first opened the Rift,* he murmured. *ff Elysa was telling the truth, the answers are here."
Raine's gloves crackled, the Fire Ember flaring in response to the oppressive energy.
The crystals in her arms ached, their edges sharpening as if sensing the proximity of their origin.
Then the walls *breathed*.
The vines peeled back, revealing a chamber hidden beneath layers of illusion. At its center stood a pool of liquid void, its surface rippling not with reflection, but with *memory*.
And kneeling beside it, her robes torn, her skin threaded with the same void-black veins as Elysa, was High Elder Veyrathe architect of the Conclave's lies.
Her head snapped up, her eyes hollow pits. *Youre too late.#
Raine lunged.
Veyra didn't flinch. She *smiled*.
The pool erupted.
---
Raine's world dissolved into fragments.
She stood in a hall of mirrors, each reflection a different version of herself: one crystallized into a statue, one wreathed in shadow, one burning with ember-light. At the center stood the hooded figure from her vision, its golden eyes boring into her.
*The Crucible,* it whispered, its voice the scrape of stone on stone. *Where the Conclave forged their lies. And where you will unmake them."
The mirrors shattered.
Memories flooded innot hers, not the Rift's, but *theirs*. The Conclave's.
She saw the first Rift, not as an accident, but as an *invitation*. A hand extended from the void, offering power. She saw the elders' greed, their experiments, the children fed to the darkness in exchange for glimpses of futures they could not change.
And she saw *herself*not as a victim, but as a *weapon*.
The perfect vessel.
The bridge between worlds.
*No.* Raine's voice was a blade.
The figure tilted its head. *You feel it, dont you? The pull. The hunger.
The Rift doesnt want to consume you. It wants to *complete* you."
Then Kaios was there, his hand gripping hers, his temporal energy a lifeline in the storm. *Raine. *Look*."
The memory shifted.
A hidden chamber beneath the Sanctum. A child*alive*,*whole*chained to a second altar. Her twin.
The Conclave's *control*.
The fail-safe.
*They split you," Kaios breathed. *One to bear the Embers. One to*control* them.*
The figure's smile widened.*And now, the choice."
The Rift's voice roared back, drowning all else:
***Become the seal. Or become the storm.***
Raine's crystallized arms *shattered*then *reformed*, their glow shifting to a searing, unstable violet.
She made her choice.