Elaren had once been a city of spires and starlight.
Now, only broken arches remained, half-buried in the earth and vines. The final Vault was said to lie beneath the central altar — the place where Seraiya had first spoken to the stars.
They stood in the ruins' shadow, the sky bruised with twilight.
"Something opened the Vault," Ashar said grimly. "But it didn't break it. It was invited."
Aelira didn't speak. She felt it too — the pull. Not like the other Vaults. This one wasn't calling to her power. It was calling to her regret.
Echoes From the Vault
They approached the altar slowly, weapons ready, magic pulsing at their fingertips.
Then he stepped out of the fog.
Not a creature.
A man.
Young, golden-haired, with sharp blue eyes and a crescent scar under his left eye — a face from another life.
"Talen," Aelira whispered.
Kaelen glanced at her. "Who?"
"He was…" she swallowed hard, "…my first knight. My first friend. I left him to die when I chose the crown."
Talen smiled bitterly. "You didn't just leave me, Seraiya. You sacrificed me."
"I didn't know—"
"You knew exactly what you were becoming. And you chose glory over me."
The Confrontation
The air thickened. Talen raised a hand, and shadowflame curled from his palm.
"The Vault twisted me into this. A wraith. A relic. It fed on your guilt and gave me form."
Riven stepped forward, sword unsheathed. "We're not here to fight ghosts."
"I'm not a ghost," Talen snarled. "I'm the piece of her past she never mourned. The one she locked away."
Aelira held up a hand. "Then fight me. Leave them out of it."
Talen nodded. "As it always was."
Their battle began in a blaze of fire and memory — hers gold, his black.
Every strike brought back pieces she had buried.
Every parry echoed with what could have been.
The Breaking Point
Their clash brought the ruins to life — runes glowed, old stone shivered, and the Vault began to pulse beneath their feet.
Talen caught her blade with his bare hand, blood running down his palm.
"I would have died for you, Seraiya."
"And I never wanted you to!" she screamed. "I just… I didn't know how to choose."
The fire in her chest flared — but it wasn't magic this time.
It was grief.
She dropped her weapon.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "You deserved more than a crown. You deserved me."
Talen's eyes softened. His blade lowered.
The Vault's pulse ceased.
"That's all I needed to hear," he said.
And with a sigh, his form began to fade.
"Grieve me, Aelira. And let me go."
She watched him disappear like ash in the wind.
And for the first time in centuries, she wept.
The Vault Opens
As her tears hit the altar stones, the earth rumbled.
The final Vault opened — not with fanfare, but with stillness.
A staircase of starlight unfurled beneath the altar.
Riven helped her stand. "That was the price. Grief, not blood."
Ashar stepped forward, blinking in awe. "We're here."
Kaelen approached, voice low. "You didn't choose me over power. You chose your past. And you honored it."
She looked at him.
"Now," she said, steady, "I choose myself."