The last light on the aircraft died.
For a moment, nobody moved.
The darkness that followed was different from the darkness we'd flown through.
Out there, the sky had been open.
There had always been stars somewhere.
Clouds below.
A horizon, even if I couldn't see it.
Here, the ruined city seemed to swallow whatever little light reached it.
Moonlight touched the plaza in pale strips, catching broken stone, wet leaves, and the remains of a statue near the far road. Beyond that, the city disappeared into black streets and hollow windows.
The broken tower still rose in the distance.
I could see stars through the section that had been torn from its upper half.
That was somehow worse than not seeing it at all.
Nobody spoke.
The wind moved through the grass.
Leaves scraped against stone.
That was it.
No insects.
No birds.
Nothing hidden in the trees.
Nothing moving across the rooftops.
The silence had weight.
Kai eventually broke it.
"So."
His voice sounded too loud.
Everyone looked at him.
He lowered his voice.
"So... what now?"
For once, nobody made fun of him.
That was the problem.
I looked back at the aircraft.
The right wing had been bent upward during the landing. A long section of its lower plating had been torn open, and one of the mana channels running along the side had gone completely dark.
Liam was already staring at the damage like he could intimidate it into repairing itself.
"Can you fix it?" Theon asked.
Liam didn't look away.
"No."
Kai frowned.
"You answered quickly."
"Because I don't know how to fix aircraft."
"You learned how to fly one."
"I learned how to crash one."
"Still technically flying."
Liam slowly turned toward him.
"You want to walk home?"
Kai looked toward the edge of the plaza.
Then remembered where home was.
"...No."
I almost smiled.
Almost.
The ruined city made it difficult.
I turned away from the aircraft.
"First thing—we don't go far."
A few heads turned toward me.
"We figure out the immediate area. We stay close enough to get back here quickly. Nobody wanders. Nobody touches anything unless we know what it is."
Aelira raised an eyebrow.
"I touched one arch."
"And then you started seeing an island that doesn't exist."
"Arion touched something first."
Arion looked offended.
"Why am I always part of this?"
"Because you touched the pillar."
He paused.
"Oh."
Kai nodded.
"Strong defense."
Arion ignored him.
I continued.
"If anything feels wrong, we come back."
Seraphyne looked around the plaza.
"Rain."
"What?"
"Everything feels wrong."
Fair.
I looked toward the ruined avenue.
"More wrong."
"Good distinction."
The others started checking their equipment.
Theon tightened the strap across his greatsword.
Varein rolled his shoulder once, testing whatever pain remained from the crash.
Kazen examined his bowstring.
Liraeth checked the edge of her shield.
Aelira flexed one hand, a faint layer of frost forming across her fingers before vanishing again.
Arion stared toward the distant tower.
His expression had changed since we'd landed.
Not afraid.
Focused.
Like something was still pulling at him.
Aelira looked the same.
I walked toward them.
"The feeling?"
Arion nodded.
"Stronger."
"Direction?"
He looked down.
Aelira did too.
That still bothered me.
"Below us?" I asked.
"Somewhere below," she said.
"Not the tower?"
"No."
I looked toward the broken tower anyway.
It stood above the city like the last piece of something that had refused to die with everything else.
"Can you tell how deep?"
Arion shook his head.
"Nothing that useful."
"Of course."
Aelira glanced at me.
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Your lightning."
I looked at my hand.
Nothing.
"The same."
"Still reacting?"
"Sometimes."
That was an understatement.
White Thunder had reacted to almost everything since entering Hyperanos.
The Mana Current.
The dragon.
The Sky Gate.
Astrea.
The island.
Now whatever sat beneath this city.
I had stopped pretending those were unrelated.
That didn't mean I understood them.
I hated mysteries that knew more about me than I knew about them.
Theon approached.
"We should move before standing here becomes the plan."
I nodded.
"Liam stays with the aircraft."
Liam looked at me.
"I was going to."
"Good."
Kai looked around.
"So the rest of us?"
"Nearby streets first."
"And if we find something interesting?"
"We don't touch it."
Kai stared at me.
"You keep looking at me when you say that."
"There's a reason."
"Unfair."
We started across the plaza.
The ancient stone beneath my boots was uneven but strangely intact.
Grass had forced its way through cracks wide enough to fit my fingers, yet the road itself hadn't collapsed.
That was the first thing I noticed.
The second was the buildings.
From the air, they'd looked like ruins.
From the ground, that word felt insufficient.
Some had collapsed.
Most hadn't.
Four-story structures stood along either side of the avenue, their facades covered in vines and dark stains. Arched windows opened into black interiors. Balconies sagged beneath the weight of trees that had somehow rooted themselves inside the upper floors.
But the walls remained.
The stone hadn't crumbled the way it should have.
Thousands of years.
That was what the symbols Aelira remembered had suggested.
If this place really was that old, then half of it shouldn't still be standing.
I ran my fingers along the edge of a low wall.
Smooth.
Too smooth.
Not polished.
Precise.
The blocks had been cut so cleanly that I could barely see the seams between them.
"Rain."
I pulled my hand away.
Seraphyne stared at me.
I looked at my fingers.
Then at her.
"I know."
"You just gave everyone a speech."
"I touched a wall."
"That's how it starts."
Kai pointed at me.
"Finally."
"Don't."
We kept walking.
The city seemed larger from inside it.
Roads branched in every direction.
Some were wide enough for several carriages to travel side by side.
Others narrowed between buildings before disappearing beneath collapsed arches.
There were plazas.
Dry fountains.
Statues.
Long rows of pillars leading toward structures too damaged to identify.
Vegetation had conquered almost everything.
But it hadn't erased the design beneath it.
This had once been a proper city.
Not an outpost.
Not a collection of temples.
People had lived here.
Worked here.
Probably complained about food here.
I looked through the shattered entrance of one building.
Inside, stone counters stood beneath layers of dust.
Shelves covered the walls.
A shop, maybe.
Something normal.
