The moment Kael's fingers brushed the stone, the world shattered.
Not violently but completely.
The library, his friends, even his own body dissolved like smoke pulled into a vacuum. Sound vanished, replaced by a low hum that vibrated inside his bones.
And then…
Light.
Color.
A voice.
"Do not fear."
Kael opened his eyes or rather, he felt them open. He was standing in a space with no ground, no sky. Stars hung motionless, frozen in time. Wisps of golden mist curled through the void like drifting memories.
And before him floated a being.
Not a person. Not quite a god. Something… older. Tall, faceless, with seven luminous wings stretched wide behind a body of woven symbols and light. Its voice wasn't spoken — it was sung, and every word rattled something buried in Kael's soul.
"You are the Third Vessel," it said. "The One Who Chose to Sleep."
"Third? Of what?" Kael asked, though his voice felt distant.
The being gestured.
Around them, seven spheres appeared — each containing a vision, a moment. A truth.
In the first: a world made of song and silence. Beings of light and gravity dancing through galaxies unborn.
In the second: a war. Not of armies, but of concepts. Time bleeding. Stars weeping.
In the third: a single figure—Kael, or something that looked like him—falling backward into the dark. Choosing to forget.
"You were once a fragment of the Prime Voice," the being sang. "A shard of the Original Harmony. When the Song fractured, so did you."
Kael stared, numb.
"I'm not just human…"
"You are now. But you were not always. And the Choir… they remember what you were."
"So Ryne was right. I'm connected to them."
"Yes. But connection is not allegiance. You have the power to become what they wish… or to end them forever."
Kael clenched his fists.
"Why now? Why awaken me?"
The being's wings folded inward.
"Because the next verse is beginning. And only a true Vessel can choose whether it will be sung… or silenced."
Return to Reality
Kael jolted awake, gasping.
His hand flew from the stone. His body was drenched in sweat. The others surrounded him, tense, ready for anything.
"You were out for ten seconds," Sera said. "But your heart… it stopped."
Kael blinked. Ten seconds? It had felt like hours.
Liora stepped forward. "What did you see?"
Kael looked at her and something had changed in his eyes. Something ancient.
"The truth," he whispered. "And the start of something far worse."
"You still want to fight this?" Darius asked.
Kael stood slowly. "Not just fight. End it. I don't care what I was. I know who I am now."
His gravity flickered around him — sharper, clearer, refined by memory and purpose.
"And I'm done running."