---
[Interior: Root Core — a vault of impossible geometry. Kaelen and Thane descend through mirrored passageways. Reality flickers. Each reflection shows not them, but versions that could have been.]
Thane (sweating, voice shaking):
"These aren't visions. They're… trials. The Bound are testing us. Or tempting us."
Kaelen:
"No. They're measuring. They want to know if we're strong enough to survive what's next."
[They reach the final gate: an obsidian arch inscribed with six broken runes. Five of them flicker, cracked. Only one remains whole—pulsing.]
Thane:
"That's the Sixth Seal."
Kaelen (nodding):
"The last one before they return fully."
[Suddenly—a voice. Not spoken. Felt. Ancient. Familiar.]
Voice of the Bound Root:
> "You broke the Fifth at the vault. The Sixth breaks when you decide. One of you must open it. And one of you must fall."
Thane:
"No. No, I didn't come this far to die."
Kaelen (looking at the seal, calm):
"You're not going to. I will."
Thane:
"What? No—you're the only one they fear. You're the reason they hesitate."
Kaelen (smiling faintly):
"That's why it has to be me. If I fall into the Bound… I might be able to turn them. Even for a second."
---
[Flashback overlay: Kaelen's past — the moment he first touched the Ember Key, the moment he heard the Bound whisper his true name.]
Voice of the First Bound:
> "You are the fracture, Kaelen Vire. The crack in the Throne. The chosen mistake."
---
Thane (shouting):
"You said we end the cycle, not repeat it!"
Kaelen:
"We don't have to win, Thane. We just have to be new."
---
[Kaelen steps into the seal. It opens like a blooming black flower. Screams echo, backwards. The seal shatters—and with it, the veil.]
[Exterior: All across Aerathen, people feel a pressure in their minds. The Bound are no longer distant whispers. They are arriving.]
Sylrae (over comms, to Thane):
"Thane, talk to me—what just happened?"
Thane (broken whisper):
"He's gone. He gave himself to the seal. To them."
---
[Cut to Kaelen's mind. Or what's left of it.]
Kaelen (floating in memory):
"This isn't death."
The Bound (as one voice):
> "No. This is joining. And through you—we will learn to change."
---
End of Chapter Sixteen