The Vault remained silent, but the world above did not.
From the moment Liara, Cassian, and Aeron emerged from the hidden chamber, the air had changed. Not just in temperature—but in texture, like the world itself had been pulled slightly off balance.
The sky over Syeralyn glowed a fraction darker. The stars blinked in strange patterns. And somewhere in the distance, an entire forest had wilted overnight, its trees left blackened as if by fire, though no flames had touched them.
They made camp near the edge of the Ashen Cliffs, still close to the Vault but out of sight from its entrance. No one spoke much. There was a weight now, a shadow too large to name. They all felt it, even if no one said it out loud.
"He's waking," Liara finally said.
Aeron, sharpening his blade beside the fire, paused. "Not waking," he muttered. "Watching."
Cassian looked up from where he sat, back to a tree, fingers spinning one of his throwing knives. "I don't like being someone's prophecy. I like being the guy who breaks them."
Liara didn't smile. Her dreams had returned, more vivid than ever.
Only now, the silver-haired man didn't just watch her from afar.
He spoke.
"Do you remember the ruin we shared?"
She never answered in the dream—but each morning, she woke with a strange warmth on her wrist. Like a phantom kiss. Or a brand.
That evening, a messenger hawk, starved and tattered, landed at the edge of their camp.
It bore a letter sealed with the sigil of the Eastern Archives—a place renowned for magical records and prophecy.
Cassian unrolled the parchment.
To the Bearers of the Bond,
He stirs in the void. Entire cities are reporting mirrored dreams. Seers are going mad. The light above Mount Ceryon has dimmed. The Forgotten God, lost for an age, seeks form.
The Vault you opened has not gone unnoticed. He hunts you. He remembers her. And if he finds her soul unguarded...
All will burn.
Liara's throat tightened. She didn't need anyone to explain who her meant.
Later that night, as they took turns on watch, Aeron stood alone under a moon veiled in red mist.
He could feel it—something circling them like a predator too clever to pounce.
Cassian joined him silently, offering a drink from his flask. "You feel it too, don't you?"
Aeron gave the smallest nod. "It's not just power. It's personal. Like he's waiting for her to choose."
Cassian exhaled. "And what if she does?"
Aeron's gaze drifted to the tent where Liara slept.
"Then it won't just be the world that breaks. It'll be us."
Far away, in a mirror cracked by shadow, Kael smiled faintly.
"Let the trinity hold," he whispered. "I only need one to fall."