---
The voice still echoed in my ears.
"You've awakened me, Seraphine. And now… you will never be able to run from me again."
I stood frozen, breath ragged in a silence that had grown far too thick. The fire on the altar had died, yet the heat and tension still clung to us like a second skin. Aldric stood beside me, his body tense, eyes fixed on the figure emerging from the shadows.
A woman—with eyes like mine, a similar jawline, posture nearly identical—yet there was something older, deeper, and far more... sinister.
She was not entirely me. But neither was she a stranger.
Aldric didn't move. "At last, you've come," he murmured, almost like a prayer. "I knew from the start… that Seraphine's soul was never entirely her own."
I turned to him, not shocked by his words, but by the calm in his voice.
"You knew?" I asked.
He nodded slowly. "Not knew—sensed. From the way your eyes looked at me. From how you recognized paths you had never walked. From a fear too ancient to belong to this lifetime—as if you'd lived it all hundreds of years before." He looked toward the figure now stepping out of the shadows.
"I didn't want to believe it. But deep inside, I knew. Elara never truly left."
The woman offered a faint smile. "And you're still loyal, even after everything," she said to Aldric. "That… hurts."
I swallowed hard, trying to understand who was standing before me.
"Who are you really?" I asked, though the answer was already clear.
"I am Elara," she said. "Or at least, the part of Elara that never found peace. I am your shadow, Seraphine. I live beneath your blood, grew with your heartbeat. And now, I want to be seen."
I gripped the edge of the altar. My head throbbed, chest tight. All the fragments of dreams and visions that had haunted me began forming a mosaic. Whispered voices. A sense of loss. And Aldric's face… his face.
"I don't understand," I whispered. "Why me? Why is your soul inside my body?"
Elara looked at me with a gaze I couldn't decipher. "Because only you can redeem my sin. When I was condemned—when my soul was torn by ancient magic—its fragments sought refuge. And you, Seraphine Valeria, are the last blood of the Valeria line untainted by betrayal. You are the only hope."
I shook my head. "So I'm just... a vessel?"
"No," Elara replied. "You are more than that. You are the version of me that never got to choose again. You are the possibility I never allowed myself. But you are also... entirely yourself. You are not bound to my fate, unless you choose to be."
Aldric stepped forward, his voice deep and calm. "Back then... Elara and I were something." He didn't look at me as he said it. "Something we never fully understood. But in the end, she chose power. And I... I was shattered by it."
Elara lowered her gaze. "I know. And that's why I'm here. Because even after all that, the feeling never left. It cursed me more than any magic ever could."
I looked between them, and for a moment, I felt like a spectator in a story not my own. But my chest bore wounds that shouldn't belong to Seraphine. Memories that weren't hers. A love too old for my body—yet so real.
"I don't know if I can trust who I really am," I whispered.
Elara gazed at me. "That's why you must meet me. To choose. To know that you are not just fragments of the past—but the ruler of what's to come."
"How?"
"You must enter the Third Circle. The place where magic, soul, and blood converge. There, you will see who you are. Not just me. But *you*. Without lies. Without masks."
A red light began to spiral beneath my feet, forming ancient sigils. The air grew heavy, the altar trembled. The ground beneath us split open, revealing a deep, endless vortex.
"That is where the curse was born," Elara said. "And that is where it can be ended."
Aldric took my hand. "I'm going with you."
I turned to him, and for the first time since this began, I saw certainty in his eyes. No doubt. No fear.
"If you are Elara," he said, looking at me intently, "and if I once loved you... then I'll love you now. No matter what name you carry."
Tears slipped down my cheeks. Not just because of his words. But because—for the first time—my soul felt whole.
Elara touched my forehead. "Take me with you. But don't let me lead your steps. You are stronger than I ever was. You... are the closure to my broken story."
We stepped into the light together. And the world changed.
---
We landed between sky and earth that were not real. This world was a shattered mirror of life. There were shadows of trees with no leaves, rivers made of light, and air whispering with voices of memory.
"Elara has been here before," Aldric said.
I nodded. "I know. Because my feet know where to walk."
Before us, three paths formed. One of white light. One of frozen blood. One dark, with no visible end.
"Elara," I called.
Her voice echoed within my mind. *"One leads to salvation. One to ruin. One to truth. Only one will lead you out."*
I clutched the pendant around my neck—the one that appeared the day the curse first stirred.
"What should I choose?" I asked Aldric.
He looked at the three paths. "The one that terrifies you the most. The one you resist."
I knew that was the answer. So I stepped onto the darkest path. Every step stabbed my mind with memories not my own—yet somehow familiar. I saw Elara staring into a mirror, blood on her hands. I saw a past Aldric weeping on the battlefield. I saw a crown burned atop a corpse.
And at the end of that path—stood me. But also not me.
A woman with long black hair, glowing red eyes, and a wounded smile.
"I am you—the one who destroyed love for a crown. Are you… ready to do it again?"
I stood before her, my breath trembling.
"No," I said.
Her smile faded. "Then will you choose to lose love… just to fix the past?"
Her voice echoed, and the world began to tremble.
I turned to Aldric—who now stood at the threshold of the light, his body starting to fade.
"Elara," he called. "Hurry. If you don't choose… I will—"
And just then, a blinding light erupted from the ground, and the world cracked open—
---