The High Crossroads did not look like a place meant for the living.
Aria felt it the moment they stepped through the fractured gate, an invisible weight settling on her shoulders, pressing down with quiet, merciless judgment. The air shimmered faintly, neither warm nor cold, but heavy with layers of magic so old they felt embedded in her bones.
Stone platforms floated in vast suspension, connected by bridges of light that shifted and reformed with each passing step. Above, the sky was a fractured mosaic, daylight bleeding into twilight, stars flickering beside burning suns. Below, nothing but endless void.
"This is where realms intersect," Kael said, his voice lower than usual. "Every law bends here. Every lie is exposed."
Aria swallowed.
Figures moved across the platforms, dozens of them. Some wore armor etched with sigils she didn't recognize. Others cloaked themselves in shadows, faces obscured. A few were unmistakably inhuman: wings folded tight, eyes glowing faintly, skin etched with living runes.
All of them felt her.
The embers stirred uneasily.
"Why are they staring?" Aria asked quietly.
"Because they can sense the fire," Kael replied. "And because most of them are deciding whether you're worth protecting… or killing."
Her jaw tightened. "Comforting."
As they stepped fully onto the central platform, the Crossroads reacted.
Light surged upward, forming a towering ring of runes that rotated slowly around them. The ground beneath Aria's feet pulsed once, twice, then stilled.
A voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere.
"An Ember Bearer walks unclaimed."
Murmurs rippled through the gathered figures.
Aria's pulse thundered.
Another voice joined the first, deeper, colder.
"The fire chooses again. This one carries instability."
Kael's hand twitched toward his blade.
"Stay behind me," he murmured.
"No," Aria said quietly. "If they're judging me, they'll see me."
Before Kael could stop her, she stepped forward.
The embers flared, not violently, but visibly. Golden threads of fire traced faint lines beneath her skin, illuminating her like a living sigil.
Gasps echoed across the platform.
A tall figure emerged from the crowd, armor gleaming white-gold. His eyes glowed an unnatural blue, devoid of warmth.
"Name yourself," he commanded.
Aria lifted her chin. "Aria Vale."
The man's gaze sharpened. "No lineage mark. No binding crest. Interesting."
Another figure stepped forward, a woman cloaked in crimson, her smile sharp and knowing.
"She hasn't been claimed yet," the woman purred. "That makes her… valuable."
Danger prickled down Aria's spine.
Kael moved to her side. "She is under my protection."
That did it.
The platform erupted.
"Kael?" someone hissed.
"Why is he here?"
"He swore never to return"
The armored man's expression hardened. "Kael of the Ashen Accord. You have no authority to bring an unbound Ember Bearer here."
Aria turned sharply. "Ashen Accord?"
Kael didn't look at her.
"Kael," she said, more firmly. "What are they talking about?"
Silence stretched painfully.
Finally, Kael exhaled. "I was once one of them."
The words hit harder than any blow.
"One of what?" Aria demanded.
"The judges," he said quietly. "The ones who decided which Ember Bearers lived… and which were erased."
The Crossroads fell eerily silent.
Aria's breath caught.
"You told me you were a guide," she whispered.
"I was," Kael said. "After I stopped being their executioner."
Betrayal burned hot in her chest.
"So when you said this place judged Ember Bearers," she said slowly, "you meant you used to do the judging."
Kael met her gaze at last. "Yes."
The crimson-cloaked woman laughed softly. "Oh, this is delicious. Does she know how many fires you extinguished, Kael?"
"Enough," he snapped.
Aria stepped back from him.
"How many?" she asked, her voice trembling, not with fear, but fury.
Kael's jaw clenched. "Too many."
The embers reacted violently.
Heat surged through Aria's veins, sharp and furious, responding to her emotions. The platform beneath her feet cracked slightly, light flaring.
The armored man raised his hand. "Control yourself, Ember Bearer, or be bound."
Aria rounded on him. "You don't get to threaten me."
Gasps echoed again.
"You stand at the Crossroads," he said coldly. "You will obey its laws."
"Then judge me," Aria shot back. "Not him."
Silence.
Then the ancient voices returned.
"Very well."
The runes around Aria flared blindingly bright.
Pain tore through her as the Crossroads reached into her, past flesh, past bone, straight into the embers themselves.
Memories trembled.
Kael shouted her name, but his voice felt distant, muffled.
Images flashed through her mind: firestorms, broken realms, screaming skies—not hers. The embers' memories.
Then
A choice.
The Crossroads spoke again.
"The fire may remain… at a cost."
Aria gritted her teeth. "Name it."
"Sever one bond."
Her heart stuttered.
She knew instantly what it meant.
Kael stepped forward desperately. "No. Take something else."
"The Ember Bearer chooses."
Aria looked at Kael, really looked at him. At the man who had guided her, saved her, lied to her.
"Aria," he said quietly, "whatever happens"
She made her decision.
"Sever it," she whispered.
The pain was immediate and devastating.
Something tore.
Not a memory.
Not time.
A connection.
Kael staggered backward as if struck, silver eyes widening in shock. The faint thread of energy that had always linked them, subtle, unspoken, snapped.
Aria gasped, clutching her chest.
The fire stabilized.
The voices fell silent.
The Crossroads dimmed.
The judgment was complete.
The armored man lowered his hand slowly. "The fire remains. The bond is broken."
The crimson-cloaked woman sighed theatrically. "How tragic. How entertaining."
Kael looked at Aria like she had stabbed him.
"You chose that," he said hoarsely.
"You should have told me the truth," she replied, her voice steady despite the ache in her chest.
Silence stretched between them, thick, fractured, irreversible.
Finally, the armored man spoke again.
"Aria Vale," he said, "you are now recognized by the Crossroads. You will be watched. Tested. Challenged."
Aria lifted her head. "Let them watch."
Far away, beyond the fractured sky, Selene smiled.
"She survived judgment," she murmured. "Good."
Beside her, the scorched-armored figure's eyes burned brighter.
"Then she is ready to be broken properly."
Back at the Crossroads, Aria turned away from Kael and took her first step forward alone.
The fire burned steadily within her.
But the path ahead had never been more dangerous.