Kael blinked against the icy wind slashing across the ridge of the mountain. Snowflakes spun like fractured time, each a frozen memory. His breath steamed as he stared out at a city made of glass, suspended in the air like a dream refusing to shatter.
He wasn't alone.
A girl stood beside him. Not Aeris, but… familiar. Her skin shimmered with stardust, her eyes echoing stars he'd never seen before. She was silent, watching him.
"You brought a fracture here," she said after a long pause, voice soft but commanding.
Kael frowned. "I don't know how I got here. I was fighting—fighting him. Null."
She tilted her head. "Null doesn't just exile. He separates. You've been split from your tether."
"My tether?"
"Aeris. Dray. Veyra. Yourself. Your soul was scattered, your memories halved. You're only half of who you were."
Kael's hand clenched. "Then how do I get back?"
The girl turned, leading him toward the floating city.
"You don't find the way. You build it. Memory by memory. Truth by truth."
As they entered the city, Kael saw himself reflected in every building's mirrored surface. In some, he was a hero. In others, a tyrant. One reflection showed him holding Aeris close, kissing her under twin moons. Another showed her turning to ash in his arms.
He stopped.
"That… didn't happen."
"Not in your timeline. But your soul remembers what could be."
The girl led him into a crystalline tower. At its center stood a forge—ancient, unlit.
"Place your grief in the flame," she instructed. "Only then can the spark be born."
Kael hesitated. Then, slowly, he reached within. He pulled free his guilt over the father he couldn't save, the allies he'd failed, the innocent lives caught in the crossfire. One by one, the shards of sorrow dropped into the cold forge.
Nothing happened.
"It's not enough," he whispered.
She nodded. "You must add the one thing you fear losing."
His mind flashed to Aeris. The way she looked at him in moments unguarded. The hint of something more than war, more than duty. A quiet future. A sunrise never seen.
He stepped forward—and dropped her name into the flame.
The forge ignited.
Golden-blue fire burst from the center, surrounding him. Kael cried out as the energy surged through his veins, reconnecting his fractured soul. Visions cascaded: Aeris alone in a ruined temple, Dray carving symbols into the walls of his prison, Veyra weeping over a broken mask.
And Null—watching.
The girl smiled, fading into light.
"You have the spark. Now go burn away the end."
Kael opened his eyes to a thunderclap.
He was falling through a tear in time.
And Aeris was waiting.