The Harrowing did not return to silence after the Shadow addressed him.
Instead, something deeper began to stir within its walls.
Jaden felt the difference immediately.
The fog no longer drifted lazily. It spiraled around him like it was choosing a direction. The metal floor beneath his feet pulsed faintly, almost like a heartbeat—one that didn't match the dungeon's usual mechanical rhythm.
It matched his.
The Shadow approached slowly, each step echoing in a way that made the air ripple. It did not attack yet. It watched him as though waiting for him to acknowledge something he didn't understand.
Jaden forced out the only thing he could manage.
"Stop calling me that."
The Shadow tilted its head.
"Aethon."
Jaden flinched, breath catching in his throat.
"I'm not him."
"You are," the Shadow replied, its voice layered with static. "But crownless. Empty. Severed from memory."
Jaden backed away. "I'm Jaden. Just Jaden."
The Shadow raised a hand.
Red light flickered in its palm—the same color as the ember in Jaden's chest.
"You were never 'just' anything."
Jaden sprinted in the opposite direction, heart racing, mind reeling. He didn't know where he was running; the Harrowing had no exits, no safe corners, no pathways. Yet he ran until his legs trembled.
The walls shifted around him.
They bent.
Tilted.
Moved.
The Harrowing was folding itself like paper.
Jaden staggered. "What… what is happening?"
A voice whispered behind him.
Not the Shadow.
His own voice.
Older.
Calmer.
Distant.
"A dungeon can fear."
Jaden froze.
"W-Who…?"
"You are not ready yet."
The floor split open beneath him, swallowing him into another chamber—one he had never seen before in all thirty-nine cycles.
It was circular, metallic, and glowing faintly red. A broken crown symbol was carved into the center, identical to the shape burned onto his back.
The Shadow emerged from the wall itself this time.
"Crownless," it whispered. "But awakening."
Jaden shook his head desperately. "Leave me alone…"
"You cannot flee what you are," it answered.
The Shadow lunged.
Instinct seized Jaden. His body moved before his mind caught up. Heat flooded his chest and gathered in his hands. Not flame—something older, more controlled, more focused.
He didn't speak the Aethelian word.
It spoke itself.
"Vel'narah."
The ember erupted.
But unlike before, it didn't scatter or explode. It formed a blade of red light around his arm, thin but deadly. The Shadow screeched as the edge grazed its shoulder, tearing through its form like slicing smoke.
Jaden staggered. "I… did that?"
The Shadow hissed.
"Awakening begins at the edges of fear."
Jaden had no time to breathe. It attacked again.
And the Harrowing shifted with it.
Jaden braced himself—
And the world broke.