Dawn had barely touched the sky, but the graveyard already felt exhausted, as if the earth itself had spent too much power holding back the darkness. Frost clung to the grass in trembling shards, and the broken gravestones cast long, jagged shadows like fractured teeth.
Arianna sat in the damp grass, her pulse still racing in fits, the mark on her wrist throbbing with aftershocks of the light she couldn't control. Kaelith knelt beside her, but he wasn't touching her. She noticed that immediately.
He kept his hands hovering an inch from her skin—as if afraid she might shatter beneath him, or worse… burn him.
"Breathe," he murmured, voice barely audible. "Just breathe."
She tried.
The cold air scraped her lungs like glass.
"You saw him," she whispered. "That thing… it called you the Fallen King. And it said—" Her throat tightened. "It said you failed me."
Kaelith's jaw tightened. His silver eyes, still flickering with pain, lifted to meet hers.
"I did fail you," he said, voice low. "But not in the way it wants you to believe."
The ground beneath her seemed to tilt. "Then tell me the truth."
"I intend to," Kaelith said, a shiver in his voice betraying a fear she had never seen in him before. "But before that… I need you to understand something."
Arianna waited, heart thudding.
Kaelith inhaled softly, as if steadying himself.
"The remnants, the Harbingers, the Celestial hunters—they are not coming for you because of what you are. They are coming for you because of your name."
Arianna frowned. "My name?"
He nodded. "Not Arianna Hale. The name you had before. The name you don't remember."
The mark on her wrist pulsed hard enough to make her gasp.
Kaelith's voice softened. "Tell me… in your dreams. Do you ever hear someone calling to you?"
Arianna froze.
"Yes," she admitted hesitantly. "A voice whispers something… but it never sounds like English. I thought—"
She swallowed. "I thought it was just nightmares."
Kaelith's expression shifted—relief mixed with dread.
"It isn't a nightmare," he said. "It's your soul trying to remind you who you are."
She felt faint. "What… what name is it?"
Kaelith looked away for a moment, letting the wind fill the silence. When he finally answered, his voice carried a reverence that made her shiver.
"Elaryndra."
The name hit Arianna like a blow to the chest.
Her heartbeat skipped. Her lungs clenched. Her vision blurred for a moment, as if the world trembled around her.
She whispered it slowly, the syllables tasting both foreign and familiar on her tongue:
"Ela… ryn… dra."
Power rippled through her veins in a slow, dangerous wave.
Kaelith's gaze snapped to her wrist as the mark glowed faintly.
"That was your name," he said. "Your true name. The name that once made realms kneel… or tremble."
Arianna forced herself to keep breathing. "Elaryndra," she repeated. "Who… who was she?"
Kaelith hesitated, then spoke with quiet gravity.
"Elaryndra was the Queen of the Celestial Realms. The last Luminary. The bearer of starfire and shadowlight. A being of impossible power."
Arianna stared.
"That can't be me."
But Kaelith only looked at her with an aching certainty.
"It is you. And you are waking."
Arianna curled her hands in the frost-covered grass, trembling. "If I was so powerful… why did I die? Why couldn't I stop it?"
Kaelith exhaled shakily, and Arianna realized he was still kneeling, still not touching her, as if afraid any contact would break her.
"Your death was not a defeat," Kaelith whispered. "It was treachery. A betrayal orchestrated by those who feared your reign." His eyes darkened. "And I was too late to stop it."
She swallowed hard. "The Harbinger said I died freeing you."
Kaelith flinched.
A small, barely perceptible twitch—but enough.
Arianna's breath hitched. "Kaelith. What does that mean?"
He did not answer.
Not immediately.
He stared down at his hands—long-fingered, elegant, still trembling from the fight—and for the first time since she met him, he looked… fragile.
"I was your protector," he said quietly. "Your guard. Your sword. And…"
He closed his eyes. "Your consort."
Arianna's heart stopped.
Consort.
The word felt too heavy to hold.
"You loved me," she whispered.
Kaelith's eyes opened slowly, pain shining in them like broken starlight.
"I never stopped."
