Obsessed…
The word vibrated inside him.
Obsession had taken his purest desire and turned it into a prison of childish perfection.
Kael touched the point on his chest where his Dormant Fire lived, feeling it almost lulled to sleep. The illusion was suffocating him with complacency.
This is not her. This is not the truth.
Kael felt himself standing on the edge between paradise and prison.
A figure appeared beside Elara, wrapped in a mantle of transparent light radiating perfect harmony. Her eyes were bright blue, full of wisdom and compassion, and her serene smile was flawless.
It was Solara, the Founder, her purest, uncorrupted form, the embodiment of obsession in its most attractive and dangerous shape.
"See, Keeper?" Her voice, a warm and reassuring whisper, echoed in Kael's mind. "You have reached your desire. This is your paradise. There is no need to fight anymore. No more suffering. Here, everything is perfect. Here, Elara is safe. Here, you can rest." Solara extended a hand toward Kael, her smile promising peace and fulfillment.
The illusion was perfect.
Too perfect.
Kael felt a faint, unmistakable buzzing in his ear, almost imperceptible.
The buzz of the Veil of Obsession, Anya told him about.
And then,
The small bud in his dream garden.
It hadn't bloomed yet.
This dream was a beautiful lie.
Elara was real only in his memories and his hope, but she was not here, not like this.
His Dormant Fire inside his chest, though wrapped in the illusion's peace, pulsed with unmistakable clarity. It was his compass. His reality. His deepest self refused to be fooled.
Kael held onto that heartbeat.
He didn't force memories.
He let the sweetness of the illusion surround him, without allowing it to devour him.
He focused on his Dormant Fire, letting its light spread, not to destroy, but to reveal truth.
"It's beautiful," Kael said. His voice trembled for a moment at the pain of what could never be.
He stepped toward Elara and Solara.
"It's exactly what I've always wanted."
Then his gaze hardened, meeting Solara's eyes, then the illusion, Elara's.
"But it's not real. It's not the truth."
As Kael spoke, the golden flame on his palm expanded, not in a shockwave, but in a clear, piercing light. He wasn't trying to destroy the garden or the figures.
He was revealing their nature.
Elara and Solara flickered.
Their smiles stiffened.
Their eyes grew hollow.
The garden's melody warped slightly, and the colors dimmed.
The illusion was cracking.
Solara roared, her voice now a whisper filled with despair and frustration.
"You fool! You reject your happiness! You reject peace! You condemn yourself to eternal suffering!"
Kael did not step back.
His Dormant Fire answered Solara's attack with a wave of steady, unshakable clarity.
No anger.
No fear.
Only the firm conviction of his reality.
Kael did not fight obsession.
He surpassed it.
"My happiness is not inside a lie!" Kael replied, his voice strong and clear. His Dormant Fire flared with an expanding wave of luminous truth.
"My peace is in truth, even if it hurts! And my mission… is greater than one single obsession!"
As Kael spoke those words, the Dream Garden dissolved like a dream fading at dawn.
The flowers vanished like vapor, the grass turned transparent, the warm sun went out, replaced by fresh, pure air.
Solara's figure dissolved with a low moan, not of defeat, but of deep, resigned sorrow. Her last words echoed weakly in Kael's mind:
Truth… only pain…
But her voice was almost gone.
Then the environment changed completely. Kael stood on solid, cold stone, illuminated by a dim light filtering through cracks in the ceiling. The air smelled of minerals. It was an ancient place.
Before him stood an immense Dream Portal, unlike any he had seen before.
It was made of glossy black crystal, reflecting light in a thousand facets, and at its center pulsed a blinding, pure white core, an incredible mass of dream-energy. Kael felt its call, a powerful connection.
It was the exit from the Veil of Obsession.
He stepped through it.
Kael felt exhausted, but a deep sense of freedom washed over him. His obsession with Elara had not disappeared, but had transformed into a greater motivation: not only to save her, but to save the dream-world for her and everyone else.
It was his mission.
He found himself again in the Deep Foundation, with the three Keepers in front of him.
"Well done, boy," said Master Elian. "You did it. You have passed all eight Veils of the Soul. No one has ever done it this fast! And you resisted the strongest illusion. I was worried about you for a moment. Before you entered, you didn't focus on your dream garden, like you did all the other times. But it seems you don't need it anymore."
"Thank you," Kael answered.
"You have mastered your Dormant Fire, Kael. You've shown incredible will and clarity. You're ready," Anya added. Kael smiled and nodded.
He lifted his head.
His Dormant Fire was now a radiant flame, steady and powerful, a true inner hearth radiating warmth, clarity, and unwavering determination.
In his dream garden, the flame had become a small but brilliant sun; the golden roots had merged into a solid, impenetrable base, and the green crystalline gem had become a little beacon of hope.
And the bud on the small plant had bloomed!
A tiny, delicate, glowing lotus, shining with its own light.
It was life. New life.
The symbol of what Kael had become.
Lyra stepped closer, giving him a strange look and a smile. "Well done."
She seemed to want to say more, and the red of her hair now appeared on her cheeks too…
Kael smiled back. "Thank you, Lyra."
Then he turned toward Elian, his gaze fixed on the Master. He felt the real battle approaching.
"Master," he said, his voice firm and filled with a new awareness. "I'm ready. When do we leave for the Seven Veils of Dream?"
Elian nodded slowly, his eyes on Kael with solemn gravity.
"Soon, Kael. Soon. The Ash is accelerating its advance. We can't wait any longer," he added, pointing to the great black-crystal Dream Portal Kael had glimpsed for a moment inside the Veil of Obsession.
"Tomorrow, at dream-dawn, through the Portal, your true journey will begin. The journey through the Seven Veils of Dream, toward the Great Ash…"
He paused for a moment.
"But first, I must tell you something…"
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