Location: The Forgotten Womb – Underrealm Depths
POV: Seris Valen
The air tasted like old metal and burnt marrow.
Seris stood at the heart of the Forgotten Womb—a natural cavity deep beneath the surface where no sun had ever touched. Crystals pulsed in rhythmic flashes along the walls, mimicking a heartbeat. Her heartbeat.
Or maybe… Thamaris's.
Each breath Seris took echoed like a thousand more, as if something inside her was breathing too.
Watching. Waiting.
> "Your body remembers the seal. But your soul… your soul belongs to me."
She dropped to her knees.
"No," she whispered. "I am not yours."
---
The First Shatter
Pain struck—not physical, but cosmic.
She screamed as her spine arched, bones glowing beneath skin, ancient glyphs unfurling like brands across her chest and arms. Her shadow twisted—too long, too tall.
Thamaris was waking.
Memories she never lived bled into her mind:
A void swallowing suns.
A tower of glass screaming as it fell.
A girl in chains, buried alive under a name no one dared speak.
> You are my rebirth, the voice said. You are not Seris. You are my second dawn.
But another voice rose.
Her own.
> I am Seris Valen. And I decide who I become.
---
Clash of Will
Inside her mind, a battlefield unfolded.
Thamaris's form towered in fire and shadow—faceless, endless. Around them floated fragments of Seris's memories: her mother's voice, Ashren's touch, Caelis's loyalty, the smell of cinnamon from the Vensari markets.
The curse laughed. "You think mortal love will stop me?"
Seris raised her hands—and every memory turned to light.
"I think it already is."
The shadow screamed.
And cracked.
---
The Fragmented Seal
Seris awoke on the ground, coughing, drenched in cold sweat.
The glyphs remained, but dimmed.
Thamaris wasn't gone—but no longer fully in control.
Only one thing was clear now: she was a battlefield—and time was running out.
A figure stepped from the shadows.
Ashren.
He looked at her, eyes dark with the weight of the blade he now carried.
Neither spoke.
Because both already knew:
Only one of them might walk away from what was coming.