Auryn collapsed to her knees, smoke rising from the half-formed burn on her neck. Her voice split the silence.
“You will not take my soul from me!”
The attackers came again. Two, three, four.
She rose.
Not graceful.
Feral.
Veil-light bled from her hands, raw and uncontrolled.
A shield blazed into being—then shattered outward, force crushing the first Reskala into the wall until he ceased to be.
They screamed.
They burned.
Bone cracked under her will, armor melted into flesh.
Auryn’s voice split into many, chanting spells older than the walls themselves. Glyphs fell from her tongue, igniting midair, spiraling into storms.
The doors exploded. A surge of smoke and broken stone—and through it stepped the Resh’Agar. His chest heaved, every breath spilling blue mist. Runes blazed white-blue down his armor and bare arms, flickering with symbols not meant for mortal flesh. His eyes glowed—hollow, storm-filled, burning with a will not his own. He staggered forward into the wreckage, voice thick, distorted, carried on the Silari’s breath.
“S H E… cries …”
Auryn’s storm faltered—just a heartbeat. Her golden eyes widened. The Bond convulsed between them, answering, sparking, pulling the two fractures closer.
The chamber howled as their storms met. Gold fire collided with azure mist. White walls warped, cracked, melted under the force. The altar split down the middle.
Reskala screamed as the air itself turned against them, as if the Tribunal had been hurled into the heart of a star.
And in the wreckage, the two of them saw each other.
Auryn—hovering, burning, eyes all gold.
The Resh’Agar—walking ruin, eyes blue storm light, every word slurred by the Silari.
The Bond roared.
The storms merged.
And the world broke open.
The portal flared. Lu’ma stumbled through—bleeding, braid undone, eyes wild with terror. She fell to her knees in the ruin, her hands clawing forward as though she could drag Auryn back with her bare fingers. The storm tore around her, shredding stone, splintering light—but she did not stop.
And then the magic ripped away something else.
A seal in the choker on her neck.
A silence that had bound her since birth.
Her mouth opened.
“YOUR RADIANCE!"
Thesound cracked the chamber.
