The crypt's darkness swallowed them whole. The moment Evelyne and Kael stepped beyond the iron threshold, the door groaned shut behind them, sealing them inside. The torches lining the stairway above did not follow them into the abyss—only the cold, empty void stretched ahead.
Evelyne exhaled slowly, forcing her heartbeat to steady. "I suppose this would be too easy if the heart were just lying around, wouldn't it?"
Kael's lips curved into a shadow of a smirk. "That would be convenient." His voice was quiet, his gaze sweeping the cavernous chamber before them. "But nothing about this place is."
The air was thick with something ancient, something watchful. Evelyne could feel it pressing against her skin like unseen fingers trailing over her spine. The torches on the walls flickered with an eerie blue flame, their light unable to reach the far corners of the crypt. The floor beneath them was smooth stone, cold enough that even through her boots, she could feel the chill.
Kael moved ahead, his steps measured. "The heart was hidden here for a reason," he murmured. "Whatever is guarding it won't be something we can outrun."
Evelyne tightened her grip on the dagger. The weight of it was both reassuring and meaningless. What good was steel against a curse?
Still, she followed.
As they ventured deeper, carvings began to appear on the walls—scenes of sorrow and sacrifice. Figures kneeling before the altar, their hands outstretched in agony. Shadows looming over them, whispering in forgotten tongues. At the center of every carving was the same figure—a woman with empty eyes, holding a bleeding heart in her hands.
Evelyne halted. "This woman… is this your mother?"
Kael's expression darkened as he traced the carvings with his fingers. "It's her, but this isn't a depiction of her as she was in life." He hesitated. "This is how the castle remembers her. As the one who bound me."
The image sent a shiver through Evelyne. The woman's face was twisted, emotionless. But her grip on the heart was unyielding, as though even death could not pry it from her grasp.
Evelyne swallowed. "If she took your heart, then…" She glanced at Kael. "Do you think she still holds it?"
Kael's jaw clenched. "We're about to find out."
A sound echoed through the crypt.
A low, hollow breath.
Evelyne's pulse jumped. The air around them shifted, growing heavier.
Then the blue flames flickered—once, twice—before vanishing completely.
Darkness crashed over them.
Evelyne inhaled sharply, her instincts screaming. She turned toward Kael, but she couldn't see him.
"Kael?"
"I'm here," his voice came from somewhere close, but the pitch-black void made it impossible to judge the distance.
Then, another sound.
A whisper.
It curled through the darkness, threading into her mind.
*You should not have come.*
Evelyne's fingers tightened around the dagger. "Who's there?"
A moment of silence. Then—
The darkness moved.
Shapes emerged, barely distinguishable from the shadows themselves. Pale, elongated figures with hollow eyes. They did not walk; they drifted, their feet never touching the ground.
The lost souls.
No. Not just lost.
Guardians.
Evelyne's breath hitched. These were not the aimless remnants that had chased them before. These were something else entirely.
Kael's voice was low. "They are bound here. They will not let us pass easily."
The nearest figure tilted its head. Its mouth parted, but no words came—only a sigh of wind, as though the breath of the crypt itself had exhaled.
Then, without warning, it lunged.
Evelyne barely had time to react before Kael moved, intercepting the figure with a burst of shadow. The wraith recoiled, shrieking soundlessly. The others stirred in response.
The air trembled.
Evelyne forced herself to move, dodging as another guardian struck toward her. She slashed blindly with her dagger, and for a brief moment, the blade met resistance. The wraith hissed, its form rippling like smoke.
But it did not fall.
They were not creatures of flesh. Steel alone would not stop them.
Kael snarled. "We need to move."
Evelyne spun toward him. "Where? They're everywhere—"
Then, something changed.
The carvings on the walls flared to life. The same ghostly blue light that had once flickered in the torches now burned from the stone itself. The woman in the carving—Kael's mother—seemed to *breathe*, her empty eyes glowing with an unnatural fire.
And beneath her outstretched hands, at the very center of the chamber—
A pedestal.
Upon it rested something small, something pulsing with dim light.
Evelyne's chest clenched.
Kael's heart.
But they weren't the only ones who saw it.
The guardians turned, their movements sharpening with purpose. The air rippled as their focus shifted, no longer drifting—now hunting.
Evelyne didn't wait. She ran.
The shadows closed in around her, grasping, reaching. A wraith lunged from the side, but Kael was there, his power lashing out like a whip. The guardian shrieked and recoiled.
The pedestal was just ahead.
Five steps.
Four.
A wraith materialized in front of her, its hollow eyes locking onto hers.
Three.
Evelyne didn't think. She dove forward, twisting in midair as she plunged the dagger into its form. The wraith shuddered—then collapsed into mist.
Two.
The pedestal pulsed.
One.
Evelyne's fingers closed around the object.
A violent shock ran through her body.
Her mind fractured.
She was not in the crypt anymore.
She was somewhere *else*.
AMemoryNotHerOwn
The room was bathed in golden candlelight. Ornate walls lined with heavy bookshelves. A grand mirror reflecting the face of a woman with cold, piercing eyes.
Kael's mother.
And in her hands—his heart.
Not a simple organ. Not mere flesh. But something more.
It pulsed with power, its glow casting long shadows.
The woman exhaled. "A sacrifice must be made," she murmured, her voice distant. "One life… for eternity."
She turned. And for the first time, Evelyne saw him.
Kael.
But not as she knew him now.
Younger. Softer. His emerald eyes filled not with the weight of centuries, but with fear.
"Mother, please," he whispered. "You don't have to do this."
The woman smiled. It was not cruel. Not warm.
Simply… resigned.
"You will understand one day," she said.
Then she pressed the heart against his chest—
And darkness consumed him.
TheCrypt
Evelyne gasped.
She was back. The pedestal beneath her fingertips. The crypt around her.
The wraiths screaming.
Kael was beside her in an instant. "What happened?"
Evelyne turned to him, her breath ragged. She didn't have time to explain.
She pressed the heart into his hands.
The moment his fingers curled around it, the crypt shook. The wraiths wailed as an unseen force pulled them backward, yanking them into the walls, the carvings swallowing them whole.
The blue flames flickered once—twice—
Then blazed into gold.
And Kael—
Kael breathed.
A shuddering, ragged breath. A sound of something breaking—something shifting inside him.
Evelyne barely had time to react before Kael's knees buckled. She caught him, lowering him to the ground as he clutched the heart to his chest.
His fingers trembled. His entire body shook.
Then—
A pulse of light.
Soft. Warm.
Kael exhaled.
And for the first time in centuries—
His heart beat.