The moment Amelia whispered "Raeth", the entire Sanctuary went still.
Not quiet.
Still.As if reality itself forgot how to move.
A thousand glowing seals flickered.
Incense flames flattened.
The High Guardian staggered back, whispering:
"No… no, no—child, you must never speak that name again."
Kael didn't look away from her.
He couldn't.
Because Amelia wasn't breathing properly.
Her pupils had shrunk.
Her pulse was racing too fast.
And the mark on her collarbone wasn't just glowing anymore—
it was burning through her skin like molten gold.
Kael grabbed her wrist.
"Amelia. Stay with me. Look at me. Don't follow it."
But she couldn't hear him.
Because the moment she said his true name…
the world shifted.
The Memory That Wasn't a Memory
Amelia blinked—
—and suddenly she stood in a different world.
Black sand.
A ruined throne.
A sky split between dawn and eternal night.
And sitting on those shattered steps—
…was the Devourer.
But not the beast.
Not the monster chained beneath their city.
A man.
Tall. Beautiful. Devastating.
Silver hair falling over his shoulders.
One red eye. One silver.
Wearing ancient armor cracked with light.
He looked up at her with something she didn't expect at all.
Reverence.
"My light."
His voice was soft.
Almost human.
"I wondered if you would remember my name first… before you remembered your own."
Amelia stumbled back.
"This can't be real. You're manipulating me."
Raeth smiled faintly.
"Would you like the lie… or the truth?"
She froze.
"…The truth."
His expression shifted—gentle, regretful, dangerous.
"You were not always human. Neither was I."
Her breath caught.
"You and I were two halves… not lovers, not enemies.Something older."His eyes softened."You were the Creator's dawn. I was His final dusk."
Amelia shook her head violently.
"No. Stop. This isn't real. I'm Amelia. I'm human."
Raeth stepped closer.
"Are you?"
Her heart dropped.
Because she wasn't sure anymore.
Back in the Sanctuary
Kael held her trembling body as she collapsed into unconsciousness again.
Her body wasn't responding.
Her spirit wasn't in her body.
She was somewhere else.
"Guardian!" Kael roared. "Pull her out!"
The High Guardian looked horrified.
"I can't."
Kael's wings flared with fury.
"Why?"
The Guardian's hands shook as he traced ancient sigils.
"Because she spoke his true name."
Kael grabbed the old man by the front of his robes.
"Say it clearly."
The Guardian swallowed hard.
"When she spoke his name… she acknowledged the bond. Voluntarily."
Kael froze.
Every vein in his body went cold.
"You're saying she let him in."
"No," the Guardian whispered.
"She let him back."
Inside the Vision Realm
Raeth reached toward her—but didn't touch.
Not yet.
"I won't harm you, little light," he murmured.
"You were the only one who ever showed me mercy.Even when the others called me unworthy of the dawn."
Amelia shook her head.
"This is wrong. I shouldn't be here. Kael—Kael is—"
Raeth's expression tightened.
The first hint of jealousy cut through his tone.
"The Fallen Prince. Always hovering. Always coveting."
He stepped even closer.
"He tries to protect you… from me.But you never belonged to him."
Her heart hammered.
"I don't belong to you either."
His smile was slow. Sad. Possessive.
"No. But I belong to you."
Her breath hitched.
Raeth reached out—
—and this time, his shadowed fingertips brushed her cheek.
Warm.
Cold.
Devastating.
"Remember, little light," he whispered.
"Before the mortal world.Before the fall.Before Kael."His voice dropped to a dangerous, intimate whisper:
"You chose me first."
Amelia's heart stopped.
Because deep inside her—
beneath all the sealsbeneath her reincarnated fleshbeneath her human memories—
something answered him.
A pulse.
A whisper.
A truth she wasn't supposed to know:
"Raeth."
Back in the Sanctuary
Amelia suddenly convulsed.
Her back arched.
Light exploded from her chest.
Kael screamed her name—but the sound was drowned out by a roar rising from the earth itself.
A voice—Raeth's voice—echoed through the entire Sanctuary:
"She awakens."
Chains shattered beneath the city.
Seals tore open.
And Kael fell to his knees as a single, horrifying realization struck him:
This wasn't the Devourer's awakening.
It was Amelia's.
And she wasn't waking up as a human.
She was waking up as what she used to be.
What Raeth belonged to.
And what Kael was never meant to love.