That made the silence worse.
If the city had only been temples and ruins, I could have imagined it abandoned from the beginning.
But somebody had once woken up in these buildings.
Somebody had walked these streets.
Then at some point—
everyone disappeared.
I looked down.
No bones.
No remains.
Nothing.
I'd noticed that before.
Now it bothered me more.
"Anyone see bodies?" I asked.
The others stopped.
Kazen looked toward the nearest building.
"No."
"Skeletons?"
"No."
Varein frowned.
"Maybe they evacuated."
"An entire city?" Theon asked.
"Possible."
Seraphyne looked farther down the avenue.
"Then why leave everything?"
Nobody answered.
Kai glanced at the dark windows.
"I preferred the aircraft."
That made two of us.
Aelira suddenly stopped.
I almost ran into her.
"What?"
She pointed toward a wall.
A mural covered it.
Most of the paint had faded, but the carved lines beneath remained.
We moved closer.
Several floating islands had been depicted across the stone.
Above them were rings.
Not identical to the Celestial Crown.
Close enough that I felt my stomach tighten.
The rings surrounded a central figure.
Large.
Crowned.
At least, I thought it was crowned.
Most of the head had been destroyed.
Not eroded.
Destroyed.
Someone had deliberately hacked away the stone.
The figure's face was gone.
So was whatever had once stood above it.
Aelira stared.
"That's similar."
"To what you saw?"
She nodded.
Arion stepped closer.
"I didn't see this."
"Different part of the city."
I looked at the damaged section.
Marks from tools remained in the stone.
Old.
Deep.
Somebody had wanted that image gone badly enough to attack the wall itself.
Kai raised one hand.
"Are we touching it?"
"No."
"I was asking."
"The answer is still no."
He lowered his hand.
We moved on.
The road sloped gradually downward.
I hadn't noticed at first.
The buildings became older.
Or maybe they only looked older.
The architecture changed.
Less decoration.
Larger stones.
Thicker walls.
Fewer windows.
Then my Core tightened.
I stopped.
The others took several more steps before Seraphyne noticed.
"Rain?"
I didn't answer.
Something had changed.
A faint pressure touched the inside of my chest.
Not pain.
Recognition.
White Thunder sparked over the back of my hand.
Once.
Then again.
I looked toward the buildings.
Nothing.
Forward.
Nothing.
Then left.
The lightning sharpened.
I turned.
An enormous structure stood partially buried beneath the slope.
I hadn't noticed it because trees had swallowed most of its upper walls.
Two dark pillars rose from the vegetation.
Between them was a massive doorway.
Broken steps descended toward it from the street.
The stone was nearly black.
Different from everything around it.
I stared.
The pressure in my Core strengthened.
Arion stopped beside me.
"You feel that?"
I looked at him.
"You too?"
He nodded.
Aelira approached.
Her expression changed immediately.
"That's not it."
"What?"
"The pull."
She pointed farther into the city.
"Ours is still that way."
Arion frowned.
Then slowly nodded.
"She's right."
I looked back toward the dark structure.
"Then this is something else."
Wonderful.
Theon studied the entrance.
"What is it?"
"Temple," Aelira said.
Kai looked at her.
"You know that?"
"No."
"You keep doing that."
"It looks like one."
She wasn't wrong.
The pillars were covered in weathered carvings.
Most depicted kneeling figures.
Others showed circles surrounded by lines I couldn't understand.
Above the doorway was a symbol that had almost completely broken away.
Only one section remained.
A curved line.
A point.
Part of something larger.
My White Thunder sparked again.
Seraphyne saw it.
"Rain."
"I know."
"You keep saying that."
"Because I know."
She stared at me.
I ignored her.
I stepped onto the first stair.
A thin line of blue light appeared beneath the stone.
I froze.
Everyone behind me did too.
The light disappeared.
Kai spoke quietly.
"Was that you?"
"I don't know."
"Very reassuring."
I stepped again.
Another faint line.
This one traveled farther.
Straight toward the temple entrance.
The air felt colder near the doorway.
Not naturally colder.
There was no reason for it to change that quickly.
I looked inside.
Stairs descended into darkness.
Deep.
Far deeper than the building above should have allowed.
Arion approached the entrance.
The moment he did, he frowned.
"No."
"What?"
"This isn't where we're supposed to go."
I looked at him.
"Supposed to?"
He immediately looked annoyed with himself.
"The pull."
"That's not what you said."
"You know what I mean."
I did.
That didn't make me like the wording.
Aelira pointed toward the distant city.
"What we're feeling is somewhere else."
I looked down the staircase.
White Thunder crawled along two fingers.
Something beneath this temple was calling to me.
Not them.
Me.
That was worse.
"We split."
Seraphyne answered immediately.
"No."
I looked at her.
"We don't need everyone going down there."
"We don't need you going down there either."
"The aircraft needs repairs."
"Liam is handling it."
"The city needs checking."
"Everyone else can do that."
I stared at her.
She stared back.
Theon sighed.
"I'd like to point out that both of you are arguing toward Rain going alone."
Seraphyne looked at him.
"I'm arguing toward Rain not going."
"He's going."
"Why are you helping him?"
"I'm accepting reality."
I almost smiled.
Seraphyne didn't.
I looked toward Arion and Aelira.
"You follow your pull."
Arion frowned.
"Without you?"
"You're not helpless."
"I know."
"Then act like it."
That earned me a look.
Aelira considered the temple.
"What if what's down there is connected?"
"Then I'll find out."
Seraphyne folded her arms.
"Alone."
"Yes."
"Bad idea."
"Probably."
"That doesn't bother you?"
"It does."
I looked down the stairs again.
"That's why I'm going."
Seraphyne's expression changed slightly.
She understood.
If something beneath this city was affecting my White Thunder specifically, bringing everyone with me before I knew what it was could make things worse.
That didn't mean she liked it.
"How long?" Theon asked.
"I don't know."
He frowned.
"Try again."
I thought.
