The signal pulsed like a heartbeat.
Kaela watched the thin trail of spectral light flowing from the stabilized beacon, its glow faintly visible even beneath the shifting cloud-cover. Snow still clung to her coat, but her fingers itched for motion, for action. They'd recovered three fragments of Aelira's soul but the final path felt heavier. Like it knew where it was leading.
"East," Mirex confirmed, adjusting the readout on his forearm. "Through the Miralith Ravine. And then…" He hesitated. "It drops."
"Drops?" Seris leaned in, squinting at the projection.
Mirex nodded. "Straight down. The signal dives beneath the earth. Deep."
Kaela's voice was quiet. "Then that's where we're going."
Torren frowned. "What even is beneath Miralith? I thought that place was sealed after the fracture wars."
"It was," Ilara murmured. "But long before that, before the tower of Umbra Concord even existed… that whole region was part of a subterranean research vault. Forgotten. Buried."
Kaela's eyes narrowed. "You're thinking… Aelira hid the final lock inside one of the Old Vaults?"
Ilara nodded, grim. "And not just any vault. That was where the Concord's earliest experiments with powerbinding took place. If Aelira wanted to hide something dangerous, or sacred… she couldn't have chosen better."
A heavy silence fell on them. Kaela turned back to the spectral trail.
"Gear up," she said. "We go by dawn."
-----
The descent into the ravine was slow, made worse by the brittle ledges and ambient magical noise. Ancient glyphs, half-cracked and twitching with decayed energy, clung to the stone like ivy. A reminder of past experiments gone wrong.
Kaela moved ahead, using 'Chaincall' another runic sigil of her first stage ability to link senses with Mirex and Ilara. The link buzzed faintly in her mind, voices merging in subtle echoes.
"I'm picking up a resonance signature," Mirex muttered. "Could be a failsafe seal."
"Don't trigger it," Kaela warned.
"I wasn't planning to die today, Spellcaster."
Despite the danger, there was something oddly comforting in the familiarity of their banter. Even as they stepped past thresholds carved with warded runes older than most languages still spoken, Kaela felt grounded by their presence.
They reached the vault entrance by midday: a pair of obsidian doors veined with red crystal, locked in place with intertwining sigils. At the center was a circular groove the exact shape of the beacon now pulsing in Kaela's grip.
She stepped forward, fitted the device into place
And the world shifted.
Light spiraled across the vault, and the doors screamed as they opened, revealing darkness thick with dust and silence.
Inside, time had not moved. Tools, armor fragments, torn books all lay where they'd fallen, centuries ago. In the middle of the chamber was a platform of living stone, carved in the form of a sleeping woman.
Ilara's breath caught. "That's…"
Kaela stepped forward slowly, and as she did, runes flared to life across the chamber walls. Not an attack no. A memory.
"This vault is sealed not to protect what's inside… but to protect the world from it."
A voice echoed not Aelira's, but one that trembled with age and power. Kaela flinched, her vision swaying. The memory continued.
"Only when the shards reunite, and the final lock is released, shall she awaken. But beware. Memory is not truth. And truth may not save you."
Then the light went out.
And in the silence, a whisper.
"It's watching."
-----
They retreated to the surface, none of them speaking for a long time. The final lock wasn't a vault or a soul shard. It was a cocoon a living stasis, hidden where even time wouldn't look.
Kaela stared into the fire that night, her thoughts a whirl of doubts.
"How do we even approach this?" Seris asked, breaking the silence.
Kaela looked up. "We don't. Not yet. We prepare."
Torren was pacing. "You felt that pressure, right? When the beacon activated the vault. Something moved. Down there."
Ilara nodded. "Something ancient. Not Aelira. Older."
Mirex tapped on his datapad, expression unreadable. "It might not even be a creature. Could be the Calamity's lingering essence. Maybe a guardian. Maybe worse."
Kaela stood. "It doesn't matter what it is. That cocoon Aelira is our only lead to reversing the loss of our powers. To stopping what's coming. We find a way to safely wake her."
Ilara hesitated. "And if she doesn't want to be found?"
"Then we convince her," Kaela said. Her voice was firm, but her stomach twisted. The old records didn't say much about Aelira's final days but what little existed spoke of fear. Of something so vast and terrible it broke her will to remain in the world.
Kaela had to believe Aelira had left herself behind for a reason.
And she had to hope that reason hadn't rotted into fear beyond repair.
-----
Two days later, back at the Umbra Concord Tower, the council gathered.
Lucien Draeven stood at the head of the chamber, arms folded, expression stern.
"You've confirmed it?" he asked. "The vault. The cocoon."
Kaela nodded. "Three fragments stabilized the beacon. It led us there. She's down there. Alive, or… close to it."
The other council members exchanged wary glances.
"The last surviving member of the original Concord," muttered Nyrix Vellthorn, the Reaper. "If she remembers what the Calamity was... she may not even speak to us."
Titan Brannic thudded a fist to his chest. "Then we shake the ground until she does."
Kaela sighed inwardly.
Lucien spoke again. "You did well, Spellcaster. But your next steps must be cautious. If that vault was tampered with… the creature may awaken before we regain our powers."
There it was again that word. Creature.
Kaela still didn't know its true name. Only that it is a Hollowborn and it was bound once, by the first council. A sacrifice that had shattered legends and history alike.
Lucien's voice softened slightly. "I'll assign a mixed squad to reinforce the vault perimeter. But Kaela… I want you to prepare a protocol. Something that might safely ease her out of stasis. Not force. Persuasion."
She nodded, barely hiding her relief.
As the meeting ended, Lucien brushed past her, his voice a low whisper.
"You're close. I can feel it."
Kaela met his gaze. "So can I."
And gods help them all if they were wrong.