Chapter 37 The lies lyssara told
Darkness did not claim me gently...... It tore me open.
I fell not through air, but through memory. Through heat and cold and pressure that crushed my thoughts flat.
The fracture swallowed sound first, then light, then time itself, until all that remained was the sensation of being unmade.
I did not know how long I was gone.
When awareness returned, it did so like pain sudden, brutal, unavoidable. I was lying on stone.
Not broken stone like the plateau above, but smooth, ancient slabs etched with sigils so old they barely remembered their own meaning.
The air tasted metallic, sharp enough to sting my tongue. Every breath scraped my lungs raw.
I tried to move and agony answered.
My body screamed in protest as I rolled onto my side, clutching my ribs.
Something warm slid between my fingers.. blood, dark and slow. The tether between me and the Crown still burned, a low ache beneath my skin, as if it had branded my soul rather than my flesh.
Above me, there was no sky.
Only a vast hollow of darkness veined with dull red light, like veins beneath translucent skin. The fracture had not led downward.
It had led inward.
“You always wake up the same way.” The voice came from my left.
I twisted, heart slamming, pain forgotten in the rush of fear.
It stood a few paces away, crouched atop a broken pillar like a predator at rest. Humanoid, yes but only in the way a blade resembled a reflection of light. Too sharp. Too wrong.
Its eyes glowed that impossible color again not red, not gold, not silver, but something between, something that shifted when I tried to focus on it.
Recognition flared inside my chest like a wound torn open.
“You,” I whispered.
The thing smiled wider. “There it is,” it said softly. “That look.”
I struggled to sit upright, dragging myself back until my spine hit cold stone. “What are you?”
It tilted its head, studying me with unsettling interest. “You knew once.”
The words struck deeper than any threat.
Images flickered at the edge of my mind another chamber, another crown, my hands soaked in blood that was not entirely my own. A name trembled on my tongue, refusing to surface.
“You’re lying,” I said and It laughed.
The sound echoed strangely, as if the space itself enjoyed the noise. “Everyone says that first.”
I pushed myself to my feet, swaying. The chamber or cavern, or whatever this place was stretched farther than sight allowed. Broken thrones lay half-buried in shadow. Bones too large to belong to any human were fused into the walls, as if the stone had grown around them.
A grave, A throne room.... Both.
“Where is the Crown?” I demanded.
The thing’s gaze slid to my chest.
“Oh,” it said lightly. “Still with you. Just quieter now.”
My hand flew to my sternum. The burning had dulled, but the ache remained, pulsing in time with my heart.
“You said I wasn’t meant to survive,” I hissed. “So why am I still breathing?”
It hopped down from the pillar with impossible grace, landing without sound. When it stepped closer, the air warped around it, bending like heat over flame.
“Because someone interfered,” it replied.
My breath caught. “Lyssara.”
Its smile sharpened. “No.”
Fear bloomed, slow and cold.
“Then who?”
It leaned closer, eyes inches from mine, voice dropping to a whisper. “You.”
The word echoed through me.
“I didn’t choose anything,” I said, though the certainty wavered. “The Crown chose me.”
It hummed thoughtfully. “That’s what you told yourself last time too.”
A pulse surged through the tether, sudden and violent. I cried out, collapsing to my knees as the world lurched sideways.
Visions slammed into me.
A younger me... older me standing beneath a blood-red moon. The Crown floating before me, whole and blazing. An army kneeling. A voice—my voice—issuing a command that cracked the world.
I gasped, clawing at the stone.
“No,” I whispered. “That’s not real.”
The thing crouched beside me, uncomfortably gentle as it placed two fingers against my temple.
“It was,” it said. “And it will be again.”
I slapped its hand away, fury cutting through terror. “Then why don’t I remember?”
Something flickered across its face, it was regret.
“They took it from you,” it said quietly.
My blood went cold. “Who?”
Above us, the cavern shuddered.
Stone screamed as something immense struck the barrier between this place and the world above. Dust rained down in choking clouds.
The Crown.
I felt it then truly felt it pressing against the tether, searching for me.
The thing stood, eyes alight with excitement. “Ah. It’s angry.”
“Let me go,” I demanded. “If it finds me like this......”
“It will finish the choosing,” it cut in. “Yes.”
Terror clawed up my throat.
“Then help me stop it!”
It studied me for a long moment, expression unreadable.
“Why should I?” it asked.
“Because if it finishes,” I said hoarsely, “everything dies. You know that.”
The cavern shook again, harder this time. Cracks split the ceiling, bleeding red light.
The thing sighed. “You really don’t remember anything, do you?”
“No!”
Its gaze softened, just a fraction. “You broke it,” it said. “The last time.”
The words hit like a blade.
“I… what?”
“You shattered the Crown,” it continued. “Split it between worlds. Bled yourself into its laws so no one not even you could ever fully wield it again.”
My mind reeled. “That’s impossible.”
“Is it?” It gestured around us. “Look where we are.”
The Crown roared above us, its scream tearing through stone and space alike. The tether flared, brighter than before, pulling at my core with desperate insistence.
“Come back,” it demanded not in words, but in need.
I pressed my hands to my ears, shaking. “I don’t want this.”
The thing knelt before me again, expression suddenly grave.
“You never did,” it said. “That was the tragedy.”
A new presence sliced through the air cold, precise, absolute.
Chains of light pierced the cavern ceiling, spearing down like divine judgment. The Arbiter’s power.
And behind it.... Her.
Lyssara emerged from between worlds, robes torn now, eyes blazing with something close to panic. The moment she saw me, relief and terror warred across her face.
“Elara!” she shouted. “Don’t listen to it!”
The thing laughed, sharp and delighted. “Oh, she came all this way for you.”
Lyssara’s gaze snapped to it, hatred naked and raw. “Step away from her.”
“You don’t get to give orders here,” it replied.
The Crown’s presence flooded the cavern, suffocating, inevitable.
I stood between them between past and present, truth and lie my chest burning, my mind splitting.
Lyssara reached for me. “You can still be saved,” she pleaded. “Let me take the blame. Let me......”
The thing leaned close to my ear.
“She will betray you again,” it whispered. “Just like before.”
The Crown screamed. The tether snapped tight.
And in that moment, I understood the truth not fully, not yet but enough to terrify me.
I was not its vessel. I was its lock.
And it was about to remember how to break me.
The light surged.
Lyssara screamed my name.
The thing smiled like it had been waiting centuries for this exact moment.
And the Crown descended not to claim me, but to finish what I had started.