"Half an hour."
"Then?"
"If I'm not back, come after me."
Seraphyne shook her head.
"Twenty."
"Thirty."
"Twenty-five."
I stared at her.
"Why are we negotiating?"
"Because you're annoying."
"Twenty-five."
She nodded once.
"Fine."
Kai raised a hand.
"Can I have his sword if he doesn't come back?"
Everyone looked at him.
"What?"
Theon put a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on."
"I was joking."
"Keep walking."
"I was."
The others started away.
Arion and Aelira looked back once before following.
Seraphyne stayed longer.
Of course.
She stood at the top of the stairs.
"Don't touch anything."
I looked at her.
"That's my rule."
"Then follow it."
"I usually do."
She stared.
"No, you don't."
Fair.
Then she turned and left.
I waited until their footsteps disappeared.
The city became silent again.
I looked down.
The temple waited.
I drew my sword.
Then descended.
The moonlight vanished after the first turn.
Darkness surrounded me.
I expected the stairs to end quickly.
They didn't.
My boots echoed against stone.
Every sound traveled farther than it should have.
The walls were lined with thin channels that looked like mana conduits, but none were active.
At least, not at first.
I passed one crystal embedded into the wall.
Dead.
Another.
Dead.
The third lit when I approached.
Soft blue.
I stopped.
The crystal faded.
I stepped closer.
It brightened.
I stepped away.
Dark again.
"Of course."
My voice echoed.
I continued.
The next crystal lit.
Then the next.
Then another.
A trail of pale blue light followed me into the depths.
I didn't like that.
The architecture gradually changed.
The cracks became smaller.
The walls straighter.
Roots disappeared.
Dust remained, but the deeper temple itself was far less damaged than the city above.
By the time I reached the bottom, it almost looked preserved.
That made no sense.
The staircase opened into a long hall.
Pillars lined both sides.
Each was carved from dark stone.
Figures covered them.
People kneeling beneath rings.
Creatures with wings too large for their bodies.
Ships floating beneath enormous circular symbols.
One carving showed a figure standing alone beneath something shaped like a crown.
I slowed.
There was another figure opposite it.
Smaller.
A sword in one hand.
The face had been destroyed.
Again.
I stared.
Someone had damaged these carvings deliberately.
Not time.
Not collapse.
Someone had come down here and erased specific things.
A spark jumped from my hand.
The hall lit up.
Every crystal ignited at once.
I raised my sword.
Blue light raced across the walls.
Down the pillars.
Across the floor.
Symbols I hadn't noticed appeared beneath my boots.
Then—
something moved deeper in the temple.
A grinding sound.
Stone against stone.
I stopped breathing.
Silence returned.
Then I heard it.
A footstep.
Not mine.
Slow.
Measured.
Coming from ahead.
I tightened my grip.
Another footstep.
Closer.
Someone was here.
That shouldn't have been possible.
No animals lived on the island.
No people appeared on Astrea's maps.
This city had been abandoned for longer than anyone seemed to remember.
Yet someone was walking toward me.
I moved.
Quietly.
The hall widened.
Broken pillars appeared ahead.
A chamber beyond them.
Moonlight entered through cracks impossibly high above, silver lines cutting through the blue glow.
I stepped between two pillars.
Then stopped.
A boy stood at the far side of the chamber.
Around my age.
Maybe slightly older.
Blonde hair fell loosely across his forehead.
His clothes were simple.
Too clean.
That was the first thing that felt wrong.
Nothing down here was clean.
Not the stone.
Not the pillars.
Not me.
Yet there wasn't a trace of dust on him.
His back was turned.
My sword remained raised.
"Hey."
The boy stopped.
Slowly—
he turned.
Blue eyes met mine.
And something inside me broke rhythm.
Not my heartbeat.
Something deeper.
A sensation I didn't understand tore through me so suddenly that my sword dipped half an inch.
I knew him.
No.
I didn't.
I had never seen him before.
I would have remembered.
But every part of me insisted otherwise.
A memory without an image.
Recognition without a name.
The boy stared at me.
His expression changed too.
His eyes widened slightly.
Then narrowed.
Like he had recognized something he'd been searching for.
His Aura appeared.
I froze.
It didn't explode.
That would have been easier.
It simply spread.
Slowly.
Quietly.
Pressure filled the chamber.
My clothes shifted.
Dust lifted from the floor.
The blue lights along the walls trembled.
His Aura was enormous.
Dense enough that my instincts screamed before my thoughts caught up.
He was around my age.
He shouldn't have had Aura like that.
I tightened my grip.
White Thunder sparked along my sword arm.
The boy noticed.
His eyes dropped toward it.
Then returned to mine.
Neither of us moved.
The strange familiarity became stronger.
Painfully strong.
I wanted to ask his name.
Wanted to ask what he was doing here.
Wanted to ask why looking at him felt like remembering something I'd never lived.
Before I could—
the boy spoke.
His voice was quiet.
Almost relieved.
"You're here."
My body went cold.
Not because of his Aura.
Because of the way he said it.
Not surprised.
Not confused.
He had been waiting.
For me.
I raised my sword again.
"Who are you?"
The boy stared at me.
And slowly—
his expression turned sad.
Like I'd just confirmed something he already feared.
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
The boy's Aura remained spread through the chamber.
Dense.
Quiet.
Controlled.
That somehow made it worse.
If he'd released it violently, I would've understood what he wanted.
A fight.
A threat.
Something simple.
Instead, he just stood there.
Watching me.
I kept my sword raised.
"Who are you?"
His expression barely changed.
"You really don't remember."
I tightened my grip.
"Remember what?"
He looked at me for a long moment.
Then—
"Me."
The word settled badly.
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because I didn't know what else to do with it.
"I've never seen you before."
Something in his face hardened.
Not anger.
Disappointment.
"No."
He looked at me like he was studying a wound.
"You wouldn't have."
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
He didn't answer.
Of course he didn't.
I was beginning to hate people who answered questions with more questions.
