Kael didn't sleep that night.
Not because of the training, or the pain still twitching in his arms — he'd grown used to that. What kept him awake was the feeling. The weight in the air. As if something enormous had blinked into existence and was now staring straight at him.
Liora had felt it too. She'd gone still during his last training rep, her golden irises narrowing. "Something's wrong," she had said, and then vanished in a flash of energy.
Now, Kael stood on the balcony of the Archive, wind tugging at his shirt. The stars above shimmered unnaturally.
"It feels like the sky's holding its breath," Aeris muttered, joining him.
"You feel it too?" Kael asked, not taking his eyes off the horizon.
"Only idiots and corpses wouldn't."
A new pulse rippled through Kael's chest. Cold. Familiar.
She's awake.
He didn't know how he knew. Just that he did.
Far Across the Lands…
Elarys stood atop the Sanctum's watchtower, arms outstretched. Her white robe fluttered, dyed silver by the moonlight. Below, the priests chanted in harmonic synchronization, binding her presence into the air itself.
She could feel him.
"So… you still breathe," she whispered. "Then the Chorus did not lie."
The wind around her shifted — not because of the weather, but because she commanded it to.
Her voice, soft and resonant, began to hum. The clouds answered.
And in the distance, Kael staggered.
Back at the Archives
Kael dropped to one knee, gasping.
"What the hell?" Darius ran to him.
"She's singing…" Kael muttered. "Not with her mouth… with her soul."
Liora returned in a blur of energy, cloak torn, blood on her cheek.
"It's begun," she said grimly. "The Sanctum's Second Vessel has awakened."
"Another like him?" Sera asked.
"No," Liora said. "She's older. Her awakening was prepared. Controlled. Which makes her twice as dangerous."
Kael stood, shaky but resolved.
"Then we stop her before she finds me first."
"You think she's coming here?" Aeris asked.
Kael looked out toward the mountains, where thunder rolled in a cloudless sky.
"No. She's calling. And part of me wants to answer."
In the Depths of the Void
A figure in black robes knelt before a circular sigil glowing deep beneath the earth.
"The Third and Second are aware of each other. The chords realign."
The room vibrated as an unseen entity responded.
"Then the First must awaken soon… or this world will be broken before its harmony is restored."