---
The wind had changed.
Chirag could feel it. It wasn't just colder—it carried voices. Faint echoes, like whispers calling his name. Not in fear. Not in anger.
In warning.
He stood at the bow of the ship as it sailed through thick clouds, the sun barely visible. Beside him, Siya tightened her cloak against the chill. Kael checked their course.
"Where are we headed now?" Siya asked.
Chirag held up the divine map, given by Vaelis. The ink shimmered and rearranged, glowing symbols showing a new location.
"To the Whispering Temple," he said. "It's where the next Forgotten God lives—Neriah, the Seer."
Kael looked over his shoulder. "I've heard of her. She sees through lies, speaks in riddles, and can bend truth like glass. If she joins us… she might help us see what's coming next."
"Or what we've been blind to all along," Siya added softly.
Chirag nodded. "Let's find her."
---
The Whispering Temple wasn't a temple in the usual sense. It wasn't built from stone or wood. It rose from a forest of white trees, vines wrapping around a dome that floated slightly above the ground. The air around it shimmered like heat, even though it was cold.
As soon as the trio stepped inside, the air shifted.
It felt like time slowed—but not like with Vaelis. This was something else.
Something older.
The walls of the temple whispered to them.
Not with words.
With memories.
---
Chirag heard the voice of his sister—the one who abandoned him when he was still a boy.
"You'll never be one of us."
Kael heard his master, yelling in pain from the war that broke him.
And Siya… Siya heard her father's voice. Cruel. Distant.
"Your heart is your weakness."
She flinched. Chirag caught her hand.
"They're not real," he whispered. "They want to test us."
Siya nodded, but the shadows in her eyes didn't fade.
---
At the center of the temple stood a spiral staircase, but it didn't rise upward—it wound down into darkness.
They descended together, torches lighting on their own as they passed.
At the bottom, they entered a circular chamber with no walls, only mirrors—hundreds of them. Some showed their reflections, some didn't. Some cracked. Some shifted as they moved.
And in the middle, on a chair made of bones and light, sat Neriah.
She was unlike anyone they had met. Not young. Not old. Her eyes were pure white, like moonstone. Her voice was soft, but when she spoke, it echoed from every mirror at once.
"Three seekers. One truth. A war that bends the world. And yet… a heart more dangerous than any sword."
Chirag stepped forward. "You know why we've come."
"Yes," Neriah said. "To ask me to fight your war. But I will not fight it… until you understand your own fate."
She waved her hand—and the mirrors around them changed.
---
One mirror showed Chirag kneeling in fire, his body burned, his soul torn—but behind him stood Siya, arms around him, whispering, "Don't let go."
Another mirror showed Siya in the future—older, her eyes full of tears, holding something small and glowing.
A child?
Another showed Kael surrounded by fallen warriors, standing alone, sword in hand, refusing to surrender.
Each mirror flickered between possible futures, and not all were happy.
In one, Chirag fell.
In another, Siya burned.
In the worst, they were enemies—Chirag wearing a crown of flame, Siya facing him with sorrow in her eyes.
"No future is fixed," Neriah said. "But each choice builds the path. I can show you the road. But I cannot walk it for you."
Siya stepped forward. "We don't want prophecy. We want you. We want your help to stop the gods."
Neriah stood, her bare feet making no sound on the mirror floor.
"You carry more than power," she said to Chirag. "You carry pain. And pain, when sharpened, becomes prophecy."
She placed a glowing hand on his forehead.
Images rushed through his mind—thunder, blood, a crown, a sword broken in two… and Siya, always Siya, standing between light and darkness.
Chirag gasped as he stumbled back.
"What… was that?"
"Your truth," Neriah whispered. "You are not just flame-born. You are fate-breaker. The gods know it. That is why they fear you."
Kael tightened his grip on his blade. "Then help us break their hold."
Neriah turned slowly to the darkest mirror in the room. Inside, a symbol glowed—the mark of the gods.
"I will," she said. "But not as a warrior. As a watcher."
She reached into her chest and pulled out a piece of her own spirit, glowing like silver mist. "This is the Eye of Clarity. When the gods cloud your path, this will reveal their tricks. Use it only in desperation. The truth can cut deeper than any blade."
She handed it to Siya.
Then she looked at Chirag once more.
"There is a war coming. But it is not just against gods. It is against what the gods created: fear, pride, control. You must burn all of it away."
The temple began to fade.
The mirrors turned to smoke.
And Neriah's voice echoed one last time.
"Find the fourth. But beware… he is not like the others. He remembers everything. Even the things you have forgotten."
---
Back on the ship, they set sail again.
Three gods now walked with them: Elira of Storms, Vaelis of Time, and Neriah of Sight.
One remained.
The one they feared most.
The one the gods had exiled not for defiance… but for mercy.
And far above, in the halls of heaven, the gods watched.
And they began to move their armies.
---