Chapter 42

Kaelion stepped into view slowly, his boots pressing down the dust and names etched into the Hollow Ward's floor. His cloak was different this time—black as ever, but lined with silver stitching that seemed to twist and move if one stared too long. Around his neck hung a thin chain with a single obsidian shard, small and jagged, yet pulsing faintly.

But it wasn't him that froze Kye in place.

It was the figure behind him.

A girl—barely older than Kye himself.

Dressed in robes that didn't match any faction.

Her eyes glowed—not bright like magic, but dim and steady, like a dying ember that refused to go out.

She was pale. Still. Silent.

But when she stepped out of the shadows…

Renna gasped.

Veika's torch shook.

Even the boy's voice faltered.

"No…"

Kye blinked, his mind refusing to accept what he was seeing.

Because the girl standing beside Kaelion was **Sena.**

The same Sena he had just remembered.

The same girl he had sacrificed a piece of himself to recall.

She stood there—alive. Whole. Unaged.

As if the years hadn't touched her.

As if she had never died.

"Sena…" Kye whispered, taking a step forward.

But Kaelion raised a hand.

"She doesn't remember you."

The words hit harder than steel.

Kye's lips parted. "What…?"

"She was taken," Kaelion continued. "Not killed. Not erased like the rest. *Preserved.* Hidden away in the deepest part of the Citadel—her memories fragmented, shattered like glass. But pieces remained. Enough to reconstruct her."

"You're lying."

"I'm not," Kaelion said. "I found her. I brought her back. I fixed what they broke."

Sena stepped forward.

Her eyes didn't widen.

She didn't flinch.

She looked at Kye like she was looking through him.

No recognition.

No spark.

Nothing.

Kye's chest tightened. He stepped back as if struck.

Renna moved to his side, steadying him. "Is she… *real*?"

"Yes," Kaelion said calmly. "But she's not yours anymore."

Kye stared. "What did you do to her?"

"I *restored* her," Kaelion replied. "You're the one who let her vanish. You forgot her. You traded her for your mother's face, remember?"

Veika scoffed. "You're manipulating her. She's not a pawn."

"I'm giving her a choice," Kaelion said sharply. "Something none of us ever had."

Sena finally spoke.

Her voice was soft.

Mechanical.

Empty.

"I chose to follow the one who remembered me first."

Kye felt something crack inside.

Not a break.

A *split*.

Like his soul was standing on both sides of the same mirror again—and this time, it was Sena on the other side, staring back with eyes that *should've* remembered him.

He turned toward Kaelion.

"You're not doing this for her. You're doing this for you."

"I'm doing this for *us*," Kaelion snapped. "Don't you get it? I'm not the enemy. I'm the part of you that still fights for what matters."

"I *am* fighting."

"Then prove it," Kaelion said. "Meet me in the Vault beneath the Citadel. Alone. Bring no weapons. No friends. Just you."

Kye narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"Because that's where everything ends. Or begins again."

Kaelion turned, his cloak whipping behind him.

Sena followed him, walking without a sound.

And before disappearing into the deeper dark—

She looked back.

Just once.

Her eyes flickered. Not recognition. But… hesitation.

Kye stepped forward, but it was too late.

They were gone.

---

The Hollow Ward fell into silence again.

But now, it wasn't peaceful.

It was hollow.

Veika finally cursed under her breath and kicked a stone across the floor.

"Okay. So… that was creepy as hell."

Renna didn't speak.

She was watching Kye.

He didn't move for several long minutes.

Then, finally, he spoke.

"Do you believe him?"

The boy answered first. "I believe *someone* rebuilt her. Whether it's truly Sena or a mimic… we won't know until we see her again."

Renna added, "I don't trust Kaelion. But I don't think he's lying about what he wants."

"And what's that?" Veika asked.

"To merge," Kye whispered. "To make me him."

The silence returned.

This time, it wasn't sacred.

It was suffocating.

Kye walked slowly to one of the name-walls and leaned his forehead against it.

"I'm tired of being half."

Renna placed a hand on his back. "You're not."

"Yes, I am."

The boy crouched beside a broken glyph. "The Vault beneath the Citadel isn't just a battlefield. It's a choice. That place holds the last mirror. The one that can decide which version of a person survives."

Veika frowned. "That sounds poetic. And also terrifying."

"It is."

Kye turned around, his face still calm—but something *underneath* was beginning to burn.

"I'll go."

"Not alone," Renna said immediately.

"I have to," Kye replied. "That was the condition."

"We don't care."

"I do."

They stared at each other.

Renna's hands clenched.

Then she stepped back. "You go alone. We follow close behind."

Kye didn't argue.

He knew he wouldn't shake them off.

He didn't want to.

The boy stood slowly. "Then we head to the Citadel."

Veika lit another torch.

"You think they're watching the path?"

"I hope so," Kye said.

"Why?"

"Because if they're watching… they're afraid."

---

They reached the ridge by nightfall.

The city loomed ahead.

Once a jewel of the old world, now wrapped in chains of fog and ruin. The Citadel wasn't destroyed—but it *felt* dead. The towers stood like frozen giants, their windows dark. The streets below were crooked, overgrown in places where memory had broken the ground.

And above it all—at the very peak—was the Vault.

Kye stared at it, knowing that whatever happened there would change *everything.*

He turned to his friends.

"You don't have to come."

Renna rolled her eyes. "We already did."

Veika grinned. "Besides, someone has to drag your dramatic ass back out if you collapse again."

Even the boy smiled faintly.

Kye felt something solid inside his chest.

Not certainty.

But *resolve.*

And then—

A shape moved at the edge of the ruins.

Someone watching.

Kye narrowed his eyes.

"Prepare yourselves."

Renna drew her blade.

Veika raised her weapon.

And from the fog—

A new figure stepped into view.

But it wasn't Kaelion.

It wasn't Sena.

It was a *Councilor.*

Wearing the seal of the High Table.

And she was clapping.