The void was alive.
It pressed against Kael's skin like static, breathing in time with his pulse. Survivors huddled in the dark, their faces gaunt under the faint glow of Mara's dagger. The blade's edge illuminated jagged runes etched into Kael's arms—timelines, branching and collapsing like fractured roots.
"It's reading you," Mara muttered, her tone caught between awe and disgust. "The void wants a guardian. It's… auditioning."
Young Lira's shadow pooled at her feet, stretching toward the abyss. "Can you hear it?" it whispered, her voice no longer her own. "It's lonely. Hungry."
Kael recoiled. "Lira—?"
Her head snapped up, eyes hollow. "Not Lira. Not anymore."
The void shuddered. Shapes emerged—phantom trees, a spectral river, a cottage Kael didn't recognize but ached for. The survivors gasped as memories not their own flooded the space: a child's laughter, a mother's lullaby, the smell of Gideon's lab.
"It's reconstructing itself," Mara said. "Using her." She pointed to Young Lira, now levitating, her shadow merging with the dark.
Kael grabbed Mara's wrist. "How do we stop it?"
She smiled, cold and resolute. "We don't. We use it."
Mara's dagger sliced Kael's palm, his blood splattering the void's floor. The timelines on his arms writhed, gold and crimson, as the void inhaled.
"Blood of the guardian," Young Lira's shadow intoned. "Key to the lock."
The cottage solidified. Not a memory—Gideon's origin lab, preserved in the void. Inside, a crib held a squalling infant: Older Kael, swaddled in a blanket stitched with roses.
"What is this?" Kael breathed.
"A bargaining chip." Mara stepped toward the crib. "The void craves a guardian. Give it your brother… and it frees the rest."
Young Lira's shadow laughed, tendrils coiling around the lab. "You think it wants him? It wants you, thief. But she'll settle for a substitute."
The survivors erupted.
"Do it!" one cried. "Trade the bastard!"
"He's a monster!" another shouted.
Kael backed away, but the void thickened around him. Mara's blade pressed to his throat. "You owe him this. You owe me."
Young Lira's body twitched, her voice splintering. "Kael… don't—"
The shadow silenced her with a tendril. "Sacrifice the guardian. Let the cycle begin anew."
Kael stared at the infant, its cries echoing Gideon's whispers. "You'll become me… because of her."
He reached for the crib.