The moment Chizzy's fingers closed around the blade, the chamber roared to life.
A gust of wind surged through the Hollow, extinguishing her lantern. Yet the blade in her hands glowed, casting a silver light that revealed the carvings on the walls scenes of battle, blood, and women like her, cloaked in fire and shadow. Their eyes were filled with resolve. With pain. With sacrifice.
The Watcher stepped back, watching in silence as the light from the blade coiled around Chizzy's arm, branding her skin with an ancient symbol: the broken ash tree.
"I feel… everything," she whispered, staggering. The voices of her ancestors echoed in her mind warning her, guiding her. A hundred lifetimes stitched into her bones.
The Watcher nodded. "You've taken the Oath. The Hollow now knows you. You are its guardian… and its prisoner."
Chizzy turned to him, eyes burning. "Prisoner?"
He didn't flinch. "To seal the Hollow again, your soul must remain bound to it. Your power will keep the darkness at bay but at a cost."
Chizzy's grip tightened on the blade. "You knew this. You led me here knowing what it would mean."
"I did." His voice softened. "But I also knew you would choose it. Because you care more for this village than you let on."
A bitter laugh escaped her. "The village that feared me? That locked me away?"
"The same one your mother died to protect. The same one you've never abandoned."
Chizzy turned her gaze to the altar. The black stone pulsed faintly now, waiting. The blade in her hand grew heavier, as if it too knew what came next.
"So what do I do?" she asked, quieter now.
The Watcher stepped forward, laying his hand over hers on the hilt. "Drive it into the altar. Speak your name and your bloodline. The Hollow will listen."
She stepped forward, each footfall echoing like thunder. She raised the blade.
"I am Chizoba of the Ashen Line," she said, voice steady. "Daughter of Anuli. Keeper of the Hollow. I give my soul to the seal. I give my blood to the binding."
She plunged the blade into the altar.
A blinding light erupted, filling the chamber. The ground shook violently, and a great wind tore through the space. Screams filled the air not hers, but voices long imprisoned, howling as they were forced back behind the veil.
Then silence.
The blade, now blackened, rested in the stone.
Chizzy collapsed to her knees. The mark on her arm glowed faintly before fading into her skin. She was still alive but something inside her was not.
The Watcher knelt beside her. "You've done it. The Hollow is sealed… for now."
"For now?" she asked weakly.
He met her eyes. "Evil never sleeps forever. But neither do we."
Chizzy looked toward the altar, her heart heavy.
She had made her choice.
She had taken the Oath.
And nothing would ever be the same again.