The chasm opened wider as the five descended.
They moved in silence — even Serin's wind dared not speak down here.
The walls of ice glowed faintly, etched with runes that pulsed like veins. Corren's shadow flickered across the walls, but did not stretch — the darkness here obeyed something else.
"This place was built before the Crown," Raeh whispered. "Before light was called light. Before fire had a name."
Kael tightened his grip on his emberstone. "Then what are we walking into?"
"Not a tomb," she replied. "A mirror."
At the base of the Mirrorchasm, a gate of crystal opened without touch.
They stepped into a vast chamber — not carved by hands, but shaped by thought. Pillars of frozen memory arched into the dark above. Each shimmered faintly.
Then the voice came:
"You seek forgiveness?""Then first… you will remember."
The air trembled.
The chamber fractured.
Suddenly, they were alone.
Each hero stood in their own vision — a frozen echo of a moment they'd hidden, denied, or buried.
🌊 Lira's Trial:She stood in her childhood home — the moment her village flooded, and she could not save her sister. Water rushed through stone, and she stood frozen, screaming in silence.
A voice asked,
"Would you give up power, to bring back the powerless?"
Lira wept — but stepped forward. "No. But I'll never forget them again."
The flood stopped.
🔥 Kael's Trial:He stood at the forge. His hands were on fire. His master — the man who had raised him — lay burned, his eyes filled not with blame, but fear.
"Is fire always destruction?"
Kael gritted his teeth. "Only if I let it be."
His flames cooled. The forge relit with gentle warmth.
🌬️ Serin's Trial:She stood in the Skytower, the day she was told she wasn't strong enough to be a Windkeeper. Everyone around her laughed — and she said nothing.
"Why do you still whisper?"
Serin lifted her staff and said, loudly, "Because the wind never needed to shout to be heard."
The voices fell silent.
🖤 Corren's Trial:He stood in the moment he took a life for the first time. His blade had moved before he thought. A thief. Barely older than he was.
"Was it justice?"
"No," Corren said. "It was survival. But I'll never stop carrying it."
The shadow stepped back.
✨ Raeh's Trial:She stood in a burning temple. The old guardians begged her to destroy the Ember Crown. She had said no.
"Why did you let it remain?"
"I believed in the next bearers," she whispered. "And they proved me right."
The chamber re-formed.
The five stood together again.
Above them, the sixth shard hovered — encased in ice, but cracked.
Then Vyrn stepped into view.
Her voice echoed with silence.
"You remembered."
"Then you may now decide — not what was right… but what comes next."
The ice around the shard shattered.
A pulse of energy rolled through the chamber — not hot, not cold. Just still.
Serin reached out.
Her wind touched the ice.
Kael's flame sparked beside it.
Corren's shadow surrounded it.
Lira's stone grounded it.
Raeh's ember lit within it.
And the shard — the final shard — awakened.
A glow of blue-white filled the room.
Six shards.
Six bearers.
One Crown, finally whole.
Far above, snow stopped falling.
And in the world beyond, Vyrn's name returned to the winds.