The Hollow Sanctum
---
The Hollow Sanctum stood like a wound in the land — jagged ruins of black stone, half-buried in snow and silence.
No birds. No wind. Not even the sound of distant trees swaying.
Just stillness.
Kael pulled his cloak tighter as he and Elara crested a ridge overlooking the Sanctum's gate — a fractured archway half-swallowed by frost. Strange glyphs, some glowing faintly, etched themselves into the stone, pulsing with a rhythm that didn't match any natural beat.
"This place was a temple once," Elara whispered, her breath forming white clouds. "Before the Veils fractured. Before the world broke."
"And now?"
"Now it's a graveyard for truths we were never meant to dig up."
Kael stepped forward.
The moment his boot crossed the edge of the ruins, the air thickened. Time itself seemed to lurch — then stutter back into place.
Elara tensed. "Feel that?"
Kael nodded. "Like the world flinched."
They moved in silence, descending into the Sanctum's belly. Broken corridors spiraled downward, lit only by the soft glow of Veilrunes etched into the walls. The deeper they went, the colder it became.
But Kael wasn't shivering.
He was burning.
Not on the outside — inside. The same way he had in the trial. Like something buried inside his chest had started to wake.
They entered a vast chamber, its ceiling lost in darkness. At the center stood a stone dais, half-cracked, and hovering just above it—
Another Shard.
This one was different.
Instead of radiant white like the Convergence Shard, this one pulsed with dark violet light — as though it bled memory and shadow.
Kael stepped toward it.
Boom.
The chamber trembled.
From the edges of the room, cloaked figures emerged — six in total. Faces hidden beneath bone-white masks. Crimson embroidery on their robes twisted like living flame.
Veilborne Requiem.
Kael instinctively raised a hand — energy flaring in his fingertips.
But the lead figure raised his palm. "We do not come to fight. Not yet."
Elara snarled, blades sliding into her hands. "Liar. You always come to destroy."
The figure tilted his head. "You still don't understand, do you? This world isn't dying because of the Veils. It's dying because we cling to them."
Kael stepped forward, standing between the Shard and the intruders. "You're not taking it."
"No," the figure said. "You are."
Kael froze.
"What?"
The man's voice lowered. "You think this is coincidence? That the Shards awaken at random? You're not a mistake, Kael. You're the Veil's answer."
Kael's hands shook. "Answer to what?"
"To us. To everything that came before. You're not just a wielder of Veils. You're the axis. The final synthesis."
The chamber groaned. The Shard pulsed brighter.
And then — the world shattered.
---
Visions.
Kael blinked and found himself in a place not bound by time. Floating structures. Endless skies of purple fire. Thousands of doors. Some open. Most closed.
Each door pulsed with a Veil — and each pulled at a part of him.
And standing in the center of it all… was himself.
But older. Worn. Eyes glowing with pain.
"You'll become me," the vision said. "Unless you choose now."
Kael clenched his fists. "Choose what?"
"To wield the Veils… or to break them."
---
He gasped awake. Back in the chamber. On his knees.
Elara knelt beside him, eyes wide with fear.
The Requiem were gone.
The Shard hovered before him — and it had changed.
It no longer pulsed with shadow.
It pulsed with him.