The boy's eyes shifted toward my right hand.
White Thunder had begun crawling across my fingers again.
I hadn't noticed.
One thin strand moved along my knuckles.
Then another.
His expression changed immediately.
Recognition.
Not surprise.
That was enough.
I looked down.
Then back at him.
"You know what this is."
He said nothing.
"Answer me."
His eyes stayed on the lightning.
"So it stayed with you."
I went still.
Stayed.
Not appeared.
Not awakened.
Stayed.
My voice lowered.
"What did you just say?"
The boy realized it too late.
His gaze returned to mine.
"Nothing."
"That's a bad answer."
"It was the truth."
"No."
I took one step forward.
"It wasn't."
The White Thunder spread farther across my hand.
"Where did you see this before?"
Silence.
"Where?"
His Aura shifted.
Barely.
Enough that the air between us tightened.
I stopped.
Not from fear.
From instinct.
Everything about him told me not to get closer.
His stance was relaxed.
Too relaxed.
His shoulders weren't raised.
His breathing hadn't changed.
He wasn't watching my sword.
He was watching me.
That bothered me more.
My eyes dropped toward his waist.
No sword.
No dagger.
No spear.
Nothing.
I looked back up.
"Where's your weapon?"
The boy glanced down at himself.
Then at me.
"I have one."
"Where?"
His right hand lifted.
I stared at it.
Empty.
For a moment, I thought he was mocking me.
Then his arm changed.
I didn't understand what I was looking at.
Not immediately.
His fingers drew together.
Not closed.
Together.
They merged.
The shape of his hand flattened.
His wrist lengthened.
Then the rest of his forearm followed.
Skin stretched smooth.
The bones beneath it shifted with a sound that made my stomach turn.
Not cracking.
Reforming.
His hand disappeared completely.
In its place—
A blade.
Pale.
Smooth.
Sharp.
It extended from his elbow like his arm had never been anything else.
I forgot to breathe.
The boy looked at me.
"I told you."
My mind caught up a second later.
I moved.
One step.
Sword forward.
Not a killing strike.
Fast enough to test him.
That was all.
My blade cut toward his shoulder.
He didn't dodge.
His arm came up.
CLANG.
The impact rang through the temple.
My sword stopped.
Against his arm.
No.
Against the blade that was his arm.
The force traveled straight through my wrist.
I adjusted.
Tried to slide around his defense.
The boy turned his elbow.
A tiny movement.
My sword was pushed aside.
Not violently.
Efficiently.
Too efficiently.
I disengaged immediately.
Two steps back.
My sword came up again.
The boy hadn't moved from where he stood.
Not really.
His blade-arm remained raised.
I stared.
"What the hell are you?"
That was the first question that felt accurate.
The boy's eyes narrowed slightly.
"You used to ask that too."
My chest tightened.
"What?"
"You heard me."
"I don't know you."
His blade-arm slowly lowered.
"No."
He looked almost sad.
"You don't."
The arm changed again.
The pale blade shortened.
Separated.
Fingers returned.
A hand.
Normal.
As if none of it had happened.
I hated that more than the blade.
White Thunder sparked across my sword arm.
The boy noticed.
Then lifted his left hand.
A spark appeared above his fingers.
White.
I froze.
The chamber disappeared from my attention.
The broken pillars.
The ancient lights.
His arm.
Everything.
Only the lightning remained.
One white spark became three.
Then ten.
They crawled across his hand.
Up his wrist.
Around his forearm.
The same color.
The same brightness.
The same strange pressure.
White Thunder.
My White Thunder.
No.
Not mine.
Apparently.
My sword lowered before I realized it.
"Where did you get that?"
The boy's lightning pulsed.
"The same place you did."
Something inside me tightened.
"Where?"
He stared at me.
"You really don't remember anything."
My jaw clenched.
"Stop saying that."
"Why?"
"Because I don't."
The words came sharper than I intended.
"I don't remember you. I don't remember this place. I don't remember where this came from."
White Thunder flared around my hand.
"So either start explaining, or stop talking like I forgot something I was supposed to know."
The boy went quiet.
For the first time, some of that calm left him.
Not much.
Enough.
His eyes moved over my face like he was comparing me to someone else.
Then his White Thunder shifted.
Mine answered.
I didn't call it.
The lightning on my arm moved outward.
One thin strand stretched through the air.
The boy's did the same.
They reached toward each other.
Stopped.
A few inches apart.
Then snapped together.
The temple reacted.
Every blue light turned white.
I raised my arm.
The boy looked around sharply.
He hadn't expected that.
Good.
Ancient lines beneath the floor ignited.
White light raced through them.
Across the chamber.
Up broken pillars.
Into the walls.
The stone beneath my feet trembled.
The boy stepped back.
I looked at him.
"You didn't know that would happen."
He didn't answer.
"You didn't."
"No."
That was the first useful thing he'd said.
A deep sound rolled through the temple.
Somewhere below us, something ancient moved.
The connected lightning between us snapped apart.
The instant it did—
my vision broke.
Sunlight.
Warm.
A wooden sword in my hand.
Another hitting it.
A laugh.
Blonde hair.
Blue eyes.
"Again."
I staggered.
The temple returned.
My sword nearly slipped from my hand.
The boy moved toward me immediately.
"Rain—"
"Don't."
He stopped.
His hand remained half-raised.
I pointed the sword at him again.
My breathing had changed.
Too fast.
"What was that?"
He lowered his hand slowly.
"You remembered."
"No."
"Yes."
"I saw something."
"That's memory."
"You were there."
The words came out before I could stop them.
The boy's expression tightened.
I stared at him.
"That was you."
He didn't deny it.
My heartbeat slowed.
Not because I was calm.
Because everything inside me had gone cold.
"I knew you."
"Yes."
"From where?"
Silence.
I almost stepped forward again.
Then remembered how that ended.
"Where?"
The boy looked toward the illuminated floor.
"Not here."
"That's not an answer."
