Auren’s fingers tightened around her wrist.
"Found you."
The words weren’t ant for Elyndra.
They carried a different weight, soft, almost disbelieving, as though he had been searching through darkness and finally stumbled onto sothing fragile and real.
Elyndra blinked in surprise, caught off-guard by the shift in his tone.
"Excuse ?" she scoffed, tugging slightly against his grip. "Are you losing it already?"
Auren didn’t look at her.
His attention had dropped, focused on the place where the shard hovered dangerously near Seraphina’s stomach, on the warmth beneath his palm that didn’t belong to Elyndra at all. His breathing slowed, steadying as though he had finally tuned into the right frequency after listening to noise for far too long.
"There you are," he whispered again, quieter this ti, his voice losing its edge and turning impossibly gentle. "Hold on..."
That was when it finally reached her.
Understanding flashed across Elyndra’s face, vivid and ugly.
She yanked hard against his grip, trying to tear her wrist free from his hold. "You can’t get her out!" she snapped, panic bleeding through the venom in her voice. "Do you think I spent a century planning this just for you to undo it in a mont?!"
Her other hand shot up with the shard, her movents no longer careful or teasing, but frantic.
Auren’s grip tightened instinctively... not to hurt her, but to hold her still. His attention never left the quiet warmth beneath his palm, even as Elyndra struggled against him like a cornered animal.
"Let go!" she hissed, fury burning through her expression. "She’s mine! This body is mine!"
But Auren didn’t answer her.
He leaned closer instead, his voice low enough that only the one he was calling to could hear it.
"I’m here," he murmured. "You’re not alone anymore."
And sowhere beneath the seal... sothing stirred.
====
"Auren?"
My head snapped up instantly. I was sure I heard it this ti. I hadn’t imagined that voice. It was his.
I forced myself upright, my heart pounding faster as I looked around the endless white paths of the maze, trying to find the source of the sound.
And then I saw it again.
A shadow slipped across the white wall ahead of .
I froze.
It wasn’t mine.
It moved too slowly and lightly... like smoke gliding across stone.
My breath caught as I turned fully, eyes fixed on the moving shape. The shadow stretched thin, then scattered, then re-ford again like sothing drifting just out of sight.
But sothing about it was wrong.
Shadows weren’t supposed to move like that.
I took a slow step closer and then another until the light shifted just enough for to finally see what was casting it.
Not a figure. Not a body.
Feathers!
Dozens of them.
No—hundreds.
So pale against the white maze that they almost disappeared from sight, their edges catching only enough light to leave faint silhouettes trembling along the walls. As they drifted together, they shaped themselves into sothing that looked like a shadow moving through the maze.
That was what I’d been chasing.
Not a person. It was a trail, a ssage or maybe a guide that I was supposed to follow.
"Auren..." My voice broke quietly as understanding settled into my chest.
The feathers began to change direction, gathering silently, flowing together like a river of silver light.
And for the first ti since I woke up in this place—I knew where to go.
I followed the trail without thinking, my feet moving almost on their own as the feathers drifted ahead of . They didn’t rush. They flowed forward in a quiet, patient stream, turning corners before I did, slipping through paths that had once felt endless and confusing but now strangely certain beneath my steps.
The maze seed to respond as I moved.
Walls that once looked identical began to feel different, the air subtly shifting with each turn. The farther I walked, the more the weight in my chest eased. It was faint, barely noticeable at first, but after every few steps it grew a little stronger, a little warr, as if sothing inside was slowly waking up after a long sleep.
Eventually, the feathers began to slow.
They drifted lower, one by one, settling into the air instead of pulling forward, until the stream thinned and the maze opened into a wide, quiet clearing.
And there... Soone was standing at the far end.
A figure with their back facing .
Perfectly still.
Not part of the maze.
Not a wall.
Not another illusion.
Soone.
I frowned, my steps slowing until I ca to a stop, uncertainty creeping into my chest. Sothing about the way she stood... too calm and composed, making my fingers curl unconsciously at my sides.
The feathers hovered around now, no longer guiding, no longer pulling.
I swallowed and took a careful step forward.
"Hello...?"
The woman finally turned.
I blinked in confusion. I didn’t recognize her at all... yet sohow, she looked painfully familiar in a way I couldn’t explain. She was smiling at , soft and beautifully but there was sothing behind that smile that made my heart ache, like it was holding into thousands of sad mories.
"Thank you..." she murmured. Her voice was gentle, almost lodic. "Thanks to you, I might finally be able to leave this prison."
My brows knitted instantly.
"What...?" My frown deepened as confusion hit. "Who are you?"
The woman’s smile widened just a little.
"A prisoner," she answered lightly, as if that explained everything. "Just like you." Her eyes flickered toward the floating feathers around us. "The difference is... you have soone coming to look for you."
My heart skipped.
"Wait..." My thoughts scattered all at once.
She smiled again, and this ti there was nothing distant about it, only quiet warmth, the kind that made breathing feel a little easier without understanding why.
"Nice to et you, Seraphina..."
A chill ran through anyway, because how the hell she knew my na?
"Who are you?" I whispered as I took a step back. "How do you even know my na?"
The woman tilted her head gently, as though choosing her words with care.
"I am Celeste, Celeste Blaze."
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