CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Path Beyond
1065 Words
Lena’s POV — After the Flame
Damien's light had not only burned out.
It rewrote the Hollow. For the first time since being dragged into this nightmare, Lena was able to breathe. No murmurs tore at her thoughts. No shadows kissed her feet.
The Hollow's thrum remained present—low and eternal—but it no longer felt like a menace. It felt... odd. Watching. Waiting.
Damien stood erect, flames dying down his chest and the golden insignia shining dimly. He was transformed—not only in terms of power, but also of presence. His eyes shone softly now, not with magic, but with determination.
Lena's legs gave way. She would have collapsed if he hadn't caught her.
"I've got you," he murmured. "I thought I had lost you," she sighed. He smiled. "I thought I'd lost myself."
The Hollow radiated a strange type of calm around them.
Lyra stirred close, groaning as she awoke. The youngster she had spared clung to her arm, unhurt and wide-eyed.
Lena gazed past Damien to the route that had formed in the rift's place. A route of light and remembrance, rather than one of stone and fire. A hallway of unchosen life, with possibilities stretching outward.
Damien followed her eyes. "It leads somewhere else."
"Where?" He shakes his head.
"Beyond the planet. Maybe to where it all began." Lyra approached, wiping the blood from her lips.
"You damaged the Hollow's back but not its heart. "That path is the only way to finish it." Lena stared at the path. "We go forward."
"No," a new voice said. They turned.
The Veil Bearer rose once more, though his shape had changed. He was no longer shrouded in shadows, but rather pale and flickering. Fractured.
"You have passed the trial of fire, Damien Ashbourne," said the man, "but your flame has burned through the bindings that held the Hollow's root."
Damien squared his shoulders. "And what lies beyond it?"
"The Source," the Veil Bearer explained.
"The Original Hunger." The Mother of All Echoes. She sleeps beyond time, but your light has awakened her. "She will not rest again."
Lena's skin became chilly. "Then we stop her."
"She cannot be killed," the Veil Bearer stated.
"Only reclaimed." Lyra swore. "Always with riddles." But Lena understood. The Hollow was not a place. It was a wound.
Wounds did not disappear. They recovered. Or they festered.
Lena gazed at Damien. "We go together." He nodded.
The Veil Bearer stepped aside. "Then pass. But know this: what is beyond that light... is your genuine reflection. "If you are not prepared to meet yourself, you will be consumed."
They stepped onto the path. When Lena's foot touched the shimmering corridor, her thinking distorted. One step — She was in a memory. But it's not hers. Damien's. She stood in the remains of a temple years ago. Damien, a teenager, crouched in blood, cradling his brother's body. "You promised you'd stay behind!" He sobbed.
The real Damien, striding beside her, gritted his teeth. "This was the first time I touched the Hollow."
Lena grabbed for him, but the memory was blurry and embraced her identity. She was on the field. Her father stood before her, enraged.
"Magic's a curse! You brought humiliation to our family!" She clinched her fists.
"I only wanted to help Mother!"
"She's dead because of you." Damien squeezed her hand.
"It's a lie." Another step — Lyra joined them. Her eyes were hollow, and her younger self was on trial before a tribunal.
"The Hollow has left its mark. "She's no longer human."
"Then let her burn." Lena reached out, but the memory fragmented. The corridor twisted again. They were now standing in a gigantic chamber of mirrors, each one reflecting a different image of themselves: victorious, monstrous, broken, divine. In one, Lena donned the mask.
In another, Damien sat on a bone throne.
In another, Lyra cried alone, hollow-eyed and imprisoned.
"No choice is ever truly lost," a voice said from the mirrors. "They simply echo, waiting to be born again."
The air thickened. Magic pulsed. From one mirror, a creature stepped forward.
Lena with black veins, crowning and harsh. "You feared your own power," she added. "So I took it."
Damien emerged from another, mangled. "You allowed her to suffer. "I made everyone pay." And from behind them, a Lyra with sunken sockets appeared, her voice icy. "You've abandoned me. "You allowed me to become this."
Lena stumbled back. "They're not real," she explained. "They're real enough," Lyra whispered, conjuring flame. The battle started. Light vs. shadow.
Opting against the consequences. Lena battled herself, blade to blade, magic to magic. Her darker side was stronger, but harsher. Reckless. She lacked hope. It was Lena's weapon. She struck—not with malice, but with memories - about her mother's voice. Of Damien's touch. Of Lyra's bravery.
The shadow screamed and shattered. Damien disarmed his opponent and looked him in the eyes.
"You sought vengeance. I found my mission."
Lyra simply accepted her shattered self. And the mirror broke.
The chamber disbanded. They stood again in the Hollow's heart, but this time only one figure waited.
She was vast. Not in physical form, but in presence.
The Original Hunger.
Beautiful and horrible. She gave Lena a smile. "You came to end me."
"No," Lena replied. "We came to heal you."
The Hunger's smile wavered. Damien stepped forward. "You are grief that goes unacknowledged.
Fear is unclaimed. The ugliest aspects of us were revealed. But that means you're ours. The light around them pulsated.
Lena raised her hands. And sung. A lullaby. Old. Woven into her bones. Her mom's song.
The Hunger wailed and cried.
The world rocked, then stilled.
And in the calm... She disappeared. Leaving only quiet and light.
But just when they believed all was over, the light distorted. The mirror-world behind them fractured again, revealing one final, buried echo.
A figure stepped through. Tall. Human. Familiar.
Arius. Alive. "Did you think I was gone?" He spoke quietly and smiled.
"The Hollow and I were never separate."
Lyra's voice cracked. "But you sealed it."
"I merely locked a part of myself away.
"The part that feared love."
Lena's heart thumped. "What do you want?"
"I want to finish what I started. "But not with rage."
He looked at Damien. "With forgiveness."
Then he turned to Lena. "And with your help."
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