The dreams returned.
Not the quiet ones that melted away like mist with the rising sun, but the heavy, crushing ones—dreams filled with ancient magic and dark foreboding.
Elira was in a starfield, suspended, windless. The heavens above were torn in two—one side blazed with golden light, the other churned with endless black.
A voice called from the void.
"You were chosen, Lightborn."
And then it was gone.
She sat up, heart pounding against her ribs. Her sheets were slick with sweat, and the room pulsed with the gentle hum of sleeping magic. Her fingertips glowed softly with light—a lingering echo from whatever she'd summoned in the dream.
She sat up, rubbing her eyes. The bond whispered softly at the back of her head.
Kael.
Was he dreaming too?
She reached out across their link with cautious thought.
You awake?
A beat passed.
.I am now.
His mental voice was grumbly, rough with sleep, but comforting in its immediacy.
Something's wrong, she thought back.
Tell me everything.
She did. The dream. The voice. The stars. The division of sky.
Kael was silent for a moment, then said, I've seen it too. Just once. Years ago.
Elira blinked. Before the bond?
Yes.
That wasn't possible… was it?
Before she could question further, the bells in the tower rang.
Three distinct chimes. One extended. One abrupt.
Council calling, Kael said. Not to the Hollow Hall, however. This is public.
Elira was already out of bed and in uniform, her brain whirling.
Why would the Council call them publicly?
She didn't need long to find out.
---
Arcanis Academy's central arena was ancient—urged with magic and stained with history. It had not been used in over a decade, not since the Rift Duels.
It was now crowded with students, professors, and enforcers. The elevated Council seats beyond the ring glimmered with magic, their forms obscured by shadow. Rumors spread like fire through the masses.
"Is this a trial?"
"Did the soul-bond fail?"
"I heard she tried to seize his magic again."
"She's perilous…"
Elira stamped down the stone steps more forceful than intended as she descended into the arena, all eyes on her. Kael already stood there, standing at the center of the ring, arms crossed and face impassive.
"You appear about to ignite the heavens," he said as she drew near.
"I might, depending on what this is."
"Good," Kael replied. "We'll match then."
A booming voice rang out from the Council's platform.
"By order of the High Circle, the bond of Elira Thorne and Kael Valen shall be tested through the Rite of Wills."
A stunned silence fell over the arena.
Elira's heart dropped. She turned to Kael, her voice a sharp whisper.
"The Rite of Wills? That's—"
"Illegal. Dangerous. And illegal in two planes," Kael summed it up ominously. "Which is exactly why they're trying it."
The Council continued, "Void and Light's marriage must be shown to be safe. If it falls apart under magical strain… both parties will be deemed threats to the Balance."
That cold weight of fear crystallized in Elira's stomach.
They weren't here to test her. They were here to break her.
Kael took a step closer and whispered softly low, "Pay attention. Whatever's in there—lean on the connection. Let it guide you. I won't let them take you."
Once.
She nodded.
A sigil unrolled at their feet, and the world ripped apart around them.
---
The arena vanished.
They stood on a floating isle above an abyss of stars, shattered fragments of ground twisting like worlds about them. Magic spat and sizzled through the air like electricity, the air a swirl of purple and black, streaked with luminance.
This was the test plane.
A work of mind and sorcery designed to strengthen their bond—and destroy it if they were unsuccessful.
As the test began, Elira felt the draw.
Magic poured through her like a tide. She invoked her light, constructing a shield around her as Kael formed a spear of Void energy, striking past her—at a ghost coalescing from the fog.
Illusions. Projections.
But they still hurt like real ones.
Monsters formed from nightmare and memory began to attack. Elira killed one with a beam of light, incinerating it, but the moment she did, pain burned across her ribs—Kael's ribs.
I'm sorry! she sent, desperate.
No, Kael answered, I took on your weight. That's how the syncing of the bond is going.
They kept moving. Fighting. Protecting one another.
But the terrain shifted suddenly, becoming a memory.
Elira's.
A cobblestone street she recognized. Collapsing walls. Childhood home.
She stiffened. A child stood before her—herself at ten, staring and blackened.
Kael stepped to stand alongside her, unmoving. "Is this when the fire started?"
She nodded, barely brave enough to inhale.
The memory expanded. Screams. The rush of fire. Her mother's voice calling out her name.
And silence.
The younger Elira stood before them. Then she opened her mouth and screamed—not with sound, but with blinding light.
The blast shoved them both backward.
Kael grunted as he crashed to the ground, blood at the edge of his mouth. Elira caught herself upright.
We can't fight it, she realized. Not like this.
Then how—
Let me attempt something.
She took a step forward, toward her younger self, and dropped to one knee.
"You're afraid," she whispered. "You're angry. You don't know what's within you."
The illusion glowed with more light, unsteady, shaking.
"But I do now. And I'm no longer afraid."
She reached out her hand—and set it on the younger girl's.
Light enveloped her.
And when it faded, the illusion disappeared.
Kael stared at her. "How did you…?"
"I accepted it. I accepted her."
Before he could say another word, the ground beneath them cracked and they plummeted—downward—together.
Another test.
They plummeted into a wasteland.
Kael's memory this time.
Screams were heard in the distance. Darkness crawled across burnt earth. At the center stood a boy, barely thirteen, with black smoke shrouding his hands, eyes wide with terror.
Kael's past.
Elira stepped back. "What happened here?"
Kael did not speak. The boy raised a hand—and a tide of Void crashed down upon them.
Kael did not fight back.
Instead, he moved forward.
"Stop," he said to him. "You are not a monstrosity."
The boy stumbled.
"You were alone. Abandoned. Used."
The wave slowed.
Kael knelt, as Elira had.
"But you survived. And you still did not burn the world to ashes."
He placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.
And the Void peeled away like mist.
When they opened their eyes again, they were in the arena.
All eyes were upon them.
The Council did not speak in unison.
Then the voice of the lead spoke out:
"The bond is… secure."
Gasps echoed through the arena.
Kael shot Elira a glare.
"They attempted to break us."
"But we chose to know instead," she said to him.
He grasped her hand, brazen now.
And for the first time, the academy did not behold a cursed heir and a nothing girl.
But two selected ones.
Not by destiny.
But by one another.
-