Chapter8:The Eclipse Gate's Bargain.

The staircase spiraled into oblivion, its steps slick with the residue of ancient magic. Leonis led the descent, his shadow-wreathed arm casting jagged patterns against the walls, while Celia's moonlit shard pulsed in her palm like a captured star.

The air grew heavier with each step, thick with the scent of ozone and something oldersomething *hungry*.

Fenrir's claws scraped against stone, his golden eyes narrowed to slits.

*The deeper we go, the louder the whispers," he growled.

*The Sovereign's voice is in the walls."

Leonis didnt need Wolf's Instinct to feel it. The darkness here was alive, coiling around his ankles like a serpent testing its prey. Behind him, Thoren limped, his breath ragged, but his gaze was sharpcleared by the shard's revelation. Celia, though, was the most changed. The moonmark on her face glowed faintly, a silent testament to the memory shed sacrificed. Her steps were sure, her blade steady, but her silence was a storm.

The stairs ended abruptly, opening into a cavern so vast its ceiling was lost to shadow. At its center stood the Eclipse Gate towering archway of intertwined shadow and light, its surface writhing with half-formed faces. They stretched their mouths in silent screams, their features melting and reforming in a grotesque dance.

*A prison," Thoren whispered. *And a bridge."

Celia's grip on the shard tightened. *To where?*

*To the Sovereign's throne." The voice came not from Thoren, but from the Gate itself. The faces stilled, then *merged*, forming a single visagea womans, beautiful and cruel, her eyes twin voids.

*And to me."

Leonis's blood turned to ice. *The original Celia.*

Her laughter slithered through the cavern.

*Did you think my copies would*save* you, little shadow? They were never meant to rebel. They were meant to *corner* you."

The Moon mark on Celia's face flared. *You're lying."

*Am I?" The Gate's surfacerippled, revealing a memory not of the

laboratory, but of a battlefield. The original Celia stood amidst a sea of corpses, her blade dripping with moonlight and blood. At her feet a younger Leonis knelt, his arms bound in shadowglass manacles, his eyes burning with defiance.

*You were *designed* to break him," the original purred. *To wear him down until he was pliant enough to open the Gateway."

Leonis's fists clenched. *Enough,"

*No,* the original murmured. "Let her see.*

The memory shifted. The Celia in the vision*their* Celiastood over Leonis, her blade at his throat. But then she hesitated.

Lowered her weapon. And in that moment, the originals face twisted with rage.

*A flaw in the design,"* she spat. *But flaws can be *corrected*."

The Gates surfaceconvulsed.

A handreal,*solid*emerged, gripping the archway's edge. Then the original Celia stepped through, her form shimmering between flesh and shadow. She wore no mask, no scar. Only a smile like a razor.

*Hello, little shadow," she said to Leonis. Then to her copy: *Hello, *failure*."

Celia's blade flashed up, but the original was faster. A flick of her wrist, and Celia *screamed*, the moonmark on her face burning black. She crumpled, her shard clattering to the ground.

Leonis moved on instinct. His left arm's shadows lashed out, but the original caught them mid-air, her fingers closing around the darkness like a vice. *℃ ute," she murmuredthen *yanked*.

Agony ripped through Leonis as his own shadows turned against him, coiling around his limbs like chains. He fell to his knees, gasping.

Fenrir lunged, but the original didnt even glance his way. A pulse of moonlight sent him crashing into the wall, his ribs cracking against stone. Thoren tried to scramble for the shard, but a tendril of shadow pinned him in place.

*Youre predictable,* the original sighed. She knelt before Leonis, tilting his chin up with a cold finger. *But you *are* special. The only anomaly to survive the dual bloodlines. The only one who might *open* the Gateway."

Leonis spat blood. *Go to hell.*

*Oh, I'm already there." She pressed her palm to his chestand the world*split*.

Pain. White, searing, endless. His bloodlines *screamed*, shadow and flame tearing each other apart inside his veins. The Eclipse Gate groaned, its archway flickering with unstable energy.

*Stop!" Celia's voice, raw with pain. She'd dragged herself upright, her moonmark now a bleeding wound.

*You want the Gateway? Take *me* instead."

The original paused *...Ilnteresting.*

Leonis choked out a protest, but the original silenced him with a glance. *A bargain, then," she mused. *Your compliance for her life."

Celia's gaze met Leoniss. In it, he saw not fear, but *resolve*. *Do it," she said.

The original smiled. *Finally. A *worthy* trade."

She released Leonis, and the pain vanished. Before he could react, she seized Celia by the throat and *stepped back into the Gate*. The archway roared to life, its surface churning like a storm.

*No Leonis lurched forward, but the Gates energy repelled him, throwing him back.

The originals voice echoed as she vanished into the light: *Come and find us, little shadow. If you dare.*

Then the Gate sealed shut, leaving only silenceand Celia's fallen shard, its glow fading to embers.

Fenrir staggered to his feet, snarling. Thoren's face was ashen. Leonis stared at the Gate, his shadow-arm trembling with something darker than rage.

*Dread.*

Because the Eclipse Gate hadnt just taken Celia.

It had *awakened*.

And somewhere beyond it, the Sovereign waited.