The chamber had yet to settle from Aelira's awakening. Energy still hummed in the air, dancing across the cracked tiles and flickering in the strands of light lingering near the broken cocoon. Aelira stood at its center, barefoot on the stone, her presence both fragile and impossibly vast. Her silver hair drifted around her like mist, and her translucent robes shimmered with threads of starlight.
Kaela stood a few paces away, heart pounding, unsure if it was awe, dread, or something in between. "You said the world has changed," she repeated softly.
Aelira's gaze swept over the gathered council members Brannic's stone-faced concern and Eylira's inquisitive calm, before returning to Kaela. "Time has frayed the edges of everything. I dreamed in fragments, caught echoes of what was and is. The seal… it is unraveling faster than expected."
Lucien stepped forward, his posture straightening as the Warden took command. "How long do we have?"
Aelira exhaled slowly. "No more than a year. Perhaps less."
The silence that followed pressed like a weight against Kaela's chest. A year. Maybe less.
"We thought we could repair it," Brannic said, voice roughened by disbelief. "Forge a new seal. Find the original binding rites."
"You cannot," Aelira said simply. "The original seal was not crafted it was sacrificed. A convergence of god-kin blood, ancient truths, and a fragment of existence itself. You cannot rebuild what was born of extinction."
Eylira bowed her head. "Then what hope remains?"
Aelira stepped down from the platform, her feet touching the floor with the grace of falling snow. "You must grow. All of you. Beyond what you are. The stages you walk now are echoes of true power."
Kaela tilted her head. "You mean beyond Beyond Stage Three?"
Aelira nodded. "There are four more. Locked to you not by nature, but by design. The Concord's founders chose to forget them. Too dangerous, they believed. Too tempting."
Kaela's fingers curled at her side. "We'll take the risk."
Aelira's eyes locked onto hers. "You must. But know this each Stage comes at a price. Strength, memory, essence... the Spiral demands something in return."
Kaela didn't flinch. "We'll pay it."
Lucien turned to face the others. "Then we start now. We prepare."
Brannic cracked his knuckles. "A year's time. We'll make it count."
The return journey from the Miralith Vault was quiet, each member lost in thought. Eylira rode ahead on a spectral mount. Brannic stomped beside the caravan, his footfalls steady like a war drum. Kaela and Lucien walked side by side at the rear, shadows long beneath the setting sun.
"She's hiding something," Kaela said after a time.
Lucien didn't look at her. "She's been trapped in a timeless sleep surrounded by arcane decay. I'd be surprised if she remembered her own name without pain."
Kaela narrowed her eyes. "She knew mine before I spoke it."
He nodded. "Which means she's been dreaming of you."
They walked in silence for a few steps before Kaela spoke again. "We need a secure location to start preparations. Somewhere isolated, defensible."
Lucien exhaled slowly. "The Eclipse Bastion."
Kaela stopped walking. "That place still exists?"
He gave her a sharp glance. "Barely. The barrier is unstable, but the terrain is ideal. Mountains on three sides. An old Riftline beneath it still pulses with raw energy."
Kaela nodded. "Then that's where we go."
-----
Three weeka later at 'The Eclipse Bastion', it rose from the spine of the Dremar Peaks like a scar. Once a stronghold of mythic warriors, it had been abandoned during the War of Sundering, left to rot beneath skyfire storms and seismic ruptures. Now, the council's presence had stirred it back to life.
Golems lumbered through the outer walls, guided by Forgemaster Torik's rune-bound commands. Spell barriers shimmered into place as Kaela directed spellweaves into ancient pylons. Brannic's warriors drilled through the snow-laden courtyards, their grunts forming a war-chant against the cold.
In a central chamber reformed from fractured marble, the full council convened for the first time since Aelira's return.
Kaela stood at the center, beside Lucien, with Aelira seated upon a makeshift dais still too weak to stand for long, but her mind sharp and radiant.
Nyrix, the Reaper, leaned against a column, arms folded. "So. We spend a year training like desperate schoolchildren, and then what? Hope the Calamity trips on its way out?"
Torik grunted. "Better than standing around with our beards in our fists."
"You don't even have a beard," Nyrix shot back.
"Metaphor," Torik growled.
Kaela raised a hand, silencing the room. "This isn't just training. This is evolution. Aelira will guide us through the next stages, but we'll need to push harder than we ever have."
Aelira opened her palm. Threads of golden light swirled above it, forming seven concentric spirals.
"Stage Four," she began, "is the Apex Root. You will begin to rewrite your essence your affinity begins to take on new forms, blend with others, deepen."
She looked at Kaela. "Your Arcane Spiral will learn to mirror and devour. You'll absorb the residue of enemy spells, replicate their structure, enhance them with your dominion."
Kaela's breath caught in her throat.
Aelira continued, pointing to Lucien. "Your Judgment Flame will no longer be bound to law. It will begin to rewrite causality. You'll burn away truth and replace it with what must be."
Eyes turned toward Brannic. "Your Seismic Might will become Seismic Genesis. Each stomp, each punch will no longer break earth, but create it. Terrain-shifting at will."
One by one, she outlined what their future held glimpses of terrifying, impossible growth. The room fell into hushed reverence as she concluded.
"But know this, at Stage Four, you stop being mortal. And you begin to fracture."
"Fracture?" Eylira asked.
"You will remember lives that are not your own. Feel truths that conflict. Dreams that do not belong to you. It is the price of touching the Spiral."
Kaela stepped forward. "Then teach us how to survive it."
Aelira looked at her, something ancient stirring in her eyes. "Very well, Spellcaster. Let the Ascension begin."
-----
Later at night, Kaela sat at her desk, fingers wrapped around a crystal pen. She was supposed to be logging the energy fluctuations from the newly anchored pylons, but her hand hovered above the page, unmoving.
There was a knock at the door. She didn't look up. "Enter."
Lucien stepped in, his cloak dusted with snow. "The first Spiral trial begins tomorrow."
Kaela nodded.
He lingered by the door. "Are you ready?"
She set the pen down. "No. But I'm not waiting either."
Lucien watched her for a moment. "You know what Aelira didn't say aloud?"
Kaela turned. "What?"
He walked closer. "That of all of us you'll reach Stage Seven."
She laughed once, bitter. "And that makes me what? A beacon or a target?"
"Both," he said. "But you won't stand alone."
Kaela looked into his eyes. For a moment, she saw past the polished cold of the Warden and saw the man beneath. The one who had always, silently, stood at her side.
"Good," she said softly. "Because what's coming… none of us can face it alone."