Chapter 1728

Jude gasped as the figure filled him with everything - its grief, its joy, its hunger, its desire to be known. It hadn't been trying to control them. It had been trying to be loved.

He understood now.

Why they were here.

Why they were twelve.

Why he was chosen.

He reached for the figure and found his own hand glowing.

Not golden.

But silver.

A balance.

The tree had shown them union.

The heartstone had shown them acceptance.

And now the lake showed him reflection.

A mirror of everything they were and everything they could be.

When he opened his eyes again, the lake was gone.

He was standing on soft earth, beneath a silver sky. And in front of him, twelve pillars circled around a new tree. Smaller than the first, but glowing with both golden light and silver veins.

At its base, a nest of vines.

Waiting.