Kael's voice echoed in the dark, empty room. He had shouted a warning. But it was already too late.
Aria's chest suddenly burned. The strange mark there glowed bright, hot. Something inside her looked to be alive and trying to get out.
Her dagger—the Veilstone dagger—fell sharply from her fingers as she gasped and her knees struck the cold stone floor.
Kael rushed toward her. However, the gap between them opened before he could get to her, and a crimson crack blazed through the air, twisting like a serpent of fire. A terrible noise followed—a scream. But it didn't come from a person. It came from the air itself.
Kael cursed under his breath. "Aria—don't—"
But like a beast, the mark on her chest screamed.
It wasn't just fire that came out of her. It felt like memories. Like hunger. Something wild and ancient.
Red magic erupted from her chest. Kael flew like a puppet with its strings severed as it crashed into him. With a loud bang, he struck the wall.
Then the room began to change.
The floor turned soft for a moment, like liquid. Then it hardened again into sharp, uneven rocks. Red light spread from the cracks, glowing like living fire. The ceiling dripped darkness, thick and heavy.
Aria screamed.
She couldn't control her body anymore.
Something—the Veil—was moving inside her. It wasn't just magic. It was alive. It rushed like wildfire into her veins.
Suddenly, visions filled her mind. But they weren't hers. A field on fire. A little girl holding a sword too big for her. A voice whispering, "Your blood was promised."
Her hands burst into purple flames.
Then everything froze.
Kael stood up slowly. Blood ran down the side of his head. He looked at Aria like she was a stranger.
And then—he cried out.
Grumbling in pain, he dropped to his knees.
"Kael?" Aria whispered, terrified.
He didn't answer. His hand went to his chest—not his heart, but lower, right in the center of his ribs.
Suddenly, his shirt burned away. Red energy shot out from his skin, destroying the cloth in seconds.
Then a mark appeared.
It wasn't a cut. It wasn't bleeding.
It was a glowing shape—like a flame. Twisting. Burning. Deep in his skin.
He wasn't bleeding.
He was burning.
Aria crawled to him, her heart pounding.
Everything around them had gone quiet. However, the bright symbol on Kael's breast continued to scream silently.
"Did I do that?" she asked, her voice shaking.
Kael tightened his jaw. "You… touched the Veil. And now it's touching back."
The mark pulsed again.
Kael screamed.
From the center of his chest, a line of red light shot out. It struck Aria right in her heart.
Both of them collapsed.
Kael didn't scream anymore.
The fire was inside him now. Not outside. Not visible. It was burning in his soul.
No blood. No wounds. Just a deep, slow-burning heat in the shape of a dying star.
Aria dropped beside him. Not daring to touch, her hands hovered over his chest. He was radiating an intolerable amount of heat.
"Kael. Look at me," she said softly.
His eyes opened. They were unfocused, lost.
Then the mark pulsed again.
And a voice came from it.
It wasn't Kael's voice. It wasn't Aria's.
It was someone—or something—else.
"You opened the gate…"
Aria froze. The words weren't spoken out loud. They were in the air, like the room itself was speaking.
Kael grabbed her wrist. His grip was strong, too strong.
"Don't listen. Don't trust it."
But the voice kept going. Cold. Calm.
"The Veil is thin. She cracked it. The blood remembers. The fire returns."
Aria's heart raced. She knew now—this wasn't just a curse.
It wasn't just magic.
It was alive.
Veilborn.
Aria's hands were shaking. Her chest still hurt where the red light had hit her. But that didn't matter.
Because now she understood.
This thing inside Kael—and maybe inside her too—wasn't just some ancient curse. It had a voice. It had a mind. And it was speaking through Kael like he was just a door left open.
"How do I stop it?" Aria asked. Her voice cracked from fear and pain.
"You don't," said the voice. It was clear. Cold. Powerful. "You either carry it... or burn with it."
Kael squeezed her wrist harder. "Run… Aria… it's inside me."
But Aria shook her head. Her fear boiled into anger. Her voice was firm. "I'm done running. You stayed for me. I stay for you."
The light from Kael's chest flared again, suddenly brighter—blinding.
A wave of heat and force exploded out of him.
Trees outside the chamber snapped like twigs. Ash flew into the air. Even time felt like it slowed down. Aria's thoughts stretched, like echoes in a deep cave.
She was no longer in the chamber.
She stood in a burned field.
Blackened soil stretched out around her. Smoke filled the sky. Shadows moved among the dead. Not people—warriors. Veilborn.
They wore dark cloaks. They stepped over bodies without pause.
