The stars settle.
The air stills.
And the world breathes again… under my name.
Elóranth.
Breaker of fate.
Betrayer of gods.
Bearer of power so vast, time itself obeys my grief.
But not everyone feared me.
Far beneath the surface
deeper than death and darker than dream a chamber cracks open.
Chains that once bound galaxies split like silk.
Eyes open.
Not mortal.
Not divine.
Just… ancient.
He exhales once.
And history trembles.
"So she remembers," he says, voice like molten iron.
"And she's erased the cowards who sealed me away."
A step.
Then another.
And the dungeon that imprisoned him bends welcomes him as if it always knew this day would come.
He was never a king.
Never a god.
He was something worse.
A lover.
And Elóranth's mirror.
Once, they created a world together.
Then they shattered it in war.
Because power shared between two equals is never safe.
Especially when love burns brighter than truth.
He steps into the lightless void above the world and smiles.
"She ascended," he murmurs.
"But I was always the one who taught her how to fall."
Back on the surface, I feel it.
A pulse.
Not a threat.
A memory with teeth.
And for the first time since reclaiming my name,
I'm afraid.
Not because I can't win.
But because I remember how much I wanted to lose to him.
"He's awake," I whisper.
The creature beside me my summoned shadow tenses.
"You can't face him alone."
"I never did," I say, turning toward the horizon.
"That's the problem."