Ashes Between Us

Selene

She felt the pull before she saw her.

It was not magic.

It was not memory.

It was belonging.

Selene entered a ruined chapel deep in the Hollow Throne's heart. The stained-glass windows had long since shattered, but the moonlight still found a way in. Dust danced like ghosts.

She stepped forward.

And there—at the altar—stood Liora.

Not the echo. Not a dream.

The real Saint.

Her chains hung shattered at her feet. Her hair was shorter now. Her once-white robes stained with blood, smoke, and ash. But her eyes—

They were the same.

Selene stopped breathing.

"Liora…"

Liora

She did not weep.

She did not run.

She stood as she always had: calm in the storm, a woman who had once believed love could save kingdoms.

Now?

She wasn't sure what she believed.

"Valeria," she said quietly.

Selene flinched at the name.

"That's not who I am."

"Isn't it?" Liora asked, stepping closer. "Even now, with your army, your sword, your silence—you still look like the girl who wanted to burn fate to the ground."

Selene swallowed hard. "And you… still look like the one who tried to stop me."

"I didn't try to stop you," Liora whispered. "I tried to hold you."

Selene

She reached out.

Liora did not pull away.

Fingers brushed.

Fire surged—not from anger, not from power—but from recognition. Two halves of a soul that had been shattered across time, war, betrayal.

"I thought you were dead," Selene said.

"I was."

Liora's voice trembled. "Until your voice brought me back."

Selene blinked. "My voice?"

"That night… outside the gate. You spoke to the echo."

Selene's breath caught.

"I didn't know you could hear."

"I heard everything."

Kael – Outside the Chapel

He paced restlessly, sword drawn. The court whispered behind him—restless, bloodthirsty. Every second Selene spent inside was a second closer to ambush.

The Queen's shadow was growing.

Kael turned to the blood witch beside him. "If anything touches her—burn it."

She grinned. "With pleasure."

Liora and Selene

Inside the chapel, silence fell again.

Then Selene dropped her sword.

"I didn't come here to win a war," she said softly. "I came to find the piece of me I lost."

Liora touched her face. "And if I'm broken?"

"Then we'll break together."

Their foreheads touched.

And in the cold chapel, something warm returned—

Not peace.

Not forgiveness.

But hope.

Final Scene – The Queen Watches

She saw it all in her mirror.

The reunion. The hands. The tears.

She screamed—and the mirror cracked from the inside.

"She remembers love," the Queen hissed.

The war priest beside her paled. "What now?"

She turned.

Now came the last weapon.

The thing not even Selene remembered.

The Queen whispered:

"Unseal the boy."