Then one of them turned.
It was Kael.
But not as he was now.
This Kael was older. Harder. His eyes were sharp and cold. He was brandishing a red flame sword. Like she wasn't even there, he glanced straight through her.
"This is what you awaken," he said. "This is the path. Blood, ash, and betrayal."
Aria stepped back, shaking her head. "No. That's not us. That's not our fate."
Kael's older self turned away from her.
Then someone else appeared behind him.
A woman.
She glowed with fire and light. Her face was hidden in a hood, but her presence was powerful—like a star walking in human form.
Her voice was soft but strong. "Then change it, child of the mark. But remember… the fire never forgets."
The vision shattered.
With a cry, Aria collapsed to her knees.
She had returned to the woods.
Kael lay beside her, coughing. The mark on his chest now glowed dimly, like dying coals. But he was alive.
She grabbed his shoulders. "Kael! You're with me?"
He opened his eyes slowly and nodded. "Barely. What… was that?"
Aria wiped sweat from her brow. "A warning. Or a future. Maybe a lie. I am not sure.
The earth underneath them trembled abruptly.
They looked ahead.
The earth had split open.
The same crimson heat that radiated from Kael's chest pulsed like a great heartbeat, illuminating a deep crack.
A wound in the world itself.
Kael groaned as he stood up. "We have to go in."
Aria stared at him. "Into that?"
He nodded. "It's calling us. And whatever it is… it started with you."
Aria looked at her hands. The skin was still marked, glowing faintly from the Veilfire she had released. She looked down at Kael's chest, where the mark, which resembled a flame with eyes, was still flickering dimly.
Her fists were clinched.
"Then we answer it."
Together, they stepped into the fire-lit crack in the earth.
The ground stopped shaking—not because the danger was gone, but because the world had opened up and let them fall.
They landed hard on sharp, black stone. The surface was like glass but jagged, slicing at their clothes and skin. They rolled down a slope of obsidian rock, coughing, bruised, and scraped.
Everything around them was dark—black and red, alive and strange. The walls of the cave they'd fallen into moved slowly, like they were breathing.
Kael groaned. He covered his chest again. The wound still burned, and now, glowing patterns—symbols—started appearing on his skin. They looked like runes drawn in fire.
Not human marks.
Not natural.
Not from this world.
Aria crawled to him. "Kael?"
He opened one eye. It flickered red for a moment before fading.
"Where… are we?" he asked.
Aria looked around, heart pounding. The walls glowed with moving shapes—faces, whispers, fire. They hadn't landed in a cave.
They had fallen through the Veil.
Aria tried to stand, but her legs shook. Everything around them was strange and alive. The cave wasn't like anything she'd ever seen. The walls pulsed with red light, and if she looked too long, she could see moving shapes inside them—shadows that seemed to whisper without speaking.
Kael groaned beside her, trying to sit up. He held his chest. The glowing mark on him hadn't faded. In fact, it seemed to burn hotter now. His skin shimmered with fiery lines—runes—glowing just under the surface. His whole body looked marked by something ancient.
"Kael," Aria said, crawling to him. Her voice was tight with worry.
He opened one eye, but it wasn't fully his. A streak of crimson light ran through it before fading. "Where… are we?"
She looked around again. They were in a deep cavern, but it didn't feel like a place made by nature or people. It felt like something had torn it open with force. Gleaming veins of fire raced through the obsidian-dark rock walls, creating dynamic patterns that shifted with her blink.
"I think…" Aria started, but she didn't finish.
She didn't know what to say.
But something else did.
A whisper brushed against her ear. It was her own voice—but not. Like her voice had split into something more.
"You are in the Root," it said.
She spun around. No one was there.
Still, she felt something. Pressure. Breath. Like someone was standing too close.
Kael struggled to his feet, resting on the wall. He spoke slowly, "This location... it's not part of our reality." "We've fallen through the Veil."
"The Veil?" Aria asked. She had always heard of it—stories, warnings, fear. But never like this.
Kael nodded. "People fear it for a reason. It's not just a border between magic and life. It's alive. And it reacts when it's touched."
His fingers found hers. His touch grounded her.
"It responded to you," he said quietly.
Aria looked away. "I didn't intend to. This is not what I wanted."
Kael shook his head. "You didn't choose it. But now… it's choosing you."
The cavern was silent.
There was only the faint crackle of invisible flame, and under that, a deep beating from far down, like a heartbeat.
Then the ground trembled.
A path opened before them. A narrow bridge made of black stone stretched into the darkness. Beneath it swirled red and gold light—not sunlight. Not fire.
