"Sometimes falling isn't the end. It's where the truth begins to whisper."
The fall felt endless.
Cold wind tore at Aiden's skin, the world spinning in a blur of shattered stone and blinding light. He couldn't scream—his breath had been stolen long before his voice could catch it.
Then, suddenly, water.
A brutal impact. Darkness swallowing everything.
When he opened his eyes, it was to the sound of dripping water and his own ragged breathing. The air was damp, thick with the scent of rust and decay. A faint, eerie glow illuminated the cavern around him—green moss pulsing with an unnatural rhythm, like veins under translucent skin.
He tried to move. Pain flared across his ribs.
"Elias…"
His voice was a whisper.
He turned his head and found the man lying a few feet away, half-submerged in the shallow water, motionless.
"Elias!" Aiden crawled toward him, ignoring the pain that stabbed through his side. He shook him, desperate. "Please, wake up…"
For a terrifying moment, there was no response. Then Elias coughed, a harsh sound that made Aiden sag in relief.
"Still… alive," Elias muttered hoarsely.
Aiden let out a shaky laugh that almost turned into a sob. "You're heavy, you know that?"
Elias cracked one eye open. "You dragged me out?"
"Maybe. Or maybe we just fell together."
He helped Elias sit up, both of them shivering in the cold. The faint glow reflected off Elias's soaked clothes, making him look even paler than usual.
"Where are we?" Aiden asked.
Elias scanned the walls, the ancient carvings half-buried beneath moss. "The undercity. It used to be part of the old kingdom, centuries ago—before the Order erased it."
Aiden traced a finger along one of the carvings. It depicted figures kneeling before a blazing sun, their faces turned upward in reverence. But the sun's rays were carved in two colors—half light, half shadow.
"It's beautiful," he whispered.
"It's a warning," Elias said. "This was where Ariselle sealed the Rift. The place where her magic… died with her."
Aiden froze. The name felt heavy in the air, like a prayer and a curse at once.
He turned to Elias, searching his face. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because knowing doesn't change what's coming," Elias said quietly. "It only makes it hurt more."
The words lingered. The sound of dripping water filled the silence again.
Then Aiden noticed something else — faint whispers echoing through the cavern, just at the edge of hearing. Not human. Not wind.
"Elias… do you hear that?"
Elias frowned, rising to his feet. "Stay close to me."
The glow from the moss dimmed, flickered, then went out entirely.
For a heartbeat, they were plunged into complete darkness.
Then a voice drifted through the void — soft, familiar, and filled with sorrow.
"Why did you leave me behind?"
Aiden's blood ran cold. "That voice…"
Elias turned sharply, his expression tightening. "Don't listen to it."
But Aiden's body moved before his mind could stop it. The sound came from deeper within the tunnel, and something inside him needed to follow.
Each step echoed like a heartbeat, drawing him toward the sound. The walls began to shimmer faintly again — not from moss, but from runes carved in ancient silver.
He reached out.
And the moment his fingers brushed the wall, light exploded outward, swallowing the tunnel whole.
---
The light was blinding—warm yet sharp, like standing in the center of a storm made of memories.
Aiden's breath caught. His surroundings shifted, melting away into another world.
He was no longer in the ruins.
He stood in a grand marble hall, its ceiling stretching endlessly, banners fluttering in a wind that smelled of roses and steel. Candles floated midair, thousands of them, flickering like stars.
And before him… was her.
Ariselle.
She looked exactly as he remembered from the fragments in his dreams—tall, regal, eyes like liquid gold. She wore silver armor, the same pendant glowing faintly at her throat.
But she was not looking at him.
She was looking at someone else.
At Elias.
Not the man beside him now—but another Elias. His hair was longer, his face harder, but those eyes… those eyes were the same.
"Don't do this," Ariselle said, her voice trembling. "You can't control the Rift. It will consume you."
The older Elias smiled bitterly. "And what would you have me do? Watch the world burn while you sacrifice yourself again?"
"I'm not doing it for the world," she whispered. "I'm doing it for you."
The words echoed through Aiden's chest like a heartbeat.
He wanted to move, to scream, to warn her—but he couldn't. His body was a ghost in the past.
The vision rippled. The air cracked. The world around them began to crumble, and Ariselle turned toward him—as if she could see him through time.
Her gaze pierced straight into his soul.
"Remember who you are," she said. "And when the time comes… don't forgive him."
Then everything shattered.
Aiden gasped, stumbling backward into reality. His knees hit the damp stone floor of the cavern. The runes faded, the light gone.
Elias was beside him in an instant, grabbing his shoulders. "What did you see?"
Aiden's eyes were wide, tears glistening on his lashes. "Her. And you. But not you. She said not to forgive you."
Elias went still. His fingers tightened, almost painfully. "She saw this coming…"
Aiden stared at him. "Elias, what did you do?"
He didn't answer. His gaze had gone distant, shadowed by something dark and ancient.
The ground trembled. A low rumble shook dust from the ceiling. From the tunnel behind them, faint red light began to pulse—slowly at first, then faster, like a heartbeat.
Aiden looked toward it, dread pooling in his stomach. "What is that?"
Elias stood, drawing his weapon. "Not what. Who."
The light flared, and out of the darkness stepped a man cloaked in crimson—his face hidden, but his aura unmistakable.
Aiden's breath caught. "It can't be…"
Elias's expression hardened. "It's him."
The figure's voice was smooth, cold, and painfully familiar.
"I told you, Elias. Every time you defy the Order, you lose another piece of yourself."
Aiden stared, unable to look away.
The stranger lowered his hood.
And Aiden saw Elias's face.
---