The journey to the First Gate was relentless. Hours had passed since they'd last seen Sorin, and his cryptic warning still lingered in Aria's mind. Find him first. Whoever he was, Sorin had vanished before they could pry further, leaving them with little more than a trail of vague clues and unsettling advice.
Now, deep in the ruins of an ancient temple hidden beneath a mountain's shadow, they stood before a massive stone door. Its surface was engraved with unfamiliar symbols—words of an old language long forgotten. The air was thick with the smell of earth and decay, the faint glow of magical energy barely visible around the door's edges.
Finn traced the markings with his fingers, his brow furrowing. "This is it, huh? The legendary First Gate."
Quinn nodded, his eyes narrowed in thought. "The old group sealed something away here. Something Saraphine wants. And something that can change everything."
Aria shifted uneasily, her eyes scanning the intricate carvings. The symbols seemed to shift, moving subtly under her gaze. What is this place? she wondered. The air felt charged, like something important was just out of reach, waiting for them to uncover it.
Then, suddenly—
A pull.
A sharp, undeniable pull in her chest, like a magnetic force latching onto her very core. It was so sudden, so intense, that Aria staggered backward, clutching at her side where the Lumina Shard rested beneath her cloak.
She gasped, her heart skipping a beat as the shard pulsed in response to the ancient door. A faint warmth spread from the pendant, something she had never felt before. It was as if the shard were alive—awakening.
Kael noticed immediately. "Aria?"
Her body trembled, the pull too strong to ignore. She barely heard him as the shard continued to thrum, its energy growing with each passing second. She barely even noticed how the stone door's engravings began to glow in sync with the shard, flickering like a heartbeat.
Lyric's eyes widened. "It's the shard. It's triggering something."
Aria's pulse quickened. Why now? Why had the shard waited until this moment to react? She had carried it since the Path Ceremony, and in all that time, it had led them through trials, saved them from dangers, but it had never done this. Never pulsed with such intensity.
Her fingers brushed against the cool surface of the shard. The moment her skin made contact, everything changed.
A pulse of magic shot through the air, its force sending a shudder through her body. Before any of them could react, the stone gate pulled them inside, the floor beneath their feet disappearing as the room shifted around them.
They were falling—into nothingness.
Aria hit the ground hard, gasping as she landed on solid stone. She lay still for a moment, struggling to breathe through the disorientation. Around her, the others groaned, pushing themselves up.
"What just happened?" Lyric asked, rubbing her head as she sat up, clearly as shaken as Aria felt.
Finn pushed to his feet first, glancing around. "Where are we?"
Something was wrong. The temple—the stone gate—everything had vanished. They were no longer surrounded by the ancient walls of the temple, nor was the cold, damp air of the ruins present. Instead, they stood in a massive, golden-lit chamber, the walls shifting like liquid glass. Strange symbols rippled through the chamber, casting ethereal reflections of distant, half-formed images in its surface.
"This is…" Quinn's voice trailed off as he scanned their surroundings. "A memory realm."
Finn raised an eyebrow. "A what?"
"It's showing us something," Quinn said, his voice laced with unease. He stepped forward, his gaze lingering on the shifting walls, his mind already working. "I don't know how, but this is a place of memory—a place where the past is preserved, but it can also change."
Aria turned, her breath catching in her throat as shadows began to form around them. The figures that materialized from the darkened edges of the chamber were tall, their features hard to discern. But then—
Celeste Evercrest stood before her.
Her mother.
Not as a still image, not as a ghostly figure—but real, moving, alive.
Aria's heart stuttered in her chest as she saw her mother as though she were standing there, in front of her. She looked just as Aria remembered—strong, confident, with the same gentle smile that had always put Aria at ease. The very woman who had been the center of her world before everything changed.
But Celeste wasn't alone.
Four other figures stood beside her, casting shadows in the soft glow of the chamber. Each of them was distinctive, their roles in the memory clear, even without words.
A tall, strong warrior stood at Celeste's side, an obsidian blade strapped to his back. He was a towering figure, with a presence that seemed to shift the air around him.
