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The ground continued to tremble long after the shadow figure vanished. The air grew colder with each passing moment, like something beneath the ruins had been awakened… and was rising.
"We need to move," Thorne said, jaw clenched as he pulled Aelira upright.
"Not without the shards," she replied, her voice still shaking but firm. Her eyes locked on the floating fragments of soul-light scattered around the room like forgotten stars.
Kaelon reached out first. His clawed hand brushed against a shard and a flash of blue light surged through his arm. He staggered, gripping the ground as ice rippled down his scales.
"Kaelon!" Lyra rushed to his side, but he raised a hand. Though speechless, his eyes burned with focus, and the frost faded. He nodded: he was fine.....Changed, maybe but fine.
Oren fluttered above the largest shard, circling warily. "These fragments are not inert. They remember the Hollow Queen, her grief, her rage and her… purpose."
Aelira held the pendant close. "Then they'll remember me too."
One by one, they retrieved the shards, and with each one, Aelira felt them resonate with her magic, like puzzle pieces fitting back into a broken mirror. But it wasn't just her they reacted to. Lyra's presence disturbed the shards. One glowed darkly when she passed.
Thorne noticed "You sure you're alright?"
Lyra met his eyes with a guarded expression..."Fine, just don't like being this far underground."
But Aelira saw the truth. Lyra's past, once only hinted at, was pulling at something deep in this place.
With the shards in hand, they turned to leave, but the tunnel they had entered through was gone, collapsed.
"I suspected as much," Oren muttered. "Magic like this always demands a price."
"So what's the other way out?" Thorne asked.
The owl's eyes glinted "Down."
A narrow staircase had revealed itself, spiraling into the bowels of the earth. Unease settled on them like a cloak, but they descended.
The air changed, it became thicker and older the more they decend. The walls pulsed faintly, veins of black crystal running through them like infected magic.
They reached a circular chamber, unlike the others, perfectly smooth stone with a well in the center, deep and silent.
"It's… humming," Aelira whispered.
"It's breathing," Lyra corrected.
Suddenly, Kaelon's body seized, a surge of elemental force erupting from him in a wave.....Fire...Ice....Lightning....and then.....
Darkness.
The well responded. From its depths, something stirred.
Aelira stepped forward, heart pounding. "Kaelon's power triggered it. Whatever's below… it's aware of us."
From within the well, a whisper rose. It was not language, but intent, something ancient and broken calling her name.
"Aelira Sunvale."
The voice was her own.
Everyone froze.
"What was that?" Thorne asked, blade half-drawn.
Oren's feathers flared. "An echo...or something far worse."
The chamber pulsed again and a second voice joined the first.
This time, it was Lyra's.
But the tone was twisted....malevolent.
As the air grew heavier, a shadow rose from the well, half-formed, half-forgotten. It had no face, but Aelira knew it. A part of the Hollow Queen. A memory unbound.
And this time, it wasn't alone.
From the walls, more shadows peeled themselves free, whispering forgotten names.
Kaelon stood protectively before Aelira. Lyra drew both blades, thorne took point.
But Aelira… stepped forward.
"I remember you," she whispered. "And I will not run."
The ground cracked.
The chamber shuddered.
Then the shadows lunged.
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