THE SHADOW THAT KNOWS
A chill settled in the air.
The figure's words—"You don't"—hung like a death sentence, suffocating the space between them.
Seraphine clenched her fists. She wanted to refute it, to deny the implication, but the vision still burned in her mind. She had been there. She had seen the ruin. The seal's destruction. The fall of something ancient.
Caius moved closer, stepping between her and the figure. His voice was razor-sharp. "Then what was the point of all this? Why let her see?"
The entity tilted its head, the movement eerily slow. Watching. Measuring.
Then, in a voice that was neither cruel nor kind, it answered:
"Because the past does not end. It only waits."
Seraphine's heart slammed against her ribs.
The figure took a step forward, and Caius raised his sword.
It laughed—a soundless thing, more felt than heard.
"You are brave, little knight," the entity mused. "Bravery will not save her."
Caius didn't lower his blade. "Try me."
The air shivered.
Then the entity turned back to Seraphine. Its gaze—those burning white eyes—pinned her in place.
"Do you know why the past seeks you, child of the fallen star?"
Seraphine's lips parted. "Fallen star?"
A low hum filled the chamber. The shadows rippled, dancing like smoke caught in an unseen wind.
"Because you are the one who broke it."
Seraphine froze.
Caius reacted first. "That's impossible."
But the entity ignored him. It moved closer, until it loomed just before Seraphine, whispering like the wind through a crypt.
"You shattered the world once. And you will do it again."
---
The Name That Should Not Be Spoken
Seraphine's mind spun. No.
She refused to believe it.
But deep inside, something cracked.
A buried part of her, long chained, long denied—shifted.
"I—" She swallowed. "I don't remember."
The entity's hollow gaze bore into her.
"You do. You have simply forgotten your own name."
A sudden, sharp pain lanced through her skull.
A name whispered through her mind, distant, familiar, wrong.
Something older than Seraphine.
Something that should have stayed buried.
She stumbled back, shaking her head. "No."
Caius caught her, steadying her with a firm grip. "Enough." His voice was low, lethal. "She is not yours."
The entity smiled.
"Is she not?"
For a fraction of a second, the shadows shifted.
Seraphine saw something else—someone else.
A woman cloaked in black, standing atop a ruined city, silver fire in her eyes.
And at her feet—
A world turned to ash.
Then it was gone.
Seraphine gasped, feeling as though something had been ripped out of her.
The entity chuckled. "She will remember. And when she does…"
It lifted a skeletal hand, pointing to the darkness beyond the hall.
"… The gate will open."
A distant rumble shook the walls.
Something was waking.
Something was coming.
Caius didn't wait. He pulled Seraphine forward. "We're leaving."
The entity did not stop them.
But as they ran, its final words clung to her mind like a curse:
"We will meet again, daughter of ruin."
---
A Kingdom That Forgets
The sky above the ruins had darkened by the time they emerged.
Seraphine was shaking. Whether from the cold or the words still ringing in her mind, she didn't know.
Caius didn't let go of her wrist. "Don't listen to it."
She exhaled sharply. "You heard what it said."
"I did." He turned to face her, jaw tight. "And I don't care."
Seraphine's stomach twisted. "Caius, what if it's right? What if—"
His hands closed around her shoulders, firm but not unkind. "You are not what it wants you to believe."
She searched his gaze, finding something steadying in the storm of his eyes.
But deep inside, doubt clawed at her ribs.
Because even if she didn't remember—
Something inside her did.
A name. A ruin. A fall.
And the past never stayed buried.
A distant horn blew from the cliffs beyond.
Caius cursed. "That's the vanguard."
Seraphine stiffened. "Your father's men."
They had no more time.
She shoved her doubts aside. Whatever fate had been whispered in that ruin—whatever truths lay in the past—
She would not be caged by it.
Not now. Not ever.
Taking one last glance at the cursed ruins, she turned and ran.