The stars blinked and warped as Nyssa and Marek stepped through Thalon's Door.
They didn't land. They floated—weightless in a world between pulses of reality. The sky was a dome of shifting constellations, stitched with tendrils of silver mist. Mountains hovered upside-down in the void, bleeding slow rivers of golden fire. Below—or perhaps above—a single tree stood on a floating isle, its roots curled around nothing, its branches dripping with glowing fruit that whispered in voices too old to understand.
"What in all nine dead gods is this place?" Marek breathed, spinning slowly.
Nyssa landed first, boots touching the grassless earth beneath the tree. Her senses reeled. The air tasted like memory—her mother's voice, her first battle wound, a lullaby from a past she hadn't sung. She clenched her fists to stay grounded.
Then she saw her.
A woman stood beneath the tree.
She looked young, but her hair was silver-blonde and coiled like a storm. Her cloak shimmered with starlight. One hand rested on the bark of the tree, as if listening to its heartbeat. The other hand glowed faintly with a soft, blue fire.
When she turned, Nyssa's breath caught.
"Jack?" Marek whispered, blinking. "Wait… that's not—oh."
"No," Nyssa said slowly. "But she knows him."
The woman's eyes were radiant blue—and ancient. They held storms. Lifetimes. Grief.
"You're Lola," Nyssa said.
The woman smiled. It was bittersweet. "He told you about me."
Nyssa blinked. "Wait. You are her? You're his friend from the human world?"
"I was," Lola said, stepping toward them. "Before this realm changed me."
Marek raised an eyebrow. "Jack's best friend was a time-seeing sorceress with cosmic fashion sense? That feels like something he could've mentioned."
"He didn't recognize me at first either," Lola said, her voice soft. "It's been years for me. He merged the three artifacts at the Sun Sanctum. That was the moment I was pulled in. One instant I was dreaming of fire—next thing I knew, I was here… and older."
Nyssa stepped forward warily. "And now you can see the future?"
"The future," Lola said with a distant gaze, "and the past. But only the parts that want to be seen."
Marek leaned on a nearby floating rock. "Okay. Not to be rude, but why are you here? In this… starlit limbo?"
"Because this place," Lola said, gesturing at the floating world around them, "is the inside of Thalon's memory. Jack opened the Door, and that opened everything."
Nyssa's hand tightened around the hilt of her sword. "Everything?"
Lola's voice darkened. "Thalon's truth. The lie behind his death. What he gave up to keep the Devourer at bay. And what he passed on to Jack… without telling him."
Marek frowned. "You mean Jack's father was hiding more than being dead and sealed in his own kid?"
Lola nodded. "Thalon wasn't just trying to stop the Devourer. He was trying to trap something worse. Something born before even the gods of Vaelmir. A thing so old it doesn't have a name—only a shape. A hunger. He called it the Hollow Sovereign."
Nyssa exhaled. "And Jack's merge with Thalon… broke the seal."
"Cracked it," Lola corrected. "Not broken. But the Hollow Sovereign is waking."
"And let me guess," Marek muttered. "We're the lucky fools stuck cleaning up a god's failed experiment."
Lola stepped closer to Nyssa. "Jack isn't lost. He's being called—by the voice that called Thalon before him."
"Where is he?" Nyssa asked.
"Where light forgets itself," Lola answered. "At the edge of Cindralach. Beyond the Shattered Moon. He's walking toward the heart of the Hollow."
Nyssa looked to the swirling sky. "Then we need to follow him."
"You will," Lola said. "But there's something you need first. Someone."
Marek sighed. "Let me guess. It's a mysterious orphan with a glowing destiny and a demon inside him. Because if so, I've got a mirror handy."
"No," Lola said. "It's Kael."
The name crashed between them like thunder.
Nyssa's heart twisted. "Kael is—he's gone. The cleansing failed. He…"
"He changed," Lola said. "But not lost. Not fully. He's still part of this. Maybe more than any of you."
"Where is he?" Nyssa whispered.
Lola's eyes turned silver. "He's walking in the Valley of Black Flame. East of the Ashen Wastes. But beware—he no longer dreams like a boy. He remembers things that should not live."
Nyssa looked to Marek, who gave a slow nod. "Well. Add that to our cheerful itinerary."
Lola turned back to the tree. "This place is fading. The Door only holds so long. When it breaks, so will the seal Thalon left behind."
Nyssa stepped forward. "Will we see you again?"
Lola didn't answer. She only smiled—and it was filled with sorrow and fire.
The world tilted.
The stars collapsed inward.
And then—light.