CHAPTER FOURTEEN:The Heart Keepers Warning

Lyra

She didn't step out of the mirror — she poured out of it.

Like starlight re-entering the world after being caged too long.

Her hair floated behind her like comet trails, her feet barely touching the floor.

Thorne watched her like one who had seen a ghost.

But Elianah saw something else:

Power tempered with grief.

Wisdom laced with wounds.

The kind of strength that only comes from remembering every version of love… and every kind of loss.

Kael took a cautious step forward. "You're Lyra?"

She nodded.

> "The Heartkeeper of the Nine. I kept our memories alive when even fate tried to erase them."

"Why now?" Elianah asked. "Why wake now?"

Lyra turned, her star-eyes solemn.

> "Because the Ninth soul has been corrupted. The Shadow wears his sorrow like armor. And he no longer remembers who he is to us."

> "He was once your shield, Kael. Your blood. Your twin flame."

A silence fell.

Kael's voice cracked. "I had a brother?"

Lyra whispered, "You still do… if we can reach him in time."

---

Elsewhere: The Broken One

He wandered through ruins of fire-glass and ancient salt, the desert singing the names he no longer answered to.

"Kael… Elianah… Thorne…"

The words hurt. Like they lived in his bones and refused to leave.

The Shadow whispered behind him.

> "They left you. Every life, they chose each other. Never you."

> "But I loved her too," he muttered.

> "And she never looked back," the Shadow said, twisting truth into poison. "Now let me help you forget her. For good."

The boy closed his eyes.

And the desert wind howled — a sound too much like grief.

---

Back in Aeravell

Lyra stood before the mirror once more.

"He's moving toward the ruins of Eloriath," she said. "Where our first temple once stood."

Thorne's expression darkened.

"That place is cursed."

Elianah nodded.

"Then we'll break the curse. And bring him home."

But Lyra looked afraid. Truly afraid.

> "To do that," she said, "one of you must remember how you died the first time."

> "Because that's where the Ninth's pain began."

And suddenly —

The spire shook.

The mirrors cracked.

And a voice older than time whispered through the walls:

> "You're already too late."