Chizzy fell with no sense of time or space—just light and shadow, memory and sensation. Then suddenly, her feet hit solid ground.
She stood in a room made of mirrors.
Each wall shimmered with images, reflections not of her body, but of her life. In one, she saw herself as a little girl hiding behind the forest shrine, clutching a worn doll. In another, her mother's eyes glistened with tears as she whispered a lullaby beneath the moon. Yet another showed Talia and her running through the river path, laughing with reckless joy.
But something was wrong.
One of the mirrors rippled like water, and from within stepped a figure that looked exactly like Chizzy—but its eyes glowed gold.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The doppelgänger tilted its head. "I'm the version of you who said yes to the darkness. The one who accepted the Hollow's offer."
Chizzy took a step back, hand tightening on the hilt of her blade.
"I exist in the choices you haven't made," the mirror-Chizzy continued. "But those choices… they're starting to collapse into one."
"Why show me this?" Chizzy asked, her voice steady despite the pounding in her chest.
"To prepare you," it said. "For what's coming. You think this is about sealing or saving. But it's bigger. It's about becoming."
A rumble shook the room, and the mirrors cracked slightly, spiderweb fractures dancing across each surface.
Then the room fell away.
Chizzy was standing in a field of fire.
The sky was black. Ash rained down like snow. Bodies—dozens—lay scattered across the field. And in the center stood the creature from the cliff, now fully emerged from the crack in the earth. Its form was ever-shifting—one moment a man, the next a beast, then a swirling storm of shadow. Talia stood before it, her body flickering like a dying flame.
"No!" Chizzy cried out, rushing forward—but her feet wouldn't move. The vision was frozen in time.
A voice whispered beside her.
"This is one future. One truth. But not the only one."
She turned to find an old woman cloaked in veils, her face lined with ageless wisdom.
"Who are you?" Chizzy asked.
"I am the Keeper of the Vale. Guardian of the Threads. I show what may come… and what must be undone."
"Is this a warning?"
The woman nodded. "Yes. The bond between you and your sister is fraying. If it breaks, the seal ruptures. But if you bind yourselves willingly… together, as one force, the seal may become a gate of your choosing."
Chizzy's mind reeled. "So we aren't just keys… we're creators?"
"Exactly."
Chizzy clenched her fists. "Then I'll make a new fate."
The vision dissolved, and the field gave way to light once more. She heard Kiran's voice echoing faintly, calling her name.
Then—she was back.
She collapsed into Kiran's arms, gasping.
"You did it," he said. "You're back."
Liora looked shaken but relieved. "What did you see?"
Chizzy stood, her voice firm and certain. "A future I won't let happen. A truth I must rewrite. We aren't just bound to the Hollow. We have the power to reshape it."
Kiran's brows furrowed. "What does that mean?"
"It means," she said, eyes glowing faintly with new purpose, "we're not sealing anything. We're going to transform it."
Thunder rumbled overhead as she turned toward the village.
The storm had begun—but so had her awakening.