The Gate's glow faded into a steady pulse, like the rhythm of a heart long dormant. Elara stood still, hand outstretched, staring at the place where her mother's voice had echoed.
"Did anyone else hear that?" she whispered.
Kael rose slowly, bruised but breathing. "I didn't. But whatever you did... it woke something."
Seris wiped blood from her cheek. "We need to know what."
Lysar limped to the edge of the platform. "The Gate… it's responding to her. Not just her power — her bloodline. Isolde may have sealed something of herself inside."
Elara's mark shimmered faintly, as if urging her onward. She knelt before the Gate and touched the cool metal.
In that moment, the world tilted.
Flame flared in her vision. Gold and crimson swirled around her, and she was falling — not through space, but memory.
---
She stood in a clearing beneath two moons.
Her mother, Isolde, was there — younger, vibrant, and cloaked in flame. Beside her, a man with eyes like Elara's: warm, brave, uncertain.
"Elara will never be safe while the Gate remains unsealed," Isolde whispered. "They'll find her. Twist her."
"She's just a child."
"She's the only one who can stop it."
A hand pressed to Isolde's belly — the soft curve of life.
"I'll leave part of me behind," Isolde said. "In the Gate. A flame to guide her, if all else fails."
The vision blurred — fire turned to ash, and Elara heard the crack of battle, the roar of breaking stone, the cry of a child—
---
She gasped, falling backward, clutching her chest.
Kael caught her. "Elara!"
"I saw her," she whispered. "My mother. She… she left a memory inside the Gate. A piece of herself. She knew I'd come."
Lysar looked pale. "That confirms it. You're not just her daughter — you're her legacy. She prepared you for this."
Elara stood, a new fire rising in her. "Then I'll finish what she started. We find the next seal. We awaken the full Gate."
Seris nodded. "Then we prepare — because Malric will return, and next time, he won't come alone."
Above them, the sky darkened unnaturally.
And somewhere, deep beyond the crater's edge… something ancient stirred.