"I know."
"Then give me one."
His eyes returned to mine.
"You wouldn't believe it."
"Try me."
"I already have."
That irritated me more than it should have.
I lowered my sword slightly.
"Why did Arion and Aelira see this island?"
The question changed him.
He looked deeper into the chamber.
"They weren't supposed to."
I went still.
"What?"
"They weren't supposed to see anything."
"Then why did they?"
"Because it couldn't reach you."
The temple seemed colder.
I tightened my grip.
"What couldn't?"
The boy looked toward the far wall.
"The island."
That answer was bad enough.
Then he added—
"Or what's left of it."
I stared.
"So it used them."
"Yes."
Anger came quickly.
My Will pressed faintly beneath my skin.
Not enough to release.
Enough that the air changed.
The boy noticed.
Of course he did.
"They weren't harmed."
"That doesn't make it better."
"I know."
"Do you?"
His eyes met mine.
"More than you think."
I hated that answer too.
"Why me?"
The boy looked at my White Thunder.
Then at his own hand.
"Because you were the only one it was waiting for."
My Will nearly slipped.
I forced it down.
"The only one?"
He nodded.
Arion.
Aelira.
The visions.
The pull.
The aircraft failing whenever we turned away.
All of it.
Not random.
Not coincidence.
The island hadn't called them.
It had used them to bring me here.
I felt sick.
"Did you do this?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
The boy's expression sharpened for the first time.
"Yes."
I believed him.
I wasn't sure why.
That bothered me too.
A grinding sound interrupted us.
Louder this time.
We both turned.
The far wall split down the middle.
Dust fell.
Ancient stone moved inward.
A doorway appeared.
No.
A passage.
It descended farther beneath the temple.
White lines ignited along its walls.
My White Thunder reacted immediately.
So did his.
The boy went completely still.
That was the first time I'd seen fear in him.
Not concern.
Fear.
I noticed.
"What?"
He didn't answer.
"What is it?"
The passage continued opening.
The sound echoed through the chamber.
I remembered Seraphyne.
Twenty-five minutes.
I had no idea how long I'd been down here.
Too long already.
I should've turned around.
Gone back.
Found the others.
Told them what I'd found.
A boy who knew me.
A boy whose arm became a blade.
A boy with the same White Thunder.
A temple that recognized us both.
Simple.
Completely normal.
I almost laughed.
Instead, I looked at the passage.
Then at him.
"What's down there?"
His eyes remained on the darkness.
"Answers."
I frowned.
"About the Crown?"
He looked at me.
"No."
A pause.
"About you."
That stopped me.
He knew it would.
I hated that.
I looked toward the stairs behind me.
Twenty-five minutes.
Maybe less now.
Seraphyne would come looking.
Theon too.
Probably everyone.
I should leave.
Every reasonable part of me knew that.
Then White Thunder flickered along the passage.
The boy's responded.
Mine followed.
Same rhythm.
Same pulse.
I looked at him.
"You're walking first."
For the first time, something almost like amusement appeared in his eyes.
"You still don't trust me."
"Apparently I used to be smarter."
That almost made him smile.
Almost.
Then he turned.
His right arm was completely normal again.
That somehow didn't reassure me.
He stepped into the passage.
I followed.
The stone door continued opening behind us.
White lightning ran along both sides of the corridor, illuminating stairs that descended farther than I could see.
Our footsteps echoed together.
Once.
Twice.
Then, without either of us calling it—
White Thunder flickered across both our hands at the exact same time.
I stared at mine.
Then at his back.
I had gone beneath the temple because I wanted to understand why my Aura kept reacting to this island.
Instead, I'd found someone I somehow remembered without remembering him.
Someone whose body could become a weapon.
Someone carrying the same White Thunder as me.
Someone who knew more about my past than I did.
Every instinct I had told me to turn around.
I kept walking.
And together—
we went deeper.
The passage continued downward for longer than I expected.
White lines ran through the dark stone on either side of us, illuminating one section at a time as we passed. They didn't remain lit behind us.
That was the part I kept noticing.
The temple wasn't simply waking up.
It was following us.
Or following something between us.
Every few steps, White Thunder crawled across my fingers.
A heartbeat later, the same pale lightning flickered around the boy's hand.
Neither of us called it.
Neither of us commented on it.
At least, not immediately.
He continued walking several steps ahead of me.
Blonde hair.
Blue eyes.
Aura strong enough that my instincts still refused to relax around him.
And somehow—
someone I felt like I should know.
I had followed him this far without even learning his name.
That seemed stupid in retrospect.
"What's your name?"
His footsteps stopped.
He glanced over his shoulder.
For some reason, he looked surprised.
"You're asking now?"
"You could've introduced yourself earlier."
"You had a sword pointed at me."
"Good reason to introduce yourself."
He stared at me for a second.
Then turned forward again.
"Kasper."
I waited.
He took another step.
"Kasper what?"
He sighed.
"Kasper Pendragon."
I stopped.
He took two more steps before noticing.
Kasper turned.
"What?"
Pendragon.
That name didn't need an explanation.
Even someone raised in an orphanage in Ignis had heard it.
Arthur Pendragon.
Depending on the story, he had been a king, a knight, a conqueror, a protector, or some impossible combination of all four.
The details changed.
The name didn't.
Neither did the family that came after him.
Pendragon was one of those names people spoke differently.
Not because every Pendragon was powerful.
I had no idea if that was true.
But because history had remembered them long enough for the name itself to become part of legend.
I looked at Kasper again.
"Pendragon?"
His expression shifted.
"You remember that."
"Everyone knows Pendragon."
"Not everyone."
"Enough people."
I resumed walking.
Kasper watched me pass before following.
"I've never heard of you."
"I'd be surprised if you had."
"Why?"
"No reason you would."
"That isn't an answer."
"I know."
I glanced back.
"Are all Pendragons like this?"
"Like what?"
"Annoying."
The corner of his mouth moved.
"Some are worse."
