The white doorway swallowed them whole.
Not violently but with a stillness so complete
Aurelianth felt his breath vanish before he even noticed he'd lost it.
When sound returned,it returned wrong.
Like echoes arriving before the words that made them.
Solance blinked first.
Its glow reflected off the endless white expanse a realm made of law,judgment and nothing else.
Aurelianth tightened his grip on both their hands.
"Stay close."
Lioren nodded, eyes wide.
"What is this place....?"
Solance answered softly:
"….The Arbiter's ledger."
Aurelianth frowned.
"Ledger?"
Solance pressed a shimmering hand to its chest.
"Where cost is recorded.
Where worth is weighed."
The floor stretched underfoot like glass carved from light.
Shadows were wrong here they didn't fall behind them,or to the side,but above,casting up toward the blank sky.
No stars.
No horizon.
Just white.
Then a sound echoed:
CLICK.
Aurelianth froze.
"That's...."
Lioren whispered:
"….the Watcher."
The First Watcher stepped into view,its limbs folding and unfolding like broken geometry,
its faceless head reflecting Aurelianth's rune
as if scanning.
"TRIAL INITIATED."
Aurelianth braced himself.
"What is the trial?"
The Watcher pointed at the ground.
Light beneath their feet swirled organizing into three glowing circles,each connected by thin threads of law-light that pulsed like veins.
One under Aurelianth.
One under Solance.
One under Lioren.
The threads between them tightened.
Solance gasped.
"….We cannot move apart."
Aurelianth nodded.
"They're testing our connection."
Lioren whispered:
"Or trying to break it."
The Watcher raised one hand.
"PHASE ONE :
MEASURE COST."
The floor cracked.
Aurelianth instinctively pulled Solance and Lioren closer but there was nothing to grab;
the world melted beneath them.
White shards of light fell like snow,revealing…
Darkness.Not empty blackness but remembering darkness.
A place where memories echoed like candle flames.
Aurelianth felt the air thicken.
The Watcher's voice followed them down:
"WHAT YOU VALUE MOST WILL BE USED TO WEIGH YOU."
And they fell.
Descent into the Dark Archive
They landed softly not on ground,but on a surface made of memory.
Images floated beneath their feet moments, faces, choices,from each of the three of them.
Every step caused ripples of light to shimmer outward.
Lioren gasped.
"This place….it's like walking on our past."
Solance stared down at the moving lights.
"….It is….heavy."
Aurelianth knelt and touched the surface.
It pulsed under his fingertips.
Memories rose but not his memories from Earth or the other realm.
These were his memories after awakening, since becoming Aurelianth.
Him protecting Solance from villagers.
Solance's first smile.
Lioren's hand in his during the Arbiter's descent.
He stood.
"This place shows only what matters."
The Watcher's voice echoed from nowhere:
"CORRECT."
Suddenly, three pillars rose from the darkness one in front of each of them.
Each pulsed with a different color:
Gold for Aurelianth
Silver-blue for Solance
Amber for Lioren
Solance trembled.
"….What are these?"
Aurelianth touched the gold pillar.
A voice whispered from itnhis own voice.
"I choose Solance."
The moment he had stood in front of the Arbiter.
The moment he refused its decree.
Lioren touched her pillar.
It whispered:
"Aurelianth is my anchor."
Solance touched theirs.
It whispered:
"I want to be real."
The Watcher's voice cut through the air:
"PHASE ONE OBJECTIVE:
FOR EACH OF YOU TO SEE THE COST OF WHAT YOU PROTECT."
Lioren's breath caught.
"They want us to understand what we'd sacrifice."
Aurelianth stepped forward.
"What do we have to do?"
The Watcher answered:
"CHOOSE WHAT YOU WILL LOSE TO KEEP THE OTHER TWO."
Solance's glow dimmed in horror.
"….Lose?
Lose what?"
The realm changed.
Three illusions formed not like the Watcher's previous illusions.
These were intimate.
Painfully personal.
Aurelianth's illusion :
His connection to Earth the last fragments of his old identity.
Faces blurred.
Voices faded.
His human memories dissolving into mist.
Lioren's illusion :
Her place in the village her mother,her duties,
her lineage,all fading as if she were becoming a stranger.
Solance's illusion :
Its sense of self its new identity,its glow,its emotions all dimming toward blankness.
Aurelianth whispered:
"No…."
Solance stepped back.
"….It wants us to choose which part of ourselves we would give up."
Lioren trembled.
"And if we choose wrong...."
The Watcher answered:
"THE TRIANGLE COLLAPSES."
Aurelianth's Cost
The illusions pulsed.
Aurelianth felt a pressure pull at him like a hand gripping his memories.
His old world flickered before him his mother's laugh,the taste of morning coffee,the sharp clarity of being human.
They were faint already.
Echoes,not anchors.
Solance grabbed his sleeve.
"….Aurelianth?
What is happening.…?"
Aurelianth smiled faintly.
"It's asking what I'm willing to let go."
Lioren whispered urgently:
"You don't have to you're already changing...
you're losing enough...."
Aurelianth closed his eyes.
"My old world.…
My old name….
My old life.…"
He breathed out.
"I choose Aurelianth.
I choose this life.
I choose you both."
The illusions flickered violently then dissolved.
The gold pillar glowed brighter.
The Watcher's voice echoed:
"AURELIANTH:
COST ACCEPTED."
Solance squeezed his arm.
"….You let go of your past."
Aurelianth nodded.
"I let go of what no longer shapes me."
