The Hall shuddered again, harder this time, and the sound rolled through the stone like something enormous turning in its sleep.
Aria nearly lost her footing as the floor buckled beneath her boots. The Shard flared white hot in her palm, its light bleeding through her fingers in sharp, fractured rays. The pulse that had once felt frantic now felt focused, deliberate, as if it had been waiting for this place, for this moment.
Around her, the others scrambled to steady themselves.
Cracks raced across the mosaic floor, splitting ancient symbols into jagged halves. Dust fell in thick sheets from the ceiling, clogging Aria's lungs and stinging her eyes. Somewhere high above, stone screamed as part of the vaulted roof collapsed inward, crashing into the far end of the hall in a cloud of debris.
Outside the shattered windows, the red light flared brighter.
The shadows were close now.
Aria could feel them, hundreds of them, pressing toward the Hall with relentless intent. Bound souls, dragged forward by magic older than memory, their will stripped away until only obedience remained.
"Kael," she said, her voice cutting through the chaos. "The door. Now."
He did not hesitate. He sprinted toward the sealed doorway at the far end of the Hall, slamming his shoulder into the warped wood with a grunt of effort. The impact sent a tremor through the frame but it held.
Lyric followed, her hands already glowing as she traced sigils into the air, layering spell over spell against the ancient seal. The symbols resisted her magic, flaring violently before settling into a low, sullen glow.
"This seal was made to keep something in," Lyric said through clenched teeth. "Not to keep things out."
Finn joined them, golden light pouring from his hands as he reinforced the stone around the door. Sweat beaded instantly at his brow, his jaw set in grim concentration.
"Whatever's waking up beneath us," he muttered, "it better not be hostile."
Quinn moved to the center of the Hall, eyes locked on the approaching shadows beyond the windows. "We're running out of time."
Aria stepped toward the door, drawn by the Shard's insistence. The closer she came, the more the world seemed to narrow around her. Sound dulled. The pounding of her heart grew louder than the rumble of collapsing stone.
When she placed her palm against the cold wood, the seal responded instantly.
Light surged beneath her skin, racing outward into the carved symbols. One by one, they ignited, not in warning, but in recognition. The resistance she had felt before melted away, replaced by something almost welcoming.
"This place knows you," Lyric whispered.
"No," Aria said softly. "It remembers."
The door split down the center with a sound like stone tearing through bone.
Cold air poured out from the chamber beyond, thick and heavy, carrying the scent of dust, old magic, and something else, something deeper and harder to name. The chamber descended sharply, steps spiraling downward into darkness.
"Inside," Quinn said sharply.
They rushed through just as the first of the bound dead reached the threshold of the Hall. Hollow eyes burned violet as skeletal hands clawed at the air, reaching, grasping.
Lyric snapped her fingers. Blue white fire surged across the door, sealing it shut just as the first impact struck from the other side. The force of it reverberated through the stairwell, rattling Aria's bones.
They descended quickly, boots echoing against stone that had not known living footsteps in centuries.
At the base of the stairs, the space opened into a vast circular chamber.
Aria stopped short.
The ceiling vanished into shadow far above them. The walls were etched with spiraling script, Seeker runes layered over older markings that made her skin prickle when she looked at them too long. At the chamber's center stood a massive monolith of pale stone, split cleanly down the middle, its heart hollowed out.
Whatever had once rested there was gone.
"This is it," Lyric breathed. "The Heart Vault."
The Shard in Aria's hand fell silent.
Not dormant. Resting.
She stepped forward, drawn by a pull she could not resist. The others followed more cautiously, weapons ready, eyes scanning the shadows.
As Aria approached the monolith, the runes along its surface flared to life, light spreading outward in slow, deliberate waves. The air thickened, humming with restrained power.
Then the chamber shifted.
Figures began to emerge from the light, not solid, but luminous, shaped from memory and intent. Seekers appeared one by one, dozens of them, forming a wide circle around the monolith. They wore robes from different eras, bore symbols long fallen out of use.
Their faces were solemn.
Some looked afraid.
At the head of the circle stood a woman Aria recognized instantly.
The First Seeker.
She was taller than Aria had imagined, her presence heavy with quiet authority. Her eyes burned with cold clarity as they met Aria's.
"So," the First Seeker said, her voice echoing directly inside their minds. "The Path has reached its end."
Kael shifted closer to Aria, blade half raised. "This is a trap."
"It is a reckoning," the First Seeker replied calmly.
Aria swallowed, her throat tight. "You called us here."
"Yes."
"Why?" Aria demanded. "Why now?"
The First Seeker's gaze did not waver. "Because the lie can no longer hold."
With a lift of her hand, the chamber dissolved into vision.
The world unfolded before them as it once was. Magic ran wild, raw and uncontained. Cities rose in months and fell in days. Power chose without reason, blessing some and destroying others. The Void pressed close to the world then, not as a force of malice, but as endless, unfiltered possibility.
"We were afraid," the First Seeker said. "Afraid of chaos. Afraid of choice without consequence."
The vision shifted. They saw the birth of the Shard, not discovered, but forged. Magic bound and compressed, forced into shape. Paths carved into the fabric of the world, narrowing possibility into something manageable.
"We called it Balance," the First Seeker continued. "But Balance was never natural. It was imposed."
Lyric's breath hitched. "You constrained magic."
"We caged it," the First Seeker said. "And in doing so, we caged the world."
The Eye appeared next, recoiling from the Shard's creation, splintering away. They did not submit. They did not accept the cage.
"They mistook destruction for freedom," the First Seeker said. "They worship the Void because it does not choose. It consumes."
The vision shattered.
Silence returned, heavy and crushing.
Aria's hands trembled.
"You knew," she said hoarsely. "You knew the cost. And you did it anyway."
"Yes," the First Seeker said. "Because the alternative seemed worse."
The pounding at the sealed door thundered louder now. Cracks spread across its surface, light bleeding through.
"Saraphine knows this truth," the First Seeker said. "She believes the only way to free the world is to break it completely."
"She's wrong," Aria said.
"Yes," the First Seeker agreed. "But so were we."
The Shard burned against Aria's skin.
"What do I do?" she asked.
The First Seeker stepped closer, her expression finally cracking with exhaustion. "You choose. What we never did."
Another impact split the door.
Aria turned to her friends, to their fear and trust and stubborn loyalty.
"I won't break the world," she said. "And I won't rule it."
She closed her eyes.
"I'll end the lie."
The Shard pulsed once, slow and deliberate.
Outside, the bound dead screamed as something unseen recoiled.
The Path had begun to unravel.
And Aria finally understood what it would cost.