The seal weighed heavier in Elsa's purse than it had any right to. No words. No instructions. Just that ancient lotus sigil pressed into the thick card stock, gleaming like molten gold.
But it whispered.
Whispered like instinct, like déjà vu, like something calling her.
And she followed.
Without telling Chess. Without alerting her assistant. Without sending her location to anyone.
She left Valemir under the guise of a business trip and boarded a private plane to a city that, until a few hours ago, she had never even heard of.
Aurelia's Hold.
A place not on any commercial map. No airport. No grand welcome.
She landed at a quiet field strip outside the city, where the mountains met the clouds, and the roads curved like coiled serpents between old stone buildings and whispering forests.
The moment she stepped out, the air felt… older. Thicker. Like it remembered too much.
A black car was waiting. No driver. Just a card with her name, and that same seal engraved on the door handle.
Elsa hesitated only a second before stepping in.
Two Hours Later – Ancient Quarter, Aurelia's Hold
The car stopped in front of a temple carved into the side of a cliff, its gates guarded by two enormous dragon statues. Moss crawled up their flanks like time trying to erase them.
Elsa stepped out cautiously. Her heels clicked against the cobbled stone as she approached the gate.
No one greeted her.
Until the doors opened on their own.
Inside, the hall was silent, lit only by the amber glow of lanterns hanging from wooden beams. The scent of incense filled the air, mingling with the faint metallic tang of energy—yes, energy—humming against her skin like static.
What is this place?
She walked deeper in, her fingers brushing the cold stone of the corridor, following the seal etched along the walls.
It led her to a chamber. Circular. With pillars carved in forgotten languages and a mural on the ceiling that looked suspiciously like a celestial map.
Standing at its center was a woman.
Graceful. Powerful. Wearing robes of dark violet, her silver eyes piercing through the dim light like moonlight through fog.
"You should not be here," the woman said.
Elsa held up the seal. "Then maybe you shouldn't have sent this."
The woman's gaze lingered on the card, then returned to Elsa. "I did not send it. But I felt your arrival."
"You… felt me?"
"You carry him within you."
Elsa froze. "You know Chess."
A long silence.
"I know what he was. Before the world softened him. Before he walked away from the order he was born into."
The woman circled Elsa slowly.
"You should have died walking into this temple. But something… shields you. Protects you."
Elsa's voice faltered. "Why am I here?"
"Because someone is testing the threads of fate," the woman replied. "And fate brought you to the door of the Celestial Lotus Sect."
Elsa's breath caught.
Sect.
Like the one Chess had vaguely mentioned. The one he never spoke of in full.
"You're not like him," the woman said. "But something ancient slumbers in you. Buried. Forgotten. And the seal was meant to awaken it."
Elsa's voice shook now. "What do you mean?"
"You'll know. Soon."
The woman handed her a parchment, rolled tightly and bound in silver thread.
"Take this. Do not open it until your soul feels like it's unraveling."
What kind of fortune cookie nonsense is this?
Elsa wanted to scream it, but she knew better.
"Leave now. Return to Valemir. Before the veil between this world and the one behind it thins too much."
Elsa took the scroll, tucked it under her coat, and turned back toward the fading light of the entrance.
But her heart pounded harder.
What did they mean something slumbers inside me?
Later – Back in Valemir
The jet cut through clouds like a blade.
Elsa sat in silence, her hand over the scroll.
Back to the skyscrapers. Back to business. Back to Chess.
But her world had shifted.
She could feel it.
She no longer stood at the edge of mystery. She was already walking through it.
And whatever this new part of her was — ancient or awakened — it would soon refuse to stay quiet.