Chapter 79
Eliendara did not move.
The cloaked figure stood still as bark, vines rustling gently at its feet as if whispering secrets too old for words.
"You left something here," it said.
Kael stepped between them instinctively. "What are you talking about?"
The figure didn't look at him.
Its eyes—if they were eyes—never left Eliendara.
"You came to the garden before you were her.And you asked us to take a piece of you…so it could never follow."
Eliendara's breath hitched.
Kael turned. "Is that true?"
She shook her head. "I… I don't remember ever—"
But the moment she tried to say more, she staggered.
Not from pain.
From something missing—a hollow space in her soul that suddenly pulsed like it had always been there.
The garden vines began to bloom with crimson flowers. The air thickened with scent—rich, nostalgic, dangerous.
Kael recognized it.
Flame-forged roses.
But these hadn't been grown by gods.
These were cut out of someone.
The figure reached beneath its cloak.
And from within it, pulled something small.
A glass orb.
Inside: a single thread of golden fire, flickering faintly, suspended in still water.
"The part of her that was born from chaos," the figure said.
"The part of her that was born from chaos," the figure said."Before she was crowned. Before she was bound to fate. Before… she chose to forget."
Eliendara stared at the orb. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
Kael moved closer, voice steady. "What happens if she takes it back?"
The figure tilted its head.
"Then she becomes whole again.But whole things remember.And remembering always comes with a cost."
The orb pulsed once in the figure's palm.
And Eliendara finally stepped forward.
The garden around them held its breath.
"I was never told what I was," she whispered. "Just what I needed to be."
The figure offered the orb silently.
Eliendara looked at Kael, her eyes searching his.
"I don't know who I'll be if I take this."
He took her hand. "I do."
She blinked.
"You'll be you. Just… louder."
She smiled, tears forming.
And reached for the orb.
The second her fingers touched it, the glass cracked—soundless.
The golden thread of chaos-fire leapt into her chest like a long-lost heartbeat.
She staggered—
Kael caught her.
And then she screamed.
Not in pain.
In release.
The garden trembled. Roots tore upward. Leaves whirled in spirals of wind and flame and memory.
And across her skin, gold markings ignited—swirling like galaxies born in motion.
Visions flashed through her mind.
Not lifetimes.
Just fragments.
A child laughing as the world burned around her.A voice calling her "the spark between storms."A throne made of mirrors—shattered by her own hands.
And at the center of it all…
A name she had once given up.
A name the world had once feared.
She didn't say it aloud.
She simply breathed.
And the garden recognized her.
When the light dimmed, she opened her eyes again.
And they weren't just golden.
They were impossible.
Alive with chaos, crowned in memory, and burning with something older than prophecy.
Kael touched her cheek.
"You remember now?"
She nodded slowly.
And whispered—
"And now I know why I had to forget."
From deep beneath the garden, a rumble echoed.
And from the roots of the world, something ancient stirred.
Not fire.Not void.Not gods.
The Dream Before Creation.
And it had just noticed she'd woken up.
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 80: The Dream That Came Before Fire
Now awakened with her true self restored,Eliendara becomes more than a queen—she becomes a beacon to something older than gods.
As Kael watches her light bloom,the Dream Before Creation opens its eyes…
And reality itself begins to unravel.