That was almost the most normal thing he'd said since I found him.
Almost.
The stairs ended.
The corridor opened onto a narrow stretch of dark stone extending over an enormous hollow chamber.
A bridge.
Without rails.
Of course.
I walked toward the edge.
White light flowed down enormous pillars far beneath us.
I followed it.
And followed it.
The light eventually disappeared into darkness without revealing the bottom.
I immediately stepped away from the edge.
Kasper noticed.
"Afraid of heights?"
"No."
"You moved quickly."
"I've spent enough time falling today."
He accepted that.
We crossed.
Our footsteps echoed beneath us.
Halfway across, I looked at him again.
"How do you know me?"
His pace didn't change.
"I know your family."
The answer was so direct that it took me a moment to react.
"My family?"
"Yes."
"You know them?"
"Yes."
I stared at his back.
I didn't know my parents.
Didn't know whether I had siblings.
Didn't know whether there was some family name I was supposed to carry.
There had been a time when I occasionally wondered.
Everyone did.
But eventually, wondering about people I'd never met had become less useful than thinking about what was directly in front of me.
Food.
Training.
Surviving.
Becoming a knight.
Kasper looked over his shoulder.
"You don't know."
It wasn't a question.
"No."
He stopped walking.
"I can tell you."
"Later."
Kasper stared.
"Later?"
"Yes."
"They're your family."
"And?"
He actually looked confused.
"You're serious."
"I usually am."
"Don't you want to know?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
I continued toward the other side of the bridge.
"I've gone fourteen years without knowing."
"That doesn't mean—"
"It means whatever answer you give me isn't going to change the last fourteen years."
Kasper became quiet.
I glanced toward him.
He looked like he was trying to understand me.
"You're strange."
"So I've heard."
"You don't care where you came from?"
"I care where I'm going."
That seemed to silence him.
Good.
The truth wasn't complicated.
Maybe someday I'd want every answer Kasper had.
Who my parents were.
Why I had White Thunder.
Why someone from the Pendragon family apparently recognized me.
But none of those answers would suddenly become me.
I already had a name.
I had chosen it myself.
Rain.
That was enough for now.
We reached the end of the bridge.
An enormous pair of doors stood ahead.
Dark metal.
Almost black.
Silver lines covered their surfaces in overlapping circles.
And at the center—
a crown.
I stopped.
Not the Celestial Crown itself.
But close enough.
Kasper noticed where I was looking.
"You recognize it."
"I saw the real one."
His head turned sharply.
"The real one?"
"In Astrea."
For the first time, Kasper looked genuinely caught off guard.
"The Crown is still there?"
"The Celestial Crown?"
He didn't answer immediately.
That was answer enough.
I looked at him.
"You didn't know?"
"I knew it survived."
"That's different."
"Yes."
I stepped closer to the doors.
"Is this connected to it?"
"Yes."
"How?"
Kasper looked toward the symbol.
"This isn't the Crown."
"I can see that."
"It's a representation."
"Of what?"
"The same thing."
I frowned.
"That explained nothing."
"You're welcome."
I looked at him.
He almost smiled.
Then the doors opened.
Neither of us touched them.
White light traveled from beneath my feet.
Another stream appeared beneath Kasper's.
Both reached the doors simultaneously.
The silver circles began rotating.
A deep vibration passed through the bridge.
Then the doors separated.
Cold air moved outward.
Clean air.
That bothered me.
Nothing this deep inside an ancient ruined temple should have smelled clean.
Kasper wasn't moving.
"You expected this?"
"No."
"Finally."
His eyes moved toward me.
"Why does my confusion make you happy?"
"Because you've been acting like you understand everything."
"I understand more than you."
"That's not difficult."
I stepped through.
Then stopped.
The chamber beyond was enormous.
Black pillars stretched toward a ceiling I couldn't see.
Silver rings floated throughout the space.
Some vertical.
Some horizontal.
Others angled strangely between them.
All motionless.
White lines covered the floor, forming a pattern so complicated that I couldn't follow it.
At the center of the chamber stood a circular platform.
Above it hung another structure.
A ring.
Or pieces of one.
I narrowed my eyes.
It wasn't broken.
The sections had been separated deliberately.
Each part had been pulled outward and locked into enormous mechanisms surrounding the platform.
"Dismantled."
Kasper stepped beside me.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
I turned toward him.
He raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"You actually don't know."
"I never said I knew everything."
"You strongly implied it."
"I knew you."
"Apparently."
That was still difficult to think about.
We approached the platform.
White Thunder appeared around my hand.
I stopped.
Kasper's did the same.
The chamber reacted instantly.
White lines ignited beneath us.
Half flowed toward me.
The other half toward Kasper.
Then both currents reached the platform.
The enormous rings overhead began moving.
Slowly.
Metal groaned.
Dust fell from the darkness above.
The separated sections of the central mechanism trembled.
Symbols appeared in the air.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
I couldn't understand any of them.
Kasper stared.
His expression darkened.
"What?"
He didn't answer.
"Kasper."
"This place was waiting."
"For me?"
His eyes moved toward our hands.
"Not just you."
I followed his gaze.
Our lightning flickered at the same time.
"Both of us?"
"I think."
I looked at him.
"You think?"
He frowned.
I smiled faintly.
"Annoying, isn't it?"
Before he could answer—
light swallowed everything.
The chamber disappeared.
The city stood around me.
Alive.
I couldn't move.
Couldn't speak.
I was seeing through someone else's eyes.
Or mine.
I didn't know.
The ruins were gone.
Towers rose intact toward the heavens.
White and silver light filled the streets.
Aircraft moved above the city in numbers I couldn't count.
Enormous rings rotated between buildings.
Mana flowed through structures that made anything I'd seen in Epoch look simple.
People moved through streets now covered by forests.
Children.
Workers.
Soldiers.
Ordinary people.
Alive.
Then everything stopped.
People looked upward.
So did I.
The sky cracked.
