Chapter 12 ( part 3 )
The forest was not silent anymore.
No sooner had Aeryn reached the glowing stone altar than the world around her changed: branches contracted, as if into fists, the wind ceased to breathe, and the sky painted itself an alarming violet-metal hue. The air crackled with warning, right to the marrow in her bones, yet she did not stop, tugged not by curiosity this time, but by the very thread that had been pulling her since childhood … the thread fastened to her fate.
As she drew closer, the symbols on the stone began to pulse brighter. Elira and Kael remained a few steps behind her, their faces set in tense expressions. Even the animals that had watched silently in the forest before either hissed, growled, or fled deeper into the shadows.
Something was coming.
Something old.
Something stirred by her presence.
Aeryn laid her hand on the altar. Immediately, the ground began to shake.
"Aeryn, step back!" Elira shouted.
Kael reached for her arm, but it was too late.
A pillar of white light shot up from the altar, blindingly bright and swirling around Aeryn like a tornado of both fire and ice. She screamed-but not in pain-in shock-as her feet lifted off the ground. Her white hair whipped wildly around her face, glowing brighter than it ever had.
The forest exploded in earsplitting sound. Roots burst from the ground. Birds fled in all directions. Trees leaned towards the light as if to pay homage.
And then the voices started.
Whispers. Thousands of them. Ancient, echoing, overlapping.
"Chosen bearer."
"Daughter of the White Star…"
"The cycle returns…"
Aeryn grasped her head, trying to block the avalanche of voices.
"I—I don't understand! Stop!"
But they didn't stop.
Light forced memories-visions-into her mind. Not her memories. The memories of others.
Warriors in silver armor.
A city in flames.
Woman with the same white hair as Aeryn, carrying a baby wrapped in blue cloth.
A battle between light and shadow.
A blade forged from starfire.
A kingdom falling to darkness.
A prophecy written before time began.
Aeryn gasped, tears streaming down her face as the visions flooded her senses.
"Aeryn!" Kael shouted, fighting the wind in an attempt to reach her.
Elira pulled him back. "Don't! If we interrupt it, she could die!"
"But she—" Kael choked. "She's alone up there!"
"No," Elira whispered, her eyes shining with fear. "She isn't alone. The Ancients have her now."
The voices grew louder, sharper, burning into Aeryn's mind until one voice-deeper, clearer-cut through all the others.
"You carry what was lost.
You awaken what once slept.
You are not hunted without reason.
You are the key … and the curse."
The light exploded outward.
A shockwave erupted through the forest, sending Kael and Elira to the ground.
Aeryn fell too—on her knees, panting as her body shook from the torrent of visions. The glowing altar dimmed. The forest grew silent again, but not in a peaceful way. More like an audience holding its breath.
Elira rushed to Aeryn's side. "Are you hurt?"
Aeryn shook her head, though tears still streamed down her cheeks. "I. I saw things. Lives that weren't mine. A woman who looked like me. A city in flames. A prophecy." She swallowed hard. "My birth. It wasn't an accident. Someone tried to kill me because they already knew what I would become."
Kael froze. "Become. what?"
Aeryn didn't answer right away. She reached out to the altar once more—and this time, the stone did not glow. It felt cold. Empty. Spent.
"The voice said I'm a key," she whispered, "and a curse."
Elira looked sharply at her. "A key to what?"
Aeryn's breath was trembling. "To the return of a power that was sealed thousands of years ago, a power from a star that fell to this land. My bloodline is tied to that star. I felt it… in every vision."
Kael's voice was low, barely above a whisper. "You're saying your fate is sealed?"
Aeryn looked at her shaking hands. They were glowing faintly with white light—light that refused to fade.
"No," she said firmly. "Nothing is written until I decide what it means."
But even as she said it, doubt gnawed at her chest.
The prophecy weighed heavily in her thoughts.
Elira stood and wiped the dust from her clothes. "If what you saw is true, then your enemies already know your role. That means they'll come harder, faster, and without hesitation.
Aeryn swallowed. "Then we need answers. Real ones. Not visions, not whispers."
Kael nodded. "We go to the Oracle?"
Elira shook her head. "No. The Oracle is too far, and the roads are watched. We go to the Vault of Echoes. It's closer. And safer-if you call ancient traps and sleeping illusions 'safe'."
Kael groaned. "Fantastic."
Aeryn stood. Her legs still shook, but something inside her had changed. A determination, a sharpness, a calm acceptance of what she had felt.
"I'm ready," she said.
Elira and Kael exchanged glances, for they were able to see it, too. The girl who entered the forest was not the same girl that now stood before them.
They began to walk away from the altar, but Aeryn turned around after a few feet.
The stone was cracked, completely drained of power.
But the crack shone dimly in the outline of an eye.
The same eye she had seen in her visions. Cold fear slid down her spine. She swiftly turned and followed the rest deeper into the forest. She didn't see the darkness gathering where she had been standing just a moment before—like ink spreading across the soil. She didn't see the glowing symbol flicker back to life. And she didn't hear the final whisper that remained hanging in the air after she had left: "The Hunt begins again."