The wind sliced across the ridge, carrying the final echoes of the Seer's chant. The vision's colors faded from Kai's sight—first the golden lattice of the world's paths, then the smoking ruins of a temple he had never seen, then the shadowy silhouette crawling from a vortex.
And finally, the image that refused to leave him.
Himself, crowned in white lightning.
Kai's knees buckled. He braced his hands against the frozen earth, dragging in a shaky breath.
The Seer of the Northern Ridge lowered her hands, exhaustion weighing heavily on her frail frame. Her blindfold fluttered in the cold wind as she turned her sightless face toward him.
"It responds to you," she whispered. "Even now… even restrained… it claws for the surface."
Kai clenched his teeth. "That thing—whatever I saw—wasn't me."
"No," she agreed softly. "It is not you. But it is tethered to you. Bound by choice… or by fate."
Lira placed a steadying hand on Kai's shoulder, grounding him. "Seer," she said sharply, "you said the Seventh should never awaken. Why? What was sealed in that temple?"
The Seer's head tilted toward Lira as though studying her aura.
"The Seventh Path," she murmured, "is not a Path of balance. It is a Path of consequence."
Kai's blood chilled.
"Explain."
The Seer lifted her staff—an old thing carved with scars and runes—and tapped it once against the ground. The sound rippled through the ridge like a heartbeat.
"A Path draws from nature. From order. From the living world."
She paused.
"But the Seventh does not."
"Then what does it draw from?" Lira asked.
The Seer's voice dropped to almost a whisper.
"From endings."
Kai felt something twist in his stomach.
"Endings…? You mean destruction?"
"No." The Seer turned slowly toward him, blind eyes somehow piercing deeper than sight. "Destruction is simple. Many Paths can destroy. Even Fire. Even Force."
Her head tilted.
"Endings are different. Endings unravel. They erase. They take a thing and make it as though it never existed."
Kai stared, stunned.
Lira's hand tightened on her sword. "That's not a Path. That's a curse."
The Seer shook her head.
"It is neither. It is a response. A defense. A last resort the world created when its balance was broken long ago."
Kai swallowed. "But why me?"
The Seer approached, stopping just inches from him. Her presence was strangely vast, as if she carried centuries of memory in her fragile frame.
She placed a trembling hand on his chest—right over his heart.
"You were born the moment the seal failed."
A pause.
"You were chosen because you were there in the exact instant the Seventh sought refuge."
Kai felt his heartbeat thrum against her palm.
Too fast.
Too loud.
"The visions you saw," she continued, "were echoes. Memories of the Path searching for a vessel. A temple collapsing. A seal shattering. A child crying in the forest."
Kai's hands trembled.
"So all of this… happened because I was born."
"No," the Seer corrected gently. "You did not awaken the Seventh. The Seventh awakened *you*."
A cold pulse traveled down Kai's spine.
He stepped back. "But I don't want it. I don't want to be tied to something like that."
"Want has nothing to do with it," the Seer murmured.
Lira stepped forward, jaw clenched. "Can it be removed from him?"
The Seer paused.
The silence that followed was answer enough.
Kai felt something twist painfully inside him. "There has to be a way."
Her voice softened, almost kind.
"There may be ways to control it. Ways to restrain it. But remove it? No. Not without killing you."
The world tilted.
Lira grabbed his arm immediately. "Kai—breathe."
He forced himself to inhale, then exhale, shaking.
The Seer raised her staff again.
"There is more. Something darker still."
Kai braced himself as she spoke.
"When the Seventh awakens fully… the Six will answer."
Kai frowned. "The Six Paths?"
"No."
Her voice dropped into something ancient and heavy.
"The Six *Wardens*."
Lira stiffened. "Impossible. They're myths."
"They were myths," the Seer corrected. "Until the Seventh stirred again."
She turned toward the storm clouds gathering in the distant sky.
"They will seek the vessel. They will test it. They will judge it."
Kai felt cold.
"Judge me… on what?"
"On whether you are the vessel that brings balance—"
Her head slowly turned back toward him, as if listening to something only she could hear.
"—or the vessel that ends everything."
The wind howled across the ridge.
Kai stood frozen, heart pounding, breath shaking, as the weight of her final words fell upon him:
"The world will not wait for you to choose your path, Kai Umbral.
It has already begun choosing for you."