Chapter 12: The Awakening
The ruins breathed.
Not like a living thing—but like something waking up.
Stone groaned as ancient mechanisms clicked and shifted beneath the earth. Vines curled away, slithering back as if the forest itself recognized the name Elara had spoken.
Astra grabbed Elara's arm, voice sharp. "What did you just say?"
Elara barely heard her.
Her heart pounded as the world shifted.
The whispering trees. The shivering air. The feeling of something watching.
It all made sense now.
The name.
Valdris.
She didn't know where it had come from—only that it had been waiting in the depths of her mind, buried in her bones, just waiting for her to say it.
And now—
The ruins responded.
The stone path beneath her feet lit up.
Pale gold light seeped through cracks in the stone, forming intricate patterns—sigils and symbols too ancient to read.
The whispering grew louder.
Elara's breath hitched.
Something inside the ruins was stirring.
Astra pulled her back just as the earth rumbled beneath them.
"Elara, what the hell is going on?"
Elara shook her head. "I—I don't know! I just—"
The light flared.
The ruins weren't just glowing anymore.
They were reacting to her.
Elara's pulse raced. "I think… I think I did something."
Astra swore under her breath. "Yeah, no kidding."
She reached for her dagger, shifting into a defensive stance.
Elara's instincts screamed that something was coming—something big.
The ruins groaned again, and a massive stone door began to slide open, revealing nothing but pitch-black darkness beyond.
Astra tensed. "Tell me you're not planning to go in there."
Elara swallowed.
Everything in her screamed danger.
And yet…
The darkness called to her.
The whispers weren't whispers anymore.
They were a voice.
Soft. Familiar.
Calling her home.
"Elara."
Her breath caught.
Because this time, it wasn't in her head.
She had heard it.
Spoken aloud, from within the ruins.
Astra's eyes went wide. "Did you—"
Elara nodded.
Astra exhaled sharply. "Okay. That's officially the creepiest thing that's happened so far."
Elara took a shaky step forward.
The air buzzed.
Something waited in the dark.
Something that knew her.
Astra grabbed her wrist. "Elara, wait—"
Too late.
The moment Elara stepped over the threshold—
The darkness swallowed her whole.
Elara wasn't falling.
She was floating.
The darkness wasn't empty—it was thick, pulsing with unseen energy.
She felt weightless, like she had stepped between worlds.
Then—
A figure appeared.
Not shadowed. Not blurred.
But clear.
And Elara's heart nearly stopped.
Because she knew that face.
Knew those eyes.
"…Mom?"
Outside the ruins, Astra cursed as Elara vanished into thin air.
The stone door slammed shut.
The forest went silent.
Astra took a deep breath.
"Well. That's not good."