CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:The Question Of Forever

Elianah

The chamber had quieted, but her mind hadn't.

Every version of her lived now in her body. The girl who died too early. The queen who ruled too cold. The warrior who bled too much. The dreamer who believed too deeply.

And the one standing here, fingers laced with Xadriel's, staring into the eye of eternity.

Elionys — the Warden — paced the edge of the glowing ritual circle, her silvery armor humming softly. "The Rift cannot be closed by force," she said. "It must be answered."

"Answered?" Elianah echoed.

"Yes." Elionys turned, eyes shining. "It presents the same question to all soul-bound lovers before it consumes their world."

She stopped and looked directly at Xadriel.

> "Will you choose eternity with each other…

Or freedom for all others?"

The silence that followed stole the air from Elianah's lungs.

"That's the trade," Soren said solemnly. "To seal the Rift is to sacrifice your final bond. To end the reincarnation cycle for everyone — including yourselves."

Xadriel's voice was quiet. "If we choose eternity, what happens?"

"You'll live again," Selene said. "Reborn. Again and again. In love. But so will the war. So will the Hollowed. The suffering of the world will continue."

Meridian stepped forward. "If you end the cycle, the Hollowed vanish. No more memory traps. No more cursed echoes. But the cost is final. No more lives. No more second chances."

No more them.

Xadriel looked at Elianah. His voice was raw. "We finally found each other in the right lifetime. I don't want to lose this."

Tears welled in her eyes. "Neither do I."

And yet.

She heard the echoes again. The cries of all the versions of herself that never made it. The world that kept breaking because they chose each other every time.

"What if this is the one time," she whispered, "we choose everyone else?"

Xadriel swallowed, pain flickering in his gaze. "I'm scared."

"I am too."

"But…" she reached up, brushing his face, "we've loved each other through death. I think we can love each other through goodbye."

A tremor rocked the chamber. The Rift was opening.

The Warden stepped between them, sword in hand.

"The choice must be made now. You may only enter the Rift together — or seal it apart."

Elianah looked into Xadriel's eyes. Her soulmate. Her anchor. Her undoing. Her beginning.

"I love you," she said.

He closed his eyes, letting the tears fall. "I always have."

She turned to the Rift — a swirling tear in the air itself — glowing with the memories of countless lives.

She stepped forward.

So did he.

And together… they made the choice.