Orin's fingers brushed the surface of the obelisk.
It was warm. Alive. The moment his skin met the stone, the entire chamber shuddered, and a wave of light surged outward. Kaelen and Mira staggered back, shielding their eyes. The obelisk split open—not physically, but as if reality itself was peeling apart—revealing a vortex of stars and memory swirling within.
Orin's mind plunged into it.
He was no longer in Nahl'Karai.
He stood in a sky of fire and gold, surrounded by ghostly echoes—Skyborn from ages past. Their voices rose in a chant, each one murmuring the same name: Orin Valemyr.
One of them stepped forward. A woman cloaked in constellations.
> "You carry the Skybrand," she said, "but you do not yet understand its cost. Binding the anchor is not a task—it is a sacrifice."
"I don't care," Orin said. "If it stops the Hollow Star, I'll pay the price."
The woman raised her hand, and a small star appeared above her palm, burning gently.
> "Then take this fragment of what was lost. Bind it to your flame."
Orin reached out—and felt something burn into his chest.
His vision snapped back to the chamber.
He gasped, staggering back from the obelisk. A mark now glowed at the center of his chest beneath his tunic—a sigil formed of three stars and a curved blade of light. Kaelen stepped toward him, eyes wide.
"You've done it," he said. "You've re-bound the anchor."
Mira looked around the chamber, which now pulsed with calm energy rather than the previous storm of time distortion. "Then why doesn't this place feel any safer?"
The Remnant, still watching from the shadows, answered grimly.
> "Because you've awoken something with it."
Far above, the sky let out a deep, distant groan.
Outside the chamber, the clouds above Nahl'Karai began to swirl. A rift opened in the heavens—deep violet and starless, like a hole punched through reality.
Kaelen's face went pale. "The Hollow Star… it knows."
"Good," Orin said, still breathing heavily. "Let it come. We'll stop it again."
The Remnant stared at him, then gave a slow nod. "Then your path is clear. Three anchors remain. But each will be harder than the last."
"Where do we go next?" Mira asked.
Kaelen turned to the ancient map etched along the chamber's back wall. Three points were now glowing faintly—one deep beneath the sea, one high in a sky realm torn from the world, and one… drifting.
"Next," he said, "we go to the Drowned Archive. To the seabed vaults of Vel'Serin."
Mira groaned. "Great. I've always wanted to nearly drown in an ancient ruin."
Orin looked down at the glowing sigil on his chest.
One anchor restored.
Three more to go.
And the Hollow Star was watching.