Sera's POV
We run down the mountain as hundreds of Forsaken chase us, their screams echoing off the rocks.
How do we fight them? Cassian shouts, helping me over a fallen boulder.
You don't! Nyx yells back. They were caught between life and death for centuries. They're not fully alive anymore. Normal weapons won't work!
A Forsaken catches up to one of our group a young man named Marcus. Its twisted hands grab his ankle. He falls, screaming, and then... changes. His skin turns gray. His eyes go empty. He stands up and joins the Forsaken chasing us.
They're converting people! Lyra gasps in horror. Touch them and you become one of them!
We run faster, but we're exhausted from the temple battle. People are falling behind. The Forsaken are gaining.
My father still weak from his arrow wound stumbles. A Forsaken lunges at him.
Kael throws himself between them, sword raised. The blade passes right through the creature without leaving a mark.
Physical weapons don't work! Kael confirms desperately.
The Forsaken reaches for my father's face
I throw out my hand and silver light shoots from my palm, hitting the creature. It shrieks and dissolves into ash.
My power works! I shout. Everyone get behind me!
They form a protective circle with me in the center. I blast Forsaken after Forsaken, turning them to ash. But there are too many. For every one I destroy, three more appear.
And I'm getting tired. My power is fading fast.
We need shelter! Cassian says. Somewhere defensible!
There! Nyx points to a cave entrance halfway down the mountain. That leads to the old mining tunnels. We can lose them in there!
We sprint for the cave. Forsaken grab at us, but I keep blasting them away. We make it inside with maybe thirty people left half of what we started with.
Kael and Cassian roll a massive boulder in front of the entrance, sealing us in. The Forsaken slam against it, but the stone holds.
For now.
We collapse in the darkness, gasping for breath. Someone creates a small fire for light.
What were those things? Mira asks, her voice shaking.
The price of freedom, the mysterious woman says.
I'd forgotten about her. She stepped through the colourful doorway at the temple and has been following us silently. Now she sits by our fire, looking completely calm while everyone else is terrified.
Who are you? I demand.
I am called the Witness. I observe the great turnings of fate when universes shift from order to chaos, or chaos to order. She looks at me with eyes that seem to see through everything. You created a great turning, Sera Luminhart. The gods enslaved the universe with predetermined fate. You freed it. But freedom without guidance becomes chaos. And from chaos, dark things emerge.
The Forsaken, I say.
She nods. Those caught between fate and free will. Neither fully controlled nor fully free. Your act of liberation released them from their frozen state, but centuries of suffering twisted them into something monstrous. They want revenge on the living. And they can only be stopped by the same power that freed them yours.
I can't fight hundreds of them, I say desperately. I'm not strong enough.
Not yet. The Witness stands. But you could be. The divine power you used at the temple you gave most of it back to the universe. But a seed remains inside you. You could nurture it. Grow it. Become powerful enough to protect this new free world.
By becoming a god? I shake my head. I refused that once.
Not a god. Something different. A Guardian. One who protects free will rather than controlling it. She extends her hand. I can teach you. But the training will be dangerous. Many who attempt it die.
I look around at the exhausted, terrified faces of the people who followed me. At my father, wounded but alive. At Kael, healed but haunted. At Lyra, trying to be brave. At Cassian, watching me with love and worry.
If I do this training, I ask slowly, how long will it take?
Time works differently where I would take you. For you, perhaps a month. For them she gestures at my companions, a single night.
You'd take her alone? Cassian steps forward. No. I won't let you.
It's not your choice, I say gently, touching his face. It's mine.
His jaw clenches. Then I'm coming with you.
The training is for one person only, the Witness says. Anyone else would die in the first hour.
Sera, please. Cassian grabs my hands. We just got you back. Don't leave.
I'm not leaving. I'm preparing to protect you. I kiss him softly. One night for you. Then I come back stronger, and we stop these things together.
He wants to argue more, but he sees the determination in my eyes. Finally, he nods and steps back.
Kael approaches next. Come back to us.
I will.
Lyra hugs me tight. You better keep that promise.
Even my father speaks up, tears in his eyes. I'm proud of you. Your mother would be too.
The Witness opens another door way this one swirling with silver light. Are you ready?
I take a deep breath and step toward the portal.
Then Nyx grabs my arm.
Wait, he says urgently. There's something you need to know about the Forsaken. Something the Witness isn't telling you.
The Witness's expression doesn't change, but something flickers in her ancient eyes.
What? I ask.
The Forsaken aren't just random victims of prophecy. They're specific people who were close to breaking free on their own, who almost achieved what you did. The gods caught them and trapped them as warnings. His grip on my arm tightens. And their leader, the first Forsaken, is someone you know.
Ice floods my veins. Who?
Your mother.
The words hit me like a physical blow. That's impossible. My mother died when I was three.
Your mother tried to break her prophecy twenty-three years ago, Nyx says. She tried to prove a child could be born without a destiny. The gods punished her by turning her into the first Forsaken and erasing everyone's memory of what she did. Only I remember because I was there. I was the one sent to stop her.
I can't breathe. My mother. Alive. Transformed into a monster.
Why didn't you tell me? I whisper.
Because I wasn't sure she still existed. But when I saw the Forsaken, I recognized her leading them. His silver eyes are full of pain. Sera, your mother has been suffering for two decades, conscious but trapped, watching her body do terrible things. If you're going to fight the Forsaken, you need to know their leader is your own mother.
The Witness watches this revelation with that same calm expression. He speaks truth. Your final test will be facing her. Can you destroy your own mother to save the world? Or will love make you weak?
That's not a test, I say, my voice shaking. That's torture.
Freedom comes with impossible choices, the Witness says. This is yours.
I look back at Cassian, at everyone watching me. They don't know what I've just learned. They don't know what I'll have to face.
But I know.
And I step through the portal anyway.
The last thing I see before the doorway closes is Cassian's face, mouthing the words: I love you.
Then I'm falling through silver light, toward a month of training and a choice I don't know if I can make.
Behind me, in the cave, the boulder sealing the entrance begins to crack.
The Forsaken have found another way in.
And leading them, with gray skin and empty eyes but a face I recognize from old paintings, is my mother.
She looks directly at where I disappeared and speaks in a voice that's not quite human anymore:
My daughter. Finally. After twenty-three years, I can finish what I started. I can make you Forsaken too. And together, we'll burn this world that trapped us.
She places both hands on the boulder and pushes.
It shatters.
The Forsaken pour into the cave where my friends are trapped, exhausted, and defenceless.
And I'm not there to save them.