CHAPTER THIRTEEN:The Last Of The Nine

Elianah

They had always known they weren't alone in this story.

But now, standing in the awakened spire of Aeravell, Elianah finally understood how much had been forgotten.

There were once nine soulbound hearts — scattered across centuries, tied to the same thread of fate.

She and Kael were two.

Thorne was a third.

And now, the city was calling the rest.

A map bloomed from the spire's center — shaped like a star, with nine points.

Each tip began to glow.

One… two… three… four.

And then… a fifth point flickered.

Then a sixth.

Elianah pressed her hand to the glowing pattern.

> "They're waking."

Kael

He studied the pattern closely. The pulsing glow wasn't just locations — it was people.

And one was near.

Very near.

"I think one of them… is in this city," he said. "Hidden. Or maybe imprisoned."

A faint sound echoed from beneath the spire — like singing glass. A rhythm, haunting and familiar.

Without speaking, they descended.

Deeper into Aeravell's underbelly, where the forgotten slept and the bound were kept.

They reached a chamber of mirrors.

Each one showed a different version of themselves — past lives, joys, and endings.

But in the center stood a single mirror, covered in vines of stardust and obsidian thorns.

It pulsed.

Thorne stepped forward. "That's her," he said quietly. "She was the one who remembered longest. Even when we forgot… she never did."

Elianah reached out — and the vines unraveled.

Inside the mirror… a girl. No older than seventeen, floating, eyes closed. Her skin shimmered with constellations. Her lips moved in silent sleep.

Name: Lyra.

Role: The Heartkeeper.

Soulbond: Unknown.

Suddenly her eyes opened.

And she gasped — not with fear, but recognition.

> "Finally," Lyra whispered, "you came back."

> "We don't have much time. The Ninth… has already fallen to the Shadow."

---

Elsewhere…

The Shadow moved across the desert, cloaked in a thousand stolen names.

At its side, a boy with silver eyes knelt, his soul bound in chains of light and ash.

The Ninth.

> "I remember them," he whispered. "But not why I want them dead."

The Shadow smiled.

> "Because they betrayed you first."