Seraphine raises her hand.

Words aren’t enough. Let me show you.

The chamber dissolves. You’re somewhere else. Somewhen else.

The founding celebration. You recognize it from the Prologue, but now you see it from outside—as an observer, not through Varek’s eyes.

The four founders stand before the newly raised gem. Seraphine, Aldric, Thornwen, Varek. The crowd cheers. The city gleams with new-built hope.

We believed we were creating something eternal, Seraphine’s voice narrates. A city protected by the gem’s light. A legacy that would last forever.

The vision shifts.

A private chamber. Seraphine bent over ancient texts, her face pale with horror. Aldric beside her, his expression twisting from disbelief to fear.

I discovered the truth. The gem required four souls to anchor its power. We all knew that—we’d agreed to bind ourselves to it, give a fragment of our essence to protect the city.

But Varek never intended to give a fragment.

He intended to take everything.

The vision shifts again.

Varek in shadow. His smile wrong. His eyes empty. Speaking words of power that twist and corrupt.

The Binding of Souls. A ritual he learned from something old. Something that existed before humans, before light, before hope. He would murder us, trap our souls in the gem, and feed on our essence forever.

Thornwen’s death. The blade. The vines. The sad smile.

Thornwen knew. I told her. She chose to face it anyway.

Aldric’s death. The golden halls. The pleading. The betrayal of a man who thought silence would save him.

Aldric knew too. He tried to bargain. He thought his complicity would be rewarded.

Seraphine’s death. The library. The hidden prophecy. The final words to the gem.

I knew longest of all. I had time to prepare. I couldn’t stop him—he was already too powerful. But I could plant a seed. A hope for the future.

You.

The vision snaps back to the present.

You’re on your knees, tears streaming down your face. You don’t know when you started crying.

I’m sorry, Seraphine says. I’m sorry you had to see that. But you needed to understand.

“Why me?” Your voice is raw. “Why not someone else? Someone stronger, someone who knew what they were doing?”

Because you’re not just someone else. Her translucent hand reaches toward you, almost touching. You’re the gem’s response to Varek’s corruption. When he bound us, when he twisted the crystal’s purpose, some part of it fought back. It couldn’t stop him directly. So it did something else.

It created you.