Liara stumbled from the Vault's depths just before dawn, cloak torn, pendant dimming, eyes wide with sleepless fire. Her knees trembled with each step, but the mark of Syeralyn still glowed faintly beneath her skin, like it refused to let her forget.
The seal was breaking.
Kael was real.
And everything was about to unravel.
She didn't make it far before Aeron found her.
"Liara!" He rushed to her side, catching her by the shoulders. "You vanished—I thought—"
"I'm fine," she said, though her voice cracked under the weight of her lie.
He searched her face, then glanced down at the charred edges of her cloak. "What happened?"
Before she could answer, Cassian appeared, breathless. "The Vault reacted again. Someone entered without triggering the wards. Was it you?"
Liara nodded slowly.
Both men stiffened.
She felt the shift immediately—the line being drawn between who she had been and what she had become.
"I saw something," she said. "Someone. The silver-haired man… he's real."
Aeron's jaw tightened. "The one in your dreams?"
Cassian looked between them, confused. "Dreams? Liara—what are you talking about?"
She turned to them, voice shaking. "His name is Kael. I don't know how I know that, but I do. He's the soul that was torn to seal the Rift."
Cassian frowned. "That's impossible. That history was lost. We were never told—"
"Because they didn't want us to know," she snapped. "Because the Vault remembers. And now… the seal is failing."
Silence.
The wind stirred the ash on her cloak.
Then Aeron stepped forward. "And you believe this soul—Kael—is reaching out to you? From the Rift?"
"I've seen him," she whispered. "In the mirror. In dreams. And in my heart, I—" She stopped herself.
She couldn't say what she felt. Not with Aeron's eyes locked on hers.
Cassian's voice was softer now. "What does he want?"
Liara's breath hitched. "To return."
Aeron's hand tightened into a fist. "And what if bringing him back brings everything else with him? The Remnant? The collapse?"
She looked at him, eyes filled with quiet defiance. "Then maybe I was meant to make that choice."
Cassian's brow furrowed. "You're not alone in this, Liara."
Aeron, wounded and protective, added quietly, "But I won't let you be taken."
"I don't need your permission," she whispered.
And for the first time, neither of them knew what to say.
Because the girl they thought they could protect… had become something else.