Chapter 16 — The Sanctum’s Echo
1403 Words
The mountains grew sharper as they climbed, their jagged silhouettes carving into the pale morning sky. Frost clung to the cliffs like ancient scars, glittering with faint traces of starlight too bright, too steady to be natural.
The air itself felt thinner here. Colder. As though the world remembered something from long ago and shuddered in recognition.
Serath walked ahead, moving with inhuman grace, leaving no footprints despite the thick snow. Eirena and Kael followed in silence, the crunch of their boots echoing across the frozen slopes.
Every echo sounded like an omen.
Every breath felt borrowed.
The first sign appeared at midday.
A distant hum.
Soft at first, like a tremor just beneath the range of hearing.
Eirena froze.
Kael tensed immediately. “What is it?”
Serath turned slightly but did not stop walking. Their voice carried easily through the icy air.
“Do not fear it. The Sanctum senses your approach.”
Kael glanced around sharply. “That doesn’t answer anything.”
Serath finally paused, turning to face them fully.
“The Sanctum is alive.”
Eirena blinked. “Alive how?”
“Not as you understand it.” Serath placed a hand against the icy rock wall. The stone pulsed faintly—once, twice—like a heartbeat. “It was shaped by the first Starborn. Carved not from stone alone, but from resonance. Light. Memory.”
Kael raised a brow. “You’re saying the mountain has a pulse?”
“I am saying the mountain has a mind,” Serath corrected, then continued walking as though that explained everything.
Kael muttered something very unholy under his breath.
Eirena didn’t respond. Her focus had shifted inward.
The ember.
It was stirring.
Not painfully, not violently, but insistently like a door being pushed open from the inside. Warmth spread through her chest, twining through her ribs, humming along her spine.
Welcome.
The whisper wasn’t words, not truly.
More like intent.
Recognition.
Eirena grabbed Kael’s arm, steadying herself.
He immediately turned toward her. “You okay?”
She nodded, though her breath trembled. “The ember… it feels different. Like it’s—”
“Responding,” Serath finished without turning. “It remembers this place. It remembers what it was before your Queen shielded it from its nature.”
Eirena shivered. “And what nature is that?”
Serath didn’t answer.
Which was, she suspected, an answer in itself.
Hours passed.
As they climbed higher, the sky darkened not from clouds, but from the thinness of the air, the elevation scraping against the upper atmosphere. Every step was exhausting. Every breath burned.
Kael faltered several times, his earlier wounds slowing him. Eirena moved closer whenever his steps faltered, offering silent support.
He didn’t protest.
That scared her more than anything.
“Kael,” she murmured as they paused on a narrow ledge. “You need to rest.”
He shook his head, teeth gritted. “We don’t have time.”
“Your ribs.”
“Will heal.” His voice softened. “Eirena, I’m fine.”
He wasn’t. But she didn’t argue, not here, not on a ledge so narrow that even words seemed like a risk.
Serath, watching them in silence, finally spoke.
“He is pushing himself beyond his limit.”
Kael shot him a glare. “You want to walk ahead? Go.”
Serath ignored the anger. “The Sanctum will require strength from both of you. If he collapses within its walls, the consequences will be more dire than you know.”
Eirena’s heart clenched. “So we rest?”
“We do,” Serath said. “But not here.”
They continued until the path widened into a sheltered alcove carved naturally into the cliffside. The floor glowed faintly, as though embedded with ancient crystal. The light was warm. Soothing.
Safe.
Or as safe as anything could be beneath the Queen’s shadow.
Night fell early.
Kael drifted into a restless sleep, his head on Eirena’s lap, breath shallow but steadier. Eirena ran her fingers through his hair, trying to ignore the fear clawing at her chest.
Serath sat across from them, motionless as a statue, watching her with glowing, unreadable eyes.
“You care for him deeply,” Serath said.
It wasn’t a question.
Eirena nodded silently.
“Does he know what he risks?”
Eirena swallowed. “He knows enough.”
“Does he?” Serath tilted their head. “Because the Queen’s tether to you grows stronger. And when she descends fully, she will not harm you. But she may harm him.”
Eirena’s hand tightened in Kael’s hair.
“I won’t let her,” she whispered.
Serath’s gaze softened—not kindly, but with something like pity.
“You may not have a choice.”
Before Eirena could respond, a whisper cracked through the night air.
Eirena…
She jolted upright, gasping.
Kael woke instantly, hand on his dagger. “What? What happened?”
She clutched her chest. “She’s here.”
Kael’s face drained. He scanned the darkness. “The Queen?”
Serath was already rising to their feet.
“No,” they said. “Not fully.”
The air rippled like heat on stone.
But it wasn’t heat.
It was cold. Cosmic. Suffocating.
A figure stepped into the alcove.
Not the Queen herself.
But a projection.
Her silhouette made of black starlight and skeletal embers—glided soundlessly across the ground. Her eyes burned violet fire.
Kael drew his sword.
Eirena grabbed his arm. “Don’t. It’s not real.”
The apparition smiled.
Not kindly.
“My heir.”
Eirena’s breath hitched.
She forced herself to stand, even as her knees shook. “You will not reach me.”
“You say that,” the Queen murmured, voice like silk tearing, “but the ember knows the truth.”
Eirena stepped forward, heat crawling beneath her skin. “I am not yours.”
The Queen lifted a finger, and a pulse of energy slammed into the mountain wall, cracking stone, rattling the ground.
Kael moved in front of Eirena instantly.
The Queen’s eyes narrowed. “You displease me, warrior.”
Kael didn’t flinch. “Good.”
“This one is fragile,” the Queen purred, gaze sliding along his form. “His life burns too quickly. I could snuff it out with a thought.”
Eirena surged forward. “Leave him alone!”
The Queen’s gaze snapped back to her.
And softened.
Disturbingly.
“My light,” she whispered. “You were made for more than this world. More than this mortal. More than this fear.”
The ember thrummed in Eirena’s chest, responding to longing.
Eirena shoved the sensation down with every ounce of will she had.
“No.”
The Queen’s expression darkened.
“We will speak again.”
The apparition dissolved into a burst of starlight that left the air humming violently.
Silence crashed back.
Kael sheathed his sword with shaking hands. “Eirena!”
She collapsed into him, trembling.
He pulled her close, his heartbeat a frantic drum beneath her cheek.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’ve got you. She’s gone.”
“No,” Serath said softly. “She is closer than she has ever been.”
Eirena lifted her head. “We need to reach the Sanctum. Now.”
Serath nodded. “Then be ready. The path ahead is not stone and ice. It is memory. Power. And trial.”
Kael tightened his hold on her.
Eirena took a steadying breath.
And together, they stood.
At dawn, the mountains parted.
A valley unfolded below them, massive, carved into spiraling terraces of crystal and frost. Each terrace glowed faintly, alive with ancient resonance. At its heart, surrounded by rings of broken starlight.
Stood a towering structure.
Half-temple, half-star shard.
Light poured from its spires.
Power flooded the air like a living heartbeat.
The Luminous Sanctum.
Eirena exhaled slowly.
“It feels…”
“Like the universe waiting,” Serath finished.
Kael stepped beside her, eyes fixed on the shimmering temple. “Whatever’s inside… we face it together.”
Eirena reached for his hand.
For the first time since the Queen touched her mind, the ember pulsed with something other than fear.
Hope.
Serath gestured toward the luminous valley.
“Welcome,” they said softly. “To the place where the first Starborn was made.”
Eirena stepped forward.
The Sanctum stirred, and the trials began.
- Writer