White fractures appeared across the darkness.
Not lightning.
Actual fractures.
Like glass breaking.
One spread.
Then another.
The rings above the city began accelerating.
Aircraft shot upward.
People ran.
Lights changed from white to red.
The entire city became movement.
Then I saw two figures.
Standing before the enormous ring.
One was blonde.
Kasper.
Or someone who looked exactly like him.
The second stood beside him.
Dark hair.
Sword in hand.
I couldn't see his face.
I didn't need to.
Something in me recognized the shape.
The stance.
The way he held the sword.
Me.
Or someone connected to me.
The vision shattered.
I stumbled.
Stone returned beneath my boots.
Kasper caught my shoulder.
I knocked his hand away.
"What was that?"
His face had gone pale.
"I don't know."
"You were there."
"So were you."
"No."
I looked toward the dismantled ring.
"Whatever that was, it wasn't my memory."
Kasper stared at me.
"You don't know that."
"I do."
"How?"
"Because I don't remember it."
"That's the entire point of forgetting."
I shook my head.
"I don't care."
His expression changed.
"What?"
"I already told you."
"This could tell you what happened."
"To who?"
Kasper frowned.
"To you."
"Maybe."
I looked back toward the platform.
"Or someone who looked like me."
"You don't want to know?"
"If it's useful, yes."
"And if it's your past?"
"Then it happened."
Kasper said nothing.
I looked at him.
"I'm here now."
That was enough.
Before he could argue—
stone cracked behind us.
I turned.
A section of the wall opened.
Something stepped out.
Not a person.
A construct.
Dark metal and stone formed a tall body with four arms folded against its sides.
A smooth mask covered its face.
No eyes.
No mouth.
White lines illuminated across its chest.
I drew my sword.
Kasper's right arm changed.
Even knowing it could happen didn't make watching it any less strange.
His fingers merged.
His forearm stretched.
Pale metal formed.
Blade.
The construct moved.
Fast.
One arm swung toward my head.
I ducked.
I didn't think.
Just moved.
Kasper's blade passed over me.
CLANG.
The construct's wrist separated.
I stepped left.
Kasper moved right.
The thing turned toward him.
I was already inside its guard.
My sword struck its side.
White Thunder exploded through the impact.
The construct staggered.
Kasper's blade-arm drove into its shoulder.
I pulled back.
Another arm swung.
Kasper ducked.
My sword came down.
The blade struck its neck.
Stopped.
Too hard.
White Thunder surged around my weapon.
At the same moment—
Kasper's did too.
His lightning crossed the construct's body.
Mine met it.
The currents merged.
White light swallowed the thing.
The construct flew backward.
It smashed into a pillar.
Stone broke.
Then silence.
I remained in position.
Sword raised.
Kasper's arm returned to normal.
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
Neither of us had said a word during the entire fight.
That bothered me.
"How did you know I was ducking?"
Kasper tilted his head.
"How did you know I was moving right?"
I had no answer.
Apparently neither did he.
A vibration passed through the chamber.
Not from the machinery.
Above.
BOOM.
Dust fell.
I looked upward.
Kasper did too.
Another impact.
Closer.
"What was that?"
"Not the chamber."
Then—
faintly—
"RAIN!"
I froze.
Seraphyne.
I turned immediately.
Kasper grabbed my shoulder.
"Wait."
I looked at his hand.
He removed it.
"My friends."
"The chamber is still—"
"Not important."
Kasper stared.
I was already moving.
Another distant voice echoed down the passage.
Theon.
They were inside the temple.
All of them, judging from the footsteps beginning to carry downward.
Something had happened.
Something bad enough that nobody stayed with the aircraft.
I ran.
Kasper followed.
We crossed the bridge faster than before.
White lights flared around us.
I took the stairs two at a time.
"RAIN!"
"I'm here!"
The echo carried upward.
Footsteps answered.
I rounded a corner.
Theon appeared first.
Greatsword already drawn.
Seraphyne followed.
Varein.
Kazen.
Kai.
Arion.
Aelira.
Liraeth.
Liam.
Everyone.
They stopped.
Mostly because Kasper appeared behind me.
Weapons came up immediately.
Varein's spear leveled.
Kazen had an arrow drawn before I noticed him reaching for one.
Pink Fire burned along Seraphyne's daggers.
Theon stepped forward.
"Rain."
"Don't."
His eyes moved toward Kasper.
"Don't what?"
"Attack him."
Kai leaned around Theon.
Then stared.
"Who is that?"
I looked toward Kasper.
Then back at him.
"Complicated."
Kai blinked.
"You've been gone twenty-five minutes."
"I know."
"How did you find a person?"
"I didn't exactly—"
"You found a person underground on an island nobody knows exists."
Kasper spoke behind me.
"He found me."
I closed my eyes.
"Not helping."
Seraphyne moved directly toward me.
"We have a problem."
The humor disappeared.
"What happened?"
"Sky Raiders."
I went still.
"Here?"
"Above the island."
"How many?"
"We stopped counting," Liam said.
I looked at him.
"Why aren't you with the aircraft?"
"My aircraft?"
"The stolen aircraft."
"The aircraft I crashed?"
"That one."
"It's not worth dying for."
Fair.
Arion pointed upward.
"There's a ship."
"How big?"
Kai gave a short laugh.
Not amused.
"Come look."
We moved.
Nobody completely lowered their weapons around Kasper.
He didn't seem concerned.
That was probably another problem for later.
Cold air reached us.
Then moonlight.
I climbed the final stairs.
Stepped outside.
And looked up.
A massive ship hovered over the Lost City.
Its dark hull covered a portion of the stars.
Mana engines burned beneath it in several enormous rows.
Structures rose along the upper deck.
Weapons lined portions of its sides.
It wasn't some pirate vessel thrown together from stolen pieces.
It was a warship.
The markings along its hull were familiar.
I'd seen them once.
In Commander Rebecca Anvi II's briefing.
Sky Raiders.
