The sea whispered secrets as old as the stars.
Elaria stood on the cliffs of Skellmor, the wind hurling salt and spray against her cheeks, her cloak snapping like a war banner behind her. The ocean stretched before her, vast and hungry. Somewhere beneath those steel waves lay the second gate Kael had spoken of—the last breach between their world and the Hollowborn's dreaming chaos.
Behind her, Kael paced like a caged flame.
"We shouldn't go down there unprepared," he muttered, voice low with unease.
She glanced at him. "If we wait, it finds us first."
They had seen the signs. Villages swallowed by mist. Sleepers who never woke. Children speaking tongues they should not know.
The second gate was stirring.
They descended that night in a storm.
Kael became his dragon form, black as ink, wings like torn thunderclouds. Elaria rode astride his neck, wrapped in enchanted furs, her breath fogging in the freezing air.
Lightning crackled as they soared over churning waters. Below, the sea opened like a wound.
A whirlpool of lightless depth.
Kael dove.
The world turned to pressure, silence, cold.
Magic rippled around them—Kael's breath warming the dark, Elaria's wards holding the crushing sea at bay.
They passed ruins swallowed by coral. Temples carved with screaming faces. Statues of chained gods.
Then, the Gate.
A monstrous circle of obsidian, cracked and weeping shadows, rooted in the seabed like the stump of a torn tree. Runes writhed on its surface. Something moved behind it.
Kael transformed mid-water, gripping Elaria as they drifted down.
"Do we seal it?" he asked.
Elaria stared at the Gate. "We enter it."
They crossed the threshold hand in hand.
And fell into another world.
No sky. No earth. Just endless space, thick with dream.
It smelled like blood and smoke, like forgotten lullabies. Stars blinked in the distance, but they weren't stars—they were eyes.
Kael drew her close. "This isn't real."
"No," she agreed. "But it can still kill us."
The dream twisted.
Suddenly, Elaria stood in Raventhorn again—but it burned. Screaming faces. Hollowborne riding black winds.
Kael was gone.
She turned—and saw herself on the throne, eyes black, mouth curled in a monstrous grin.
"You will always choose power," her mirror whispered.
"Liar."
The mirror-Elaria rose, summoning a blade of living flame.
Elaria fought her.
Every strike was pain. Every blow, a memory. Her failures. Her fury. Her need.
In the real world, she bled in Kael's arms.
He faced his own torment.
A cave of dying dragons. Their eyes hollow, accusing.
"You loved a mortal more than your kind."
He tried to roar, but his voice broke.
They circled him. Flames turned to ash. Wings melted. His form unraveled.
Only one voice cut through.
Elaria's.
"Kael. Come back."
He clawed through the lie.
Burst free.
Grabbed her as she collapsed.
Their blood mixed. Light erupted.
The Gate trembled.
When they awoke, they lay in a field of stars. Suspended. Weightless.
The Gate cracked behind them, splintering like glass.
From it spilled a figure.
Not Hollowborne.
Not god.
Something older.
Its skin was smoke. Its hair, chains. Its mouth split into three smiles.
"You were not meant to live," it said, voice like bells in a graveyard.
Elaria stood, blade drawn. Kael stepped beside her.
"Who are you?" she asked.
It bowed.
"I am what remains when dreams die. And you… you are becoming."
It lunged.
Kael became flame.
Elaria struck.
But it bled memories. Their memories.
When Elaria slashed its chest, she saw her childhood friend's death.
When Kael tore through its limbs, he relived the last flight of his kin.
"It feeds on what we regret," she gasped.
Kael gritted his teeth. "Then let's give it something new."
They kissed.
In the middle of the battlefield, as the sky wept silver.
Elaria pressed her hand to his chest, called forth their shared pain, their shared joy.
"You are mine."
Kael echoed, "You are everything."
The creature screamed.
It fractured.
With a final cry, they plunged their magic into its core—flame and blade, love and wrath.
It shattered.
The Gate closed.
They floated in darkness again.
But this time, it was peace.
Elaria curled into Kael's arms. "We've changed something."
He kissed her brow. "The world dreams differently now."
When they returned to the surface, months had passed.
Raventhorn had healed. The people had remembered.
And a new story began:
Of two lovers who braved the ocean's deepest nightmare,
And returned not just alive,
But truly awakened.