The snow had stopped falling.
But inside the shrine, everything was frozen.
Seraphina sat beside Kaelith's lifeless body, his blood drying on her skin, his last breath echoing in her ears like a cruel lullaby.
The Heart of Solvain still glowed faintly inside her chest—no longer golden, but crimson, dark and pulsing like a second heart.
A cursed one.
Her hand hovered over Kaelith's chest.
No heartbeat.
No warmth.
No magic.
Only silence.
She wasn't crying. Not yet.
Her body had gone numb from the pain.
---
Scene Break – The Whisper in the Void
The shrine's glyphs flickered.
And then the air shifted.
Something old stirred in the ruins. Not magic. Not fate.
Something forgotten.
A soft whisper rose from the ground, curling around Seraphina like smoke.
> "You used my power. Now you owe me a soul."
She jerked upright.
"Who are you?" she whispered, throat raw.
> "The gods rewrote my name from every scroll. They called me ruin. But you called me…"
The voice paused, amused.
> "Hope."
She stood slowly, Kaelith's cold fingers slipping from her grasp.
"I never called you anything," she spat.
> "Yet here you are. With my mark on your chest. My power in your blood. You think you killed him?"
The whisper turned to laughter.
> "No, child. I took him."
---
Scene Break – The Bargain of Ruin
Seraphina's blood ran cold.
"You… took Kaelith?"
> "You broke the pact. That gave me the right to claim what's mine."
Her hands clenched.
"What do you want?"
> "A life for a life. Isn't that the way of the world?"
"I already paid with his."
> "Then pay with yours."
The runes on the shrine glowed again, forming a circle beneath her.
She staggered back.
"No—"
> "Choose, Seraphina. Power… or him."
A vision slammed into her mind:
Kaelith—alive, in chains, screaming her name through a void of endless night. A place beyond death. A prison for souls bound by magic older than gods.
> "He's not dead," the voice whispered. "Not yet. But soon."
---
Final Scene – A Dangerous Choice
Seraphina dropped to her knees, chest heaving.
The world spun around her, and in the center of it was Kaelith's face.
The one person who saw her before the prophecy. Before the crown. Before the war.
If she gave up the Heart, she'd be powerless—no throne, no vengeance, no way to protect anyone.
But if she didn't… she'd lose him forever.
The shrine rumbled as if sensing her indecision.
Her eyes burned with fury.
And she whispered—
"Then send me to where you took him."
The glyphs exploded in light.
The ground cracked open.
And Seraphina vanished into the abyss.