It called to him in fragments.
Not words — not even thoughts.
Just pressure.And a low vibration in the soles of his feet.
Every step through the castle pulled harder.Down past the dungeons.Past the Black Depths.Past the stones that even magic refused to mark.
Until Harry stood before a door.
Not built.Grown.
A door made of woven roots, bones, and sleeping runes that blinked like eyes.
The mark on his wrist pulsed.
The door opened.
The Vein Revealed
The room was enormous — a hollow cavern with no ceiling.The only light came from a crystal vein, black and glassy, pulsing red from within.
It beat like a heart.
The walls whispered his name.
But not Harry.
"Ardyn."
"Ardyn Flameborn."
"You left us. And now… you return."
The Voice of Netharien
A shape hovered above the vein — shifting, smokeless shadow, like robes caught in fire.
But no face. No form.
Just presence.
"They used me to build your seal.""Drank my essence. Trapped me in stone and oath."
"But you — you were kind.You made memory your cage."
Harry stepped forward.
"You know what I am?"
"You are the fire's echo.The child of flame and mercy.The boy who forgot what he chose to become."
The shape paused.
Then whispered:
"And still, you burned her."
The Accusation
The chamber warped.
Suddenly, Harry stood in a memory — one he had never seen before.
Kaelen. Crying.Selene holding her wand to her chest.Ardyn, standing with the ring in hand.
"We either bind it through one of us," Selene whispered,"or the fire spreads."
Ardyn chose Selene.
She nodded once.
And Harry watched himself — no older than fourteen — whisper the incantation that sealed her into the ring.
Her scream echoed through the cavern.
Then silence.
Final Scene – A Choice Offered
Back in the present, Netharien's voice burned around him.
"You sealed her.You saved the world.
And in doing so…
You became mine."
Harry stepped back.
But the crystal vein cracked open.
A sliver of red light curled into the air — and formed a new mark, floating in front of his chest.
"Take it," Netharien whispered."Remember everything."
"And I will give you the truth."