Lioren wiped a tear.
"You chose us."
Aurelianth smiled.
"Always."
Lioren's Cost
The amber pillar pulsed.
Lioren stiffened as visions of the village flashed around her....
Her mother's face.
Her aunt's teachings.
Her duty as a rune-learner.
Her place as a daughter and a future elder.
All hovered before her like fragile feathers.
Solance whispered:
"Lioren….you do not have to give up your family.…"
Lioren shook her head.
"No.
Not family."
She stepped forward.
"But my place in the village….
My status….
My future there…."
Aurelianth grabbed her hand.
"Lioren...."
But she shook her head gently.
"I already endangered that future the moment I chose to stand beside you.
Both of you."
She touched the illusion.
It dissolved into drifting amber sand.
"I choose my own path.
Not the one the village laid for me."
The pillar glowed brighter.
The Watcher's voice answered:
"LIOREN :
COST ACCEPTED."
Solance whispered:
"….Thank you."
Lioren smiled sadly.
"I didn't do it for you alone.
I did it because the village's rules were never meant to hold the three of us."
Aurelianth pressed his forehead to hers.
"You're braver than any of us."
Lioren smiled with shaky warmth.
"No.
I'm just in love."
Solance's Cost
The silver-blue pillar pulsed.
Solance stepped forward,glow trembling.
Its illusion rose :
Itself with no emotions.
No glow.
No voice.
No name.
Just blank.
Like a template.
Solance collapsed to its knees.
"No....
no no no....
I worked so hard....
I learned.....
I grew.....
I AM.....
I AM....."
Aurelianth rushed toward it.
"Solance....!"
But the Watcher raised a hand.
A barrier of white light blocked him.
Lioren struck the barrier with her fists.
"LET US THROUGH!"
The Watcher whispered:
"THIS PART IS FOR THE NEW NAME ALONE."
Solance hugged its head, sobbing light.
"…I don't want to let go of myself…"
Aurelianth pressed his hand against the barrier.
"Solance... listen to me... look at me...look!"
Solance lifted its head weakly.
"Remember," Aurelianth said softly,"your identity doesn't vanish just because the world asks for a cost."
Lioren added through tears:
"You choose what part of yourself stays.
No one else."
Solance trembled.
The illusion flickered.
Solance whispered:
"….I will not give up my self."
The pillar dimmed.
Then Solance spoke again voice steady despite tears.
"….But I can let go of the part of me that fears what I cannot control."
The illusion broke apart into silver dust.
The pillar glowed intensely.
The Watcher's voice shook the realm:
"SOLANCE:
COST ACCEPTED."
The barrier vanished.
Aurelianth grabbed Solance,holding it tight.
Lioren embraced both of them.
Solance glowed faintly against their chests.
"….I chose to keep my identity."
Aurelianth whispered:
"And that's the strongest thing you've done yet."
The Arbiter intervenes
The three pillars rose higher,merging their lights into a single beam of gold-silver-amber
that pierced the darkness above.
The realm trembled.
The Watcher froze.
Its limbs stiffened.
Its head jolted upward.
A voice rolled through the realm vast, cold, ancient:
"THIS IS NOT ENOUGH."
Aurelianth recognized it instantly.
"The Arbiter…."
The white sky split open.
A towering silhouette of law stepped through the seam.
The Arbiter entered the realm.
Its presence made the floor crack.
Made Solance dim.
Made Aurelianth's rune pulse violently.
Made Lioren gasp for breath.
The Arbiter extended a hand toward them.
"THE TRIANGLE'S COST IS ACCEPTED."
Solance exhaled in relief.
Lioren wiped tears.
Aurelianth loosened his grip....
Then the Arbiter's sigil rotated sharply.
"BUT COST IS NOT PROOF."
Solance flinched.
Aurelianth stepped protectively in front of both of them.
"What do you want now?"
The Arbiter lifted its faceless head.
"THE NEXT TRIAL BEGINS."
Lioren whispered:
"….Already?"
Solance trembled.
"….We have not rested.…"
Aurelianth bared his teeth.
"They're exhausted.....
YOU'VE SEEN ENOUGH!"
But the Arbiter raised a hand.
A second seam opened in the sky.
Cold.
Silent.
Waiting.
"NEXT TRIAL :
THE TRIANGLE MUST ENDURE WITHOUT TOUCH."
Aurelianth froze.
Solance gasped.
Lioren backed up.
"What….what does that mean?"
The Arbiter answered:
"FOR ONE DAY YOU MUST NOT TOUCH EACH OTHER.
NOT HOLD.
NOT STEADY.
NOT INTERFERE."
Aurelianth's blood turned to ice.
"Why?!"
The Arbiter replied:
"TO MEASURE WHETHER YOUR EXISTENCE DEPENDS ON CONSTANT CONNECTION."
Solance collapsed.
"....I cannot....I cannot....I do not know how to exist alone.…"
Aurelianth grabbed its hand.....
And the Arbiter snapped:
"DISQUALIFICATION
IF YOU TOUCH."
Aurelianth froze mid-reach.
His fingers trembled inches from Solance.
Lioren sobbed.
"Aurelianth….how do we survive that?!"
The Arbiter pointed at the new seam.
"ENTER."
Aurelianth swallowed.
Solance sobbed.
Lioren trembled.
But they walked forward.
Not touching.
Not steady.
Not ready.
But together in spirit.
Because the year was only beginning.
And the Realm of Cost had just revealed how much more they would have to lose to stay whole.