The door creaked open without a sound. What lay beyond wasn't another hallway, but an open sky.
Kael and Selene stepped into a vast, twilight garden.
Vines grew from the heavens. Trees stretched sideways, defying gravity. Flowers bloomed in midair, their petals shifting through colors Kael had no name for. A soft wind whispered in a voice that sounded almost human—like it was remembering things long forgotten.
"What is this place?" Selene asked.
Kael's breath caught in his throat. The air was thick with magic—heavy and slow, as if time itself was reluctant to pass here.
Then he saw it. In the center of the floating garden, rooted in a bed of silver grass, stood a towering tree with black leaves. From its branches hung hourglasses, hundreds of them. Each one ticked at a different pace—some in reverse, some frozen, some bleeding sand like tears.
"The Tree of Moments," Kael whispered. He didn't know how he knew. He just did.
Selene stepped closer to one of the hourglasses. "They're all lives. Memories. Futures."
Kael's mark pulsed again.
A voice echoed—not spoken, but remembered.
"All who touch the Thorn must pay. But one may reclaim what was lost, if they are willing to lose even more."
Before either of them could react, one of the hourglasses shattered.
Time rippled.
Suddenly, Kael saw dozens of versions of himself. One weeping beside a grave. One holding Selene's lifeless body. One wearing the mask from the shrine. They flickered like ghosts, each a different path, each a different failure.
Selene grabbed his hand. "Don't let it pull you in."
Kael nodded, grounding himself in her voice.
He looked at the largest hourglass—one that had his name carved into it. It was nearly empty.
"If I touch it…" Kael muttered.
"You might lose yourself," Selene warned.
Kael hesitated… then stepped forward.
He placed his hand on the glass.
A storm of visions crashed into him—lives he never lived, pain he never felt, joy he never earned. Each one begged him to make it real.
He screamed.
Selene held him tighter. "Come back. Please."
Kael opened his eyes. The hourglass was gone. In its place… was a seed. Small. Ordinary. But pulsing with heat.
Selene looked at it. "That's not a memory. That's a choice."
Kael nodded, placing the seed in his pocket.
The garden faded around them.