Chapter 34: What the Gods Forgot

Rain fell sideways as the wind screamed across the mountains.

Selene and Alina stood at the cliff's edge, the obsidian feather between them.

They had followed the Oracle's disappearance with no map, only instinct—and the strange, aching knowledge that someone was waiting for them.

Beneath the cliff, the ruins of a once-great temple jutted from the earth like broken ribs.

It bore the same emblem from the stars.

Three circles, intersecting. Bound and infinite.

"I've seen this before," Alina murmured.

"In a dream?"

"In my mother's notes. She called it the Seal of the Forgotten."

A lightning strike split the sky—and with it, the mountain beneath them shifted.

A stairway formed in stone, spiraling downward into the earth.

Selene clutched the feather.

"It's warm again."

They descended.

At the bottom, silence.

Then breath.

Then voice.

Not one voice. Many.

They echoed through the temple's core like a chorus buried beneath time.

"We are the gods you silenced."

Alina's breath caught.

A shimmer of figures formed—neither ghost nor memory. Divine and broken. Hollow-eyed and glowing.

"You left us behind," one said.

"You made new gods," said another.

"You forged curses to seal us out," said a third. "But the memory lives in her."

They turned.

And the child stood at the altar.

Eyes silver. Feet bare.

"I remember you," she whispered.

The gods bowed.

Selene reached for Alina's hand.

"Are we too late?"

"No," said the child. "You're right on time."

The temple pulsed.

And the gods began to sing.