The ground split before Manraj could breathe.
A jagged crack tore through the temple floor, spitting dust and ancient air. The white eyes in the darkness widened—not in fear, but in recognition. The thing behind the pillar leaned forward, and the entire courtyard exhaled a sound like a heartbeat shaking stone.
Manraj staggered back.
His fire flared in his ribs, wild and terrified, as if reacting to something older than itself.
Zoya grabbed his wrist.
"Don't move—something's waking."
Azhar swore under his breath and stepped in front of both of them.
"Of all nights…" he muttered. Shadows rippled up his arms like they were trying to escape him.
The ground trembled again.
A spiderweb of glowing cracks burst across the courtyard floor—white light leaking through them like liquid memory. The sealed creature stirred, its presence pressing against the air like a tide rising too fast.
Manraj gasped.
"That thing—why does it feel like me?"
Azhar didn't look away from the cracks.
"Because it is. Or… it was supposed to be."
Before Manraj could ask anything, the seal broke.
A soundless blast ripped outward.
Stone peeled off the pillars. Dust exploded upward. The air turned blinding white—cold and burning at once—like standing inside a silent scream.
Manraj's fire surged in panic, flaring so hard he felt his bones heat.
Azhar shouted, "Get behind me!"
The shadow fox materialized beside him with a growl that shook the dead trees around the courtyard. Tails snapping, it lunged straight into the expanding wave of white.
It wasn't enough.
The white energy swallowed the fox whole.
Manraj felt the impact hit him like a punch of memory and fire. He doubled over, clutching his chest.
Zoya grabbed him, her voice sharp:
"Manraj! You can't flare here! If you lose control—"
"I'm— not— doing this!" he gasped.
"The fire… it's reacting to whatever that thing is!"
Another wave of white light blasted outward.
Azhar dropped to one knee, shadows shattering off him like glass.
"Zoya!" he yelled. "Use it!"
Zoya froze.
"…Use what?"
"Your Silence!"
"I don't know how!"
"You don't need to know—just FEEL IT!"
The temple shook.
The creature stepped fully into view at last, tall and half-formed—blinding white eyes, wing-shaped trails of memory peeling off its back like breaking light. Its voice wasn't a voice, but a pressure:
— Manraj. —
Manraj's vision blurred.
He tasted smoke and childhood.
Zoya acted first.
She threw both hands out—not toward the creature, but toward Manraj.
The moment her palms met the air, the world dropped its sound.
Not muted.
Not quiet.
Erased.
The blast of white light hit the Silence and folded inward, collapsing like a wave striking a void.
Manraj's fire snapped back under his ribs, choking itself into submission.
Azhar inhaled shakily.
"…That's it. Keep going, Zoya!"
Zoya's eyes widened in fear and awe.
"I—I can't hold this long!"
"You don't need long," Azhar said.
"Just enough for him to hear."
"Hear what?" Manraj shouted.
Azhar turned to him.
And in the stuttering glow of white and shadow, his expression broke into something raw:
"Manraj—listen carefully.
What's in that seal… is the part of you they cut out."
Manraj froze.
Zoya's Silence faltered just enough for the creature's voice to flood in:
— They took me. They took US. —
The temple stones cracked downward. Roots tore from the earth. The seal shattered completely, releasing a blast of white that hurt to look at.
Azhar grabbed Manraj's shoulder.
"This is the truth they erased—
your third element wasn't meant to sleep.
They tried to kill it."
Manraj stared at the creature's glowing outline, breath shaking.
"…What are you?"
The creature stepped onto the broken stone.
White flames curled around its form like wings made of memory.
It answered with a single word—soft, broken, ancient:
— Yours. —
The explosion hit.
Zoya screamed.
Azhar pulled both of them into his shadows.
Manraj reached toward the creature as the world turned to white—