Chapter 183: Sia’s POV

“We think the gods speak in thunder. But sometimes, they speak in memories that don’t belong to us.”

The flames didn’t spread.

They stood still—like soldiers—gathered around Kaelith’s body as he emerged from the rift.

His shape was not fixed. Sometimes man, sometimes starfire, sometimes nothing at all. But his voice...

His voice was mine.

Or rather, it sounded like me.

“You dreamed of me once,” Kaelith said—not to Solara, not to Kai.

To me.

I stepped forward.

“I don’t remember.”

He inclined his head, as if he found it funny. “No. But your soul does. You were mine before the Moon rewrote you.”

“I belong to no one.”

Kaelith smiled.

“Yet you carry my fire.”

Behind me, Kai growled.

“Don’t touch her,” he said, stepping between us again. “She chose the child. She chose me.”

Kaelith regarded him without malice. “The Hollow King’s mark lingers on you. You’ll feel what it means soon enough.”

He turned back to me.

“But this is not about you.”

His eyes dropped to Solara, now awake in my arms.

“It is about her.”

Solara didn’t cry.

She watched.

It was like she had been waiting for this moment her whole life, even though her existence had just begun.

“She knows me,” Kaelith said. “Because part of her was forged from my light. The rest… from your defiance.”

I shook my head. “She is her own.”

Kaelith didn’t argue.

Instead, he said something that scared me to death:

“So was Elira.”

Kiara froze. Kai did too.

“What did you say?” I whispered.

“Elira,” Kaelith repeated. “Was the last vessel. Before Solara. Before your womb carried her flame.”

“No,” I said. “Elira was…”

“Corrupted?” Kaelith offered. “Yes. Because she was incomplete. Her mother refused the bond. Just as you nearly did.”

My knees weakened.

Solara was not the first.

She was just the first to survive it.

“You're lying,” Kai spat. “Sia isn't some divine experiment.”

“I didn’t say she was,” Kaelith replied. “She is something else entirely.”

He extended a single flame-wreathed hand toward me.

“Come.”

I took a step back. “No.”

“You must see.”

“I won’t.”

Solara stirred in my arms.

And then—she reached for him.

“Sia—” Kai warned.

But her fingers glowed the moment she stretched her hand toward Kaelith.

She wasn’t afraid.

She knew him.

And for the first time, I realized something horrifying:

Part of her missed him.

Kaelith did not touch her.

But the air between them shimmered—and suddenly, I was not standing in the clearing.

I was elsewhere.

A memory.

Not mine.

I stood on a cliff, above an ocean of fire.

And I saw her.

Elira.

Younger. Whole. Her eyes not yet gold with madness.

And next to her.

Kaelith.

Smiling.

“Don’t let them take her,” Elira begged. “She belongs to me.”

“She was never yours to keep,” Kaelith said gently.

“She’s my daughter!”

“No,” Kaelith said. “She’s hers.”

Elira screamed.

And the vision shattered.

I fell to my knees.

Back in the Vale. Back in the now.

Kai grabbed me. “What did you see?”

I looked at Solara.

And I said the truth I’d buried deep:

“She’s not just ours. She was meant to be born again.”

Kaelith nodded.

“Now you understand. She is the final bridge. The Moon’s mistake. My flame. Your defiance. All in one.”

I shook my head.

“I won’t give her up.”

Kaelith’s voice lowered.

“I’m not here to take her.”

“Then why come?”

He looked at Kai.

And said something none of us expected:

“Because he’ll have to.”

“What?” Kai blinked.

Kaelith stepped forward, close enough to scorch the earth.

“The Hollow King’s mark inside you is waking. And when it does, it will demand balance.”

“You think I’d ever give her up—”

“You won’t want to. But he will. And when that moment comes… your love won’t save her.”

Solara began to cry.

Not loudly.

But her tears glowed.

Burned.

Where they fell, the grass turned to ash.

I clutched her tighter.

And at that moment, something inside her snapped.

A bright light sprang from her chest and lifted her up into the air.

“Sia!” Kai shouted, reaching.

Too late.

She rose.

Glowing.

Eyes wide.

Mouth open.

And a word spilled from her lips.

“Enough.”

Kaelith froze.

The fire dimmed.

And then, before any of us could react.

Solara disappeared.

Gone.

Vanished.

Like a flame snuffed out.

But the heat remained.

Burning through the trees. Through me.

Through Kai.

“SHE’S GONE!” I screamed.

Kaelith was already retreating into smoke.

“She chose this,” he said. “She chose to remember.”

“Where is she?!”

But he was already gone.

I dropped to my knees.

Kai stood over me.

Breathing hard.

“She left us.”

“No,” I whispered. “She’s calling us.”

Kiara stepped forward, eyes wide with fear.

“Do you hear that?”

We all listened.

In the distance…

A lullaby.

Sung in the Moon’s tongue.

And a single word.

Spoken by a child’s voice.

“Mother.”