The Vault's air had changed.What once shimmered like gold was now tinted with soft indigo deeper, quieter, filled with whispers that faded before they reached the ear.
The six walked cautiously, Lumi padding ahead, its fur pulsing faint light through the mist.Each step echoed differently like six heartbeats out of rhythm but moving toward the same destiny.
Lyra: "Does anyone else… hear that?"Seren: "Hear what?"Lyra: "Like… footsteps. But not ours."
The group paused.Only the faint hum of magic answered.Then a breath.Soft, right behind them.
They turned nothing. Only mist.
Draven frowned. "Stay close. The Vault's playing tricks again."
But Lumi growled a low, strange sound none of them had heard before. Its fur stood on end, glowing violet instead of gold.
The Corridor of Echoes
The pathway split into three. Each tunnel shimmered with a different hue crimson, sapphire, and emerald.
Nyra: "Which way?"Seren: "We stay together."Draven: "No. The Vault wants us to choose."
The runes on the walls pulsed Choose.The letters formed briefly, alive and waiting.
Lyra took a deep breath. "Then we trust Lumi."
Lumi tilted its head, walked toward the sapphire tunnel, and chirped once.The others followed though hesitation shadowed every step.
Inside, the air grew colder. Crystals jutted from the walls like frozen fire, reflecting faint silhouettes but not theirs.
Lyra: "They're… other versions of us?"Draven: "No. They're what the Vault remembers."
Each crystal shimmered with an image flashes of battles, tears, laughter.But in one reflection there was someone else.
A seventh silhouette.Tall, hooded, standing just behind Lyra's image.
Lyra's breath caught.
"Draven… someone's in the reflection."
He turned but the silhouette was gone.Only his own reflection stared back.
The Hall of Threads
They reached a vast chamber, threads of light crisscrossing the air like spider silk.At the center stood a pedestal a floating orb of color shifting through every hue at once.
Vale stepped forward.
"It's… beautiful."
The orb reacted stretching a single thread of light toward her hand.The moment she touched it, the air shimmered violently.
Visions flooded through them all the Vault collapsing, a violet storm, seven figures standing beneath a burning sky.
Lyra gasped, falling to her knees.
"It's showing us the end."
The orb dimmed, whispering faint words in a tongue no one recognized.
"Seven lights must burn together,or the world will fade to gray forever."
Then silence.
Lumi whimpered softly, pressing against Lyra's hand. Its eyes glowed faintly violet again the same hue as the mysterious shadow.
Unseen Watcher
Far back, beyond the glowing threads, a figure watched cloaked in darkness.Their presence shimmered faintly between real and unreal, like they existed just slightly out of phase with the world.
The figure murmured voice low, broken, but familiar.
"They're almost ready. But not yet."
Then gone.The mist swallowed the echo, and Lumi turned sharply, staring into the darkness where the voice had been.
Returning Light
The group finally exited the hall, finding themselves in a high chamber with floating stairways leading upward the way back to the Academy.
Draven exhaled. "We're not done here. That voice… whatever it was… it knew us."Lyra nodded slowly. "And it's still down here."
Lumi's tail flickered once half gold, half violet.The Vault rumbled quietly, almost like it agreed.