The silence in the Heart Chamber was different from other silences.
It wasn't the absence of noise.
It was the weight of memory. Of time suspended.
Kaelen stood before the crystal sarcophagus, unable to move. His hand hovered inches from its glowing surface, fingers trembling not from fear—but recognition.
The figure inside—tall, dark-haired, armor etched with archaic glyphs—looked so much like him it felt like staring into a mirror of a life not lived.
Seraphine stayed at his side, the medallion in her palm pulsing in sync with the glyphs trapped in the crystal.
"It's really him," she whispered.
Kaelen nodded slowly. "I don't know how I know that. But it is."
Mira stepped forward cautiously. "The wards here are ancient. Pre-Tower. Probably built when the Academy was still a Sanctum."
Selene paced a slow circle around the Heart. "That means they won't hold if the Tower finds this place."
"They won't," Mira said tightly. "Because they'll be too busy chasing ghosts."
Kaelen finally turned to her. "You planted a decoy?"
She smirked, rubbing soot from her shoulder. "I might've let a few sigils slip. Enough for them to think you escaped through the eastern tunnels."
Seraphine arched a brow. "That'll only buy us hours."
"Which is more than we had a moment ago."
Kaelen finally placed his palm on the surface of the crystal.
It didn't resist.
A warm pulse answered him—soft, curious. Like a child's hand pressing back.
"Who was he?" Selene asked softly.
Mira sighed. "Arkyn Valen. Commander of the Veritas Rebellion. Your father… at least by blood."
Kaelen's thoughts whirled. "But he died. Everyone said he died at the Battle of Glyphfall."
"No." Mira's voice dropped. "He was betrayed. By someone on the inside. One of his own. Instead of killing him, the Tower locked him here. Sealed him with his own glyphs. They've been siphoning his resonance ever since—powering half the damn wards in the Academy."
Seraphine stepped closer. "Then this place... it's not a sanctum. It's a battery."
Mira nodded grimly. "They built an entire empire off his imprisonment."
Kaelen's heart pounded in his chest, too loud, too fast.
"He was trying to protect something," he murmured. "Not destroy it."
Selene turned sharply. "And now the Tower knows you carry the same glyphs."
Kaelen lowered his hand, stepping back from the crystal. "Then we wake him."
Mira stared. "Are you insane?"
"If he's alive—"
"He's not just alive. He's anchored. That's a sigil loop reinforced by divine tethering. If you break it wrong, you kill him. Or you trigger a resonance spike big enough to collapse half the damn capital."
Kaelen didn't flinch. "So what do we do?"
Seraphine stepped beside the crystal, her eyes shimmering gold-blue. "We listen."
They fell silent.
For a long moment, nothing.
Then the crystal pulsed.
Not bright.
Rhythmic.
Three glyphs shimmered across the front face of the sarcophagus.
Not written in Veritas.
But Kaelen understood them.
"Echo. Flame. Bond."
Selene frowned. "What does that mean?"
Kaelen barely breathed. "They're a ritual. A key."
"Do you know how to activate it?"
"No," he said. "But someone else might."
His eyes flicked to Seraphine.
She blinked. "Me?"
"The medallion chose you. It didn't just react—it remembered. And those visions you had… they weren't just memories."
Seraphine hesitated. Then slowly, she raised the medallion. As it neared the crystal, the glyphs brightened—first dimly, then flaring with layered symbols only she could see.
Echo.
The medallion thrummed. A soft tone echoed through the chamber, vibrating through bone, magic, and memory.
Seraphine whispered the word aloud.
The glyph sank into the crystal.
Flame.
Kaelen stepped forward, placing his hand beside hers.
Their glyphs ignited, not violently—but with an almost reverent fire. Blue and gold dancing in arcs of tethered light.
The second glyph faded into the crystal.
Bond.
Seraphine turned her head slowly.
Their faces were inches apart.
Kaelen met her gaze and saw the question in her eyes—not fear, but a trembling hope neither of them dared name.
Slowly, without words, he laced his fingers into hers.
Their glyphs pulsed as one.
The final symbol faded into the crystal.
The sound that followed was like breath drawn after centuries of silence.
The crystal shattered—not into shards, but into light.
Arkyn Valen collapsed forward, into Kaelen's arms.
He didn't speak.
Didn't move.
But his eyes flickered open—and for a moment, Kaelen felt a presence in his mind. Towering. Fierce. Protective.
"My son," Arkyn whispered.
And then he fell unconscious again.
They didn't have time to marvel.
Selene was already moving, blades drawn.
"They're coming."
Kaelen laid his father gently on the ground. "Can he walk?"
"No," Mira said. "But I can carry him. The escape route leads through the Veiled Hollow. They won't follow us there. Not if they value their minds."
Seraphine stood watch near the ruined threshold. "Then let's go. We have what they feared most. And if we don't move fast, they'll turn this entire city against us."
Kaelen nodded.
But as he turned to leave, something shifted behind him.
A sigil flared in the far archway. Not Tower. Not Veritas.
Familiar.
Kaelen's eyes widened.
"Wait—Selene—"
But it was too late.
The glyph exploded with shadow.
And from it stepped a woman.
Dark red hair. Eyes the color of midnight. Armor pulsing with corrupted glyphs, her sigil like twisted glass.
Selene stopped cold.
"Mother."
Kaelen's breath caught. "What?"
The woman smiled.
"Hello, daughter."