A scholar dressed in layered robes stood near the warrior, a tome floating at his fingertips. His eyes gleamed with intelligence, a sharp contrast to the physical strength of the others.
A healer, sharp-eyed and with an almost unsettling familiarity in her features, stood near the scholar. Her resemblance to Finn's mother was striking. Aria's heart clenched at the thought of the people they had lost.
And finally, a man cloaked in deep blue, his magic swirling around him like a tempest. His presence pulsed with raw, untamed power. He stood at the back of the group, the shadow to their light.
The old group—the ones who had once sealed away something far more dangerous than anyone had realized.
Kael exhaled, his voice low. "We're watching them. The moment they sealed whatever was hidden here."
Aria's hands trembled as she gazed at her mother, standing so near, yet so far away. She wasn't just witnessing history; she was reliving it. This was her mother's past. The past Aria never knew. The past she never would have learned, had it not been for the Lumina Shard.
Celeste turned to her team, her voice calm but urgent. "We don't have much time. If we don't seal the gate now, it'll break free."
The warrior tightened his grip on his blade, his eyes darkening. "And if it does?"
Celeste's gaze darkened, and her voice dropped to a low, resolute tone. "Then the world will never recover."
The chamber trembled as a deep rumble shook the floor beneath them. The air rippled with sudden, crackling energy. Aria's heart skipped a beat as something dark began to materialize from the shadows, something wrong.
A figure.
A boy.
His presence was overwhelming, and his energy rippled through the chamber.
And then Aria recognized him.
Dorian.
But not the Dorian she knew.
This Dorian was younger, barely 12 years old. His expression was cold, unreadable—his gaze flickering with something distant, something far too familiar.
And he was standing beside her mother.
Finn tensed beside her. "What is he doing here?"
Aria's breath caught in her throat as Dorian met her gaze for just a moment, his face hardening before his attention snapped back to Celeste.
Before anyone could respond, Celeste spoke. Her voice was sharp, but gentle, like she was speaking to someone she cared for deeply. "Dorian, you know what must be done."
The younger Dorian hesitated, his fingers curling at his sides, like he was battling some inner war. His expression remained cold—no sign of the manipulative, self-assured Dorian Aria had known.
"I know," he said, his voice tight, as though the weight of the words hung heavily between them.
The scene shifted abruptly, the chamber flickering in and out of focus. Celeste and the others raised their hands toward the Lumina Shard—a different shard than the one Aria carried.
This shard was whole.
Not fractured. Not broken.
The realization slammed into Aria like a crashing wave. The Lumina Shard she carried was only a piece. The true power—the whole of it—had been used here, in this very moment.
Kael whispered, his voice barely audible. "They broke it."
Aria's pulse pounded in her ears. They broke it? Why? What was so dangerous that they had to destroy the shard's true power?
Dorian stepped forward, his hands raised, and the magic in the room surged.
A brilliant explosion of light and darkness intertwined—blinding, overwhelming, all-consuming.
And then—
Everything shattered.
Back to Reality
Aria gasped, her body jerking upright as the vision broke apart, the golden chamber dissolving into nothingness. The cold air of the ruins rushed back in, and she staggered, barely catching herself on Kael's arm.
"Aria?" Kael's voice was filled with concern, his grip firm on her shoulder as he steadied her.
She couldn't speak. Her heart was racing, her thoughts spinning in a whirlwind of confusion and revelation. The truth had been buried for so long, but now, it was clear.
The Lumina Shard had been whole once.
And her mother, along with Dorian and the others, had broken it—to seal something away.
Finn ran a hand through his hair, his face pale. Aria took a deep breath, trying to ground herself. The vision had left her shaken, but she couldn't afford to dwell on it. "We need to keep moving," she said, her voice more steady than she felt.
Kael nodded. "The past is behind us, but the future is still ahead." The group exchanged looks, then turned to face the path ahead. They had learned something important, but the answers they sought were still out there—hidden in the shadows, waiting to be uncovered. The journey was far from over.