Sections along the bottom of the vessel opened.
Figures dropped.
Dozens.
Maybe more.
Some wore devices that unfolded into wing-like structures.
Others descended on narrow boards surrounded by Mana.
A few—
simply fell.
I watched one hit the roof of a distant building.
Aura exploded around him just before impact.
Stone shattered outward.
He stood.
Another landed in a street.
Another behind the ruins.
Then more.
The dead city filled with movement.
Varein stepped beside me.
"How did they find this place?"
I looked toward the temple.
White light still faintly glowed from its entrance.
The chamber.
The mechanism.
Whatever Kasper and I had activated.
"Maybe we showed them."
Seraphyne turned toward me.
"What did you do?"
"Complicated."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Again?"
"I've had a complicated half hour."
"You said twenty-five minutes."
"That too."
Kasper emerged behind us.
His eyes went to the ship.
He stopped.
I noticed his expression immediately.
"You recognize them."
"No."
"You recognize something."
Kasper didn't look away.
"I know what they're searching for."
"What?"
His gaze dropped.
Toward the temple.
Before I could push him—
another group of Raiders descended.
Closer.
One landed beyond the plaza.
Stone cracked.
Theon raised his greatsword.
"We need to move."
"Aircraft?" Liam asked.
Kazen shook his head.
"They'll see us."
"They probably already have."
I looked across the city.
Movement.
One group to the west.
Another north.
More descending near the central ruins.
They weren't spreading randomly.
I watched their paths.
All of them were slowly converging toward the same section.
Us.
The temple.
My jaw tightened.
I turned toward Kasper.
"Can you fight?"
He stared at me.
Then slowly looked at his right arm.
I remembered the construct.
"Forget I asked."
White Thunder appeared around him.
Not just his arm.
His entire body.
I stepped back.
"Kasper?"
The Aura compressed.
Violently.
His silhouette blurred beneath white lightning.
The pressure around him folded inward.
Blonde hair disappeared.
His arms collapsed toward his sides.
His body narrowed.
Silver flashed through the light.
Darkness mixed with it.
Then—
CLANG.
Something struck the stone.
Everyone stared.
Kasper was gone.
A sword lay where he'd been.
For several seconds, I forgot about the warship.
The weapon was longer than my current sword.
Not enormously.
Enough that the difference was obvious.
The blade was dark.
Almost black.
Silver formed its sharpened edges and ran in thin lines through the center.
The guard was simple.
Silver.
The grip darker.
Nothing decorative.
No jewels.
No pointless ornament.
Just something that looked like it had been made to kill efficiently.
It fit him.
That thought didn't help.
Kai broke the silence.
"Did the Pendragon just become a sword?"
I looked at him.
"You heard his surname?"
"He said it loudly."
Fair.
I approached the weapon.
"Rain," Seraphyne said.
"I know."
"No, you don't."
"Also fair."
I crouched.
Wrapped my hand around the grip.
Rain?
I dropped the sword.
It struck the stone.
Everyone stared.
Theon looked at me.
"What?"
"Nothing."
You dropped me.
I stared down.
Kasper's voice.
Not from the sword.
Inside my head.
I picked him up carefully.
Can you hear me?
Obviously.
I almost dropped him again.
Stop doing that.
Doing what?
Talking inside my head.
There was a pause.
How else am I supposed to speak?
I looked at the blade in my hand.
You were a person ten seconds ago.
I still am.
You're a sword.
Another pause.
Temporarily.
I wasn't asking another question.
Not tonight.
A dark sheath had formed beside the weapon.
Naturally.
Because apparently that was the least confusing part.
I picked it up.
Slid Kasper inside.
The blade settled perfectly.
I secured the sheath beside my own sword.
Two weapons now.
The added weight should have felt awkward.
It didn't.
That was another thing I chose not to think about.
You're not going to ask anything?
No.
Why?
I looked toward the people dropping from the Raider ship.
I have enough problems.
Silence.
Finally.
Seraphyne stared at Kasper's sheath.
Then at me.
"Is he still in there?"
"Yes."
I can hear her.
I ignored him.
Kai stepped closer.
"Can he talk?"
"Apparently."
"Ask him—"
"No."
"You don't know what I was asking."
"I don't care."
Theon raised his sword.
"Later."
He was right.
The Raiders were closer now.
I could hear voices between buildings.
Footsteps.
Stone breaking.
Someone shouted an order in the distance.
I couldn't make out the words.
Kazen lifted his bow.
"They're moving this way."
I studied the ruined streets.
The western group.
The northern group.
The ones from the central district.
All converging.
Not on us specifically.
Not yet.
On the temple.
My hand moved toward Kasper's sheath.
Rain.
His voice was different now.
Serious.
What?
They're not here for the city.
I looked toward the temple entrance.
Then what?
A pause.
What's underneath it.
I stared into the darkness behind us.
The chamber.
The dismantled ring.
The ancient systems.
Whatever else existed farther below.
I didn't know what the Sky Raiders believed they'd find.
But they had brought a warship to get it.
That told me enough.
I drew my sword.
Water flowed along the steel.
White Thunder followed.
Around me, Class 2-S prepared.
Theon's Earth Aura spread around his boots as he raised his greatsword.
Wind twisted around Varein's spear.
Mist gathered around Kazen as he drew his bow.
Gold shimmered across Liam's longsword.
Kai's katana ignited with Fire.
Flowers bloomed beneath Arion.
Ice crawled along Aelira's rapier.
Plasma snapped across Liraeth's mace and shield.
Pink Fire burned around Seraphyne's daggers.
At my side—
White Thunder pulsed from inside Kasper's dark sheath.
Mine answered.
For hours, the Lost City had contained nothing but wind.
No birds.
No insects.
No animals.
No people.
A civilization reduced to silence.
Now engines thundered above us.
Raiders moved through the streets.
Aura flashed between the ruins.
Footsteps echoed from every direction.
And every one of them was drawing closer.
The Lost City wasn't silent anymore.