Chapter Eight: A New Dawn

The sky stretched vast and endless above them, painted in the soft hues of morning. Elara had never truly noticed it before—not like this. In all her lifetimes, she had been too caught in the web of fate to appreciate the simple beauty of a dawn that belonged to no prophecy, no cycle. Just a beginning.

Kael walked beside her in silence, his presence steady, grounding. The road ahead was uncertain, but for the first time, it was not a path already written. It was theirs to forge.

They moved beyond the ruins, past the crumbling stones that had once defined her existence. Each step felt lighter, freer.

Then, in the distance, a village came into view. Smoke curled from chimneys, the scent of fresh bread and damp earth carried on the breeze. A simple place, untouched by the weight of ancient magic or the echoes of past lives.

Elara glanced at Kael. "A new life," she murmured.

He nodded. "If we choose it."

For the first time in countless lifetimes, choice was truly hers. And as they took that final step out of the shadows of the past, Elara knew—this was not an ending.

It was the beginning of something entirely new.