The air split open with light.
It wasn't like fire or lightning. It felt alive, as if it were breathing through the cracks in the world. The walls of the temple shuddered as though they could sense it too. For one brief heartbeat, Leira saw something beyond them: a sky made of silver mist, mountains hanging upside down, and rivers that glowed like molten glass.
Then it vanished.
The light dimmed, leaving behind only silence and the trembling stone beneath her palms.
Leira stayed on the cold floor, her fingers numb and her heartbeat pounding in her ears. "What just happened?"
Kael didn't answer right away. He stood near the altar, eyes locked on the air above it where faint ripples of gold still shimmered. His knuckles were white around the hilt of his blade.
"The veil responded," he said finally, his voice quiet. "You didn't just touch it this time, you tore through it."
Leira looked up at him, confusion flickering into dread. "Can it be fixed?"
Kael didn't meet her eyes. "Not until you remember what you chose to forget."
Her hand went to her chest, instinctively searching for something that wasn't there. "My name."
He nodded. "The seal's unraveling. The veil is trying to protect itself, and you're the center of it."
She could hear the weight in his tone. He wasn't explaining anymore, he was warning her.
"Then help me remember," she said, her voice trembling but steady.
Kael hesitated. For the first time since she met him, he looked unsure. "If I do that, you'll see everything. What they did to you. What you did to them. The truth doesn't come clean, Leira, it cuts."
She swallowed, her throat burning. "I'd rather bleed than stay blind."
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The only sound was the low hum of the altar and the faint whispering coming from the cracks in the air.
Then Kael lifted his hand. The space above the altar rippled, folding inward like glass bending under heat. The light gathered into a single golden thread that coiled into a mirror; smooth, perfect, alive.
"Look," he whispered.
Inside the mirror, shapes began to form. Faint at first, then clear enough to steal her breath.
It was her.
A woman with her face, but not her eyes. These ones burned like fire trapped in glass. She stood on the edge of a cliff, surrounded by a thousand flickering lights, souls, drifting like embers in an endless dark.
And beside her stood Kael.
Only… not quite him. His skin shimmered faintly, his aura calm but heavy, ancient. His eyes were softer, full of something Leira couldn't name.
The memory unfolded without sound.
She saw her other self turn toward him, lips moving. The wind carried no voice, but Kael beside her whispered the words, as if remembering them from his own tongue.
"You don't have to do this," he murmured, repeating the past.
In the mirror, the other Leira smiled, sad and beautiful.
"If I don't," she said, "they'll erase us both."
"They'll erase the world," Kael's reflection said.
Her reflection reached up and touched his face, her eyes glowing brighter.
"Then let it burn," she whispered. "As long as I remember you."
The mirror shattered.
A sharp sound split the air, and golden dust scattered like falling stars. Leira stumbled backward, breath ragged, her hands trembling.
"That was me," she whispered. "That was real."
Kael's voice was low, almost broken. "The night the war began. The night you broke the law that held both worlds apart."
Tears welled in her eyes. "I was willing to destroy everything for you."
He didn't deny it. "And I let you."
The ground rumbled beneath them, a slow, deep sound that grew until the floor cracked. Lines of light crawled across the stone like veins. The air thickened, humming with pressure.
"Kael," she said softly, fear lacing her voice.
He looked toward the altar, its symbols were burning now, too bright to look at. "The veil's reacting to the memory. You pulled too much at once."
"I didn't mean to…"
"I know," he cut in. "But it doesn't matter. It's defending itself."
The hum grew louder, the air tightening like a held breath. Loose shards of stone began to lift off the floor, drawn toward the rippling space above the altar. The temple wasn't just shaking anymore, it was folding in on itself.
Kael reached for her hand. "We have to go. Now."
Leira hesitated, staring at the golden dust still drifting from the broken mirror. "If I leave, what happens to it?"
He pulled her closer. "If you stay, it'll take you with it."
A sharp crack split through the center of the hall. The walls began to bend inward, stone twisting like it was made of cloth. Through the fractures in the air, Leira could see flashes of another world; dark skies, burning trees, rivers of light spilling into shadow.
Two worlds bleeding into each other.
Her memory. His warning. Everything he said was happening.
"Kael!" she screamed as the floor gave way beneath her feet.
He held onto her arm, his grip burning against her skin. "Hold on to me! Don't let go!"
But the pull was too strong. The light surged upward, swallowing the temple, tearing stone and air apart.
Leira's body felt weightless, her vision filled with blinding gold. For a heartbeat, she could see everything; the temple breaking, Kael's face strained with pain, the veil stretching between them like a torn thread.
"Leira!" he shouted her name, holding her arm as tight as he could.
But the light's pull was stronger than his will. Like a vacuum, she was sucked into the light.
Everything went silent.
No ground. No sound. Just endless light and cold air pressing against her skin. She floated between two skies, one dark and endless, the other burning and alive.
Somewhere far below, she thought she heard Kael's voice echo again, softer now, fading into the distance.
Then there was only silence.