The chamber's walls shuddered, as if they too had been affected by the weight of the past. The illusion was gone, but its remnants clung to Ochieng's mind like a whisper of something he didn't want to acknowledge.
The woman in silver stepped closer, her presence steady, unwavering. "You're stronger than you realize."
Ochieng let out a slow breath, his fists unclenching. "Then why do I still feel like I lost something?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she turned toward the far end of the chamber, where the shadows had once stood. The air trembled, as if something unseen had shifted.
Ochieng followed her gaze.
The door had appeared.
It was ancient, its surface carved with symbols he didn't recognize, pulsating with an eerie glow.
The woman in silver touched the door, her fingers trailing across the patterns. "This is what they were trying to keep from you."
Ochieng narrowed his eyes. "What's behind it?"
She exhaled. "The truth."
His heartbeat quickened.
The truth.
The thing he had been chasing for so long, buried beneath layers of deception, betrayal, and pain.
For a moment, Ochieng hesitated. The weight of everything pressed on him—the faces of those he had lost, the battles he had fought, the choices he could never take back.
But there was no turning back now.
He stepped forward.
The door groaned as it creaked open, revealing a corridor bathed in an unnatural golden light. The air inside was heavy, thick with something unseen, something watching.
He stepped inside.
And then—
The world tilted.
Pain exploded in his skull, and the light collapsed into darkness.
Ochieng awoke to the sound of dripping water.
His vision blurred, adjusting to the dim glow of lanterns that flickered across cold stone walls. The air smelled of damp earth and something metallic—blood.
He tried to move.
Chains.
Thick iron chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles, binding him to the stone floor. The metal was ice-cold, sinking into his skin like a living thing.
A slow, measured voice echoed through the chamber.
"You shouldn't have come here, Ochieng."
His blood ran cold.
A figure stepped into the light.
Tall. Cloaked in shadows.
And then—
He saw the face.
A face he knew. A face he had once trusted.
And for the first time in a long time…
Ochieng felt fear.