Chapter 10

The days blurred together after that moment. The weight of the truth, what I had seen in the Echoes, hung around me like a cloud, following me everywhere I went. My mind raced with the questions that had been planted there, the haunting images of worlds burned to ash, of revolutions that failed, of leaders who had fought and died believing in something greater than themselves.

But what had they believed in? What had they been fighting for? And, more importantly—what was I fighting for?

I had come to Magnus’s domain to understand—to find a way to stop the destruction. But now, I wasn’t so sure. The lines between right and wrong, between us and them, had become indistinguishable. What had seemed so clear was now tangled in a web of complexity, a maze where every path led to another question.

I found myself standing in front of a large window in the chamber they had assigned me. The glass—or whatever material it was—was smooth, and though it appeared to be opaque from the outside, it let in a soft, ethereal light that bathed the room in a pale, alien glow. I could see the sprawling city beyond—an intricate network of towers and bridges, the streets alive with a strange, distant hum.

Magnus’s people.

But what did I really know about them? What had I seen in those visions that had made my skin crawl? They weren’t invaders, not in the way we had imagined. They were something else—something older. And yet, they weren’t without compassion, not entirely. There were reasons behind their actions. Reasons I didn’t yet fully understand.

There were so many layers to this war—too many layers for me to process, let alone explain. The truth wasn’t as simple as I had once believed. Magnus hadn’t lied to me. He had given me the truth. But now, I felt more lost than ever.

A soft sound behind me pulled me from my thoughts. I turned to find Julian standing in the doorway, his expression wary, his body tense. It had been days since I had seen him last, days since I had been forced to separate from him in the aftermath of the Echoes. The fear in his eyes had never quite left, though he tried to hide it behind a mask of bravado.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice quiet, hesitant.

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to shake off the haze that clouded my mind. "I don’t know, Julian. I really don’t know."

He stepped closer, his brow furrowed with concern. "You’ve been different since you came back. It’s like—"

"Like I’ve seen things I can’t unsee?" I finished for him, my voice tinged with bitterness.

He flinched at the sharpness in my tone, but then he nodded slowly. "Yeah. Something like that. You’re not the same person you were when you left, Lena. And it’s… it’s scaring me."

I met his gaze, and for the first time in days, I felt a flicker of something familiar in my chest—a connection, a tether to the world I had almost forgotten. Julian was my anchor. He always had been. But now, standing here, in this strange place, I wasn’t sure if I could hold onto him. Not if it meant I had to drag him down with me into the darkness that I was beginning to see so clearly.

"I don’t want to be different," I admitted, my voice small, unsure. "I don’t want to lose who I was. But the truth, Julian—what I saw... it’s not something you can just walk away from. It changes you. It makes you question everything. Even yourself."

He stepped closer still, his hand brushing against mine. "Then let me help you. Whatever you’re going through, we’ll figure it out together. You don’t have to do this alone."

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to pull him close and cling to the life we had before everything had been turned upside down. But I knew, deep down, that nothing would ever be the same again. And I didn’t know if I was strong enough to face whatever was coming—let alone drag him into it.

I pulled my hand away from his gently, stepping back. "I don’t know if you can help me, Julian. I don’t know if I can even help myself."

He stared at me, a hurt expression flickering in his eyes. "What are you saying? Are you shutting me out?"

I shook my head. "No. It’s not that. It’s just—I’m not the same person anymore. I’ve seen too much. I can’t go back to the way things were."

He swallowed, his gaze shifting from me to the window. "I don’t want to lose you, Lena. I just—I don’t know what’s happening to you. This place, it’s changing you. It’s changing everything. And I don’t know if I can follow you down that road."

The words cut deeper than I expected. I wanted to scream, to tell him that I didn’t want to go down this road either. That I hadn’t asked for any of this. But I couldn’t. The words were locked in my throat, and the space between us—both physical and emotional—had grown too vast.

"I don’t know if I can follow me down that road either," I whispered, the truth of it breaking me open.

Julian nodded, as though he understood, but his eyes were filled with uncertainty. "Just… don’t lose yourself, Lena. Whatever happens, don’t lose yourself."

I watched him go, his footsteps fading as he retreated down the hallway, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I wanted to believe that we could go back to what we had been before. That somehow, the war, the choices, the terrible knowledge I had gained could be undone. But there was no undoing the past. No going back.

And no matter how much I wished otherwise, the war would not end with my will alone. Magnus had made that clear. The fate of my people—and of all the worlds that had suffered at the hands of the Echoes—was already decided. It was not in my hands to stop it.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t fight.

I walked to the table where my maps, my notes, and my plans were scattered—dismantled, disjointed, but still alive. There had to be something I could do. There had to be a way to use the truth Magnus had shown me—not to destroy, but to build something new. A way to bridge the gap between us and them. To find a third path—one that didn’t rely on violence, but on something else. Something that I still couldn’t name.

I had chosen to fight. That much was clear.

But the real question was: What was I willing to sacrifice to win?

I picked up my pen and began to draw.

That night, as I sat alone in my chamber, the weight of the city pressing down on me, the hum of the Echoes still reverberating in my chest, I made a choice.

It was time to stop thinking in terms of us versus them. I had to stop thinking of this as a war of survival, a war for our very existence. Because that would lead to destruction. To more deaths. To more loss.

No.

This wasn’t just about surviving.

This was about changing the future.

And if I was going to change it, I had to do something no one had done before.

I had to find a way to reach across the divide.

I had to make them understand.

The next morning, I sent for Magnus.