Veilfire.
The same strange energy Aria had released. The same power that burned Kael from the inside out.
Kael's voice was tight. "We have to move. If we stay here, it'll destroy us."
Aria nodded. Every part of her body hurt, but she helped Kael stand. Together, they stepped onto the bridge.
Instantly, the air changed. It grew thick, heavy, like it was made of memory. As they walked, whispers rose around them—soft and familiar.
Voices from her past.
Her mother singing.
A teacher scolding her.
Kael's laughter from a long-ago day.
But then the voices twisted. They became harsh, cruel. They laughed in wrong ways. They spoke lies, then truths that hurt.
Aria grabbed her head. "Make it stop—"
Kael's jaw tightened. "It's the Veil. It's testing you. Trying to see what you'll give up."
The bridge got thinner. Flames licked at their heels. Shadows rose from below, reaching up with dark fingers. They didn't touch—but they watched. They felt.
Then they weren't alone anymore.
Three shapes stood ahead of them.
Three versions of Aria.
The first was covered in fire. Her eyes were cold. She looked powerful—and cruel.
The second was dressed in black, like for mourning. Her hands were covered in blood. She wept.
The third was still. Quiet. Empty. She had no face—but the Mark glowed on her forehead.
Each one blocked the path.
Each one looked like Aria.
Kael stepped back. "Are they real?"
"No," Aria said. "But… they're me."
The first one lifted her hand. Fire danced in her palm. "Power is yours. All you have to do… is take it."
The second one knelt. Tears ran down her face. "They'll all die because of you. Everyone you love."
The third one said nothing.
Just waited.
Aria's hands trembled.
Kael leaned close. "Whatever this is… it's your choice."
"I don't even know what I'm choosing," she said, tears in her eyes.
Kael looked at her gently. "You're choosing what you become."
Aria stood frozen.
Three versions of herself stood in her path.
One burned with power. Her eyes glowed with fire. Her smile was sharp, dangerous.
One wept in sorrow. She looked broken. Her hands were red with blood that would never wash off.
And one stood still—empty, silent. No face. It was merely a flame-like mark on her forehead.
Aria's heart was racing in her chest. Her mind was racing, and her legs were weak. They weren't merely delusions.
They were parts of her.
Kael stood close behind her. She sensed his steady, powerful presence even though he didn't touch her. "You have to choose," he repeated.
"I don't understand what I'm choosing," Aria whispered.
Kael's voice was quiet but full of emotion. "You're choosing what you want to be. What the Veil will make of you."
The first version of Aria stepped forward. Her eyes glowed like hot coals.
"You could be powerful," she said. Her voice was warm and cruel at once. "Don't you already sense it? The strength in your blood. The fire. Take it. Own it. Burn the world before it burns you."
The second Aria dropped to her knees, sobbing.
"You'll only bring death," she cried. "You already have. Kael is burning. The others will fall too. You'll never be free of it. The Veil eats everything."
The third Aria said nothing.
She just stood.
Waiting.
The silence around her was louder than the others' voices.
Aria turned to Kael. "How can I tell what's right?"
Kael's eyes were tired. "I don't know. I really don't. But I know who you are. And I know you won't run."
Aria took a breath.
She looked at the burning version of herself.
Then the crying one.
Then the silent one.
She walked forward.
Past the flames.
Past the pain.
To the quiet, faceless self.
The one that said nothing. The one that waited.
She reached out.
Her fingers touched the copy's chest—right where the Mark glowed.
And then—
—everything exploded.
Veilfire rushed into her.
Pain shot through her veins like lightning.
She saw visions:
Kael, hanging over a dark chasm.
A woman—her mother?—screaming her name.
A crown made of thorns.
A blade glowing with memory.
Aria screamed.
But she didn't let go.
The silent figure burst apart in a flash of light.
From its chest, something rose.
A Mark.
Not burned.
Not cursed.
Whole.
It floated toward Aria.
And fused into her palm.
She gasped. Her knees buckled. But she didn't fall.
The cave around her roared like a living beast.
Behind her, Kael cried out and dropped.
Aria spun and caught him.
He had passed out again.
His body burned with a soft glow—but it didn't seem to hurt him now.
Ahead of them, a new doorway appeared.
It was round.
Made not of stone, but of living light.
Like the Veil itself had opened a door.
Aria stood slowly, lifting Kael with her. Her arms shook with effort.
But she didn't hesitate.
She stepped forward.
Through the doorway.
Into the light.
The fire didn't burn her.
It welcomed her.