Silence swallowed the graveyard.
Arianna's breath trembled as she tried to reconcile the man kneeling in front of her—the ageless, shadow-wreathed, fiercely protective stranger—with the truth of who he once was to her.
But another question tore through the haze.
"If you were my consort… then how did my death free you?"
Kaelith's face changed—a flicker of grief, then a deeper shame.
"The Celestials bound me," he said quietly. "Because I stood at your side. Because I swore myself to you. Because I wielded the shadows they feared."
Arianna frowned. "Bound you how?"
Kaelith's eyes glinted, ancient and wounded.
"They cursed me," he murmured. "Stripped my throne. Shattered my wings. Tethered my surviving power to yours."
He inhaled shakily. "And when you were murdered, the tether snapped."
Arianna felt something cold and hollow bloom in her chest.
"So I died," she whispered, "and you were freed."
Kaelith's voice broke.
"I would have chosen the opposite without hesitation."
Arianna felt pressure building behind her eyes.
"But you didn't choose," she said softly. "You ran."
Kaelith stiffened.
"That's what the Harbinger said. That my death freed you—and that you disappeared."
His eyes flickered with pain.
"Arianna… I ran because I was hunted. Because every remnant of your enemies turned toward me as the last surviving threat. And because…"
His voice dropped to a raw whisper.
"Because I could not bear to look at the throne without you on it."
Arianna swallowed hard.
The sincerity in his voice cracked something in her.
But the fear didn't fade.
It sharpened.
"If I'm waking…" she said slowly, "if I'm really Elaryndra—then does that mean I'm becoming her again? Am I going to lose who I am?"
Kaelith's expression shattered.
"No," he whispered urgently. "You will always be Arianna. You are not being overwritten—you are remembering. You are reclaiming what was stolen."
"But what if remembering destroys me?"
Kaelith leaned forward instinctively—then stopped himself, hands hovering near her face but not touching.
"I will not let that happen. Not again. Not ever."
Arianna stared at him, chest aching. "Then tell me everything."
Kaelith hesitated.
"There are truths," he said softly, "that are poison when swallowed too quickly." His voice went quieter. "If I tell you too much now, your awakening may accelerate."
"So?" Arianna snapped. "I'm already being hunted. I already nearly died. Twice."
Kaelith shook his head. "Arianna… awakening too fast could burn your body from the inside. Your human form is not yet strong enough."
Arianna froze.
Burn her body?
Kaelith's hands clenched.
"I will tell you what you must know. No more. Not yet."
She exhaled shakily. "Fine. Then tell me this—who wants me dead?"
Kaelith's eyes darkened, shadows curling around him.
"The Celestial Remnants," he said. "The ones who survived your fall. They believe your return will undo their new order."
Arianna nodded slowly. "And who sent the Harbinger?"
Kaelith's voice became ice.
"Someone older. Stronger. Someone who wants your soul reclaimed before you can wield it."
Arianna's voice trembled. "Who?"
Kaelith looked at her with a sorrow so deep it hollowed his features.
"His name," Kaelith whispered, "is Solaryn."
Arianna's heart lurched. "Solaryn…?"
Kaelith nodded once.
"He was your brother."
The world tilted.
Arianna's breath scattered.
"My… brother?"
"Yes." Kaelith's voice was pained. "Your executioner."
The frost cracked beneath her palms.
Kaelith leaned closer, silver eyes pleading.
"Arianna… listen to me carefully. Solaryn will not stop until he ends your soul permanently. And he is coming. Soon."
Arianna swallowed, tears burning.
"Why?" she whispered. "Why would my own brother kill me?"
Kaelith exhaled, broken.
"Because," he said softly, "you were born to rule the Celestial Realms."
"And he was never meant to."
Arianna's pulse thundered in her ears.
Her breath shook.
Everything burned.
Kaelith reached out—then stopped, trembling.
"Arianna…"
She looked at him, tears falling silently.
"What happens now?" she whispered.
Kaelith's expression hardened into something fierce, dangerous, unyielding.
"Now," he said, shadows rising behind him like wings unfurling—
"we run before he finds you."