The platform kept rising.
Faster now. Like whatever had noticed them wasn't exactly patient.
Maelin gritted her teeth. Her sword—no, the Starforge—burned in her grip. Not hot, but heavy, like it was remembering a thousand years of being asleep and really not enjoying being awake again.
Above, the ceiling cracked. Not shattered—cracked. Like glass trying to hold back a black ocean.
Caelum looked up and whispered, "That's not sky, is it?"
"Nope," Maelin muttered. "It's space. And something's looking through it."
Because it was. Something enormous. Something ancient. Not with eyes. With gravity. With memory. With expectation.
And somehow, it was waiting on her.
---
The Chorus of the Forgotten
The platform stopped at a landing made of stardust and bones. Literal bones. Not human—older. Bigger. Some still hummed like they'd rather not be touched.
In the center of the landing: a circle of pillars. Floating symbols rotated around them, blinking in and out like broken constellations. And in the middle, a swirling mass of light and sound—like someone had tried to trap a galaxy inside a storm.
Caelum backed up. "That's a portal. Isn't it?"
Maelin didn't answer. She didn't have to. The thing called to her. Her blood sang like a tuning fork. Her memories—or someone else's—started whispering:
> "She who is the Key must pass the Gate…
The Choir must be silenced…
The Star must fall."
The echo's voice—Velastra's—rose from behind them.
"You were never meant to reach this place."
Maelin turned. "And yet, here I am."
Velastra stepped forward, light leaking from her cracked form. "If you cross that gate, you become what they made you to be. You won't come back."
Maelin's voice was steady. "Maybe that's the point."
---
The Choice
The storm spun louder. Faster. It pulsed in time with the Starforge blade.
Caelum grabbed her arm. "Maelin. You don't have to go in. We'll find another way. We always do."
She looked at him, soft for just a moment. "There is no other way. This isn't about fighting a war. It's about finishing a song no one wanted to hear."
Velastra raised her hand. "Then take your place. But know this: the moment you step through that gate… the Star will watch no longer. It will act."
Maelin stepped forward.
The portal flared.
The stars screamed.
And Maelin vanished.