The air in the Valley of Echoing Souls hung heavy with the weight of unburied memories. Fluorescent mist coiledaround jagged stone pillars, their surfaces etched with runes that pulsed faintly, as though the dead themselves had carved warnings into the rock.
Eldrin led the battered remnants of his team through the gorge, his left arm encased in crystalline lines that glowed like frozen lightning. Each step sent a jolt of agony through his nervesa- reminder of the rift's corruption and the price of sealing it. Behind him, Nim adjusted her fractured goggles, her spider-mech' s legs clicking unevenly over the uneven terrain. Tira walked in silence, her hands clasped over the shard embedded in her chest, its light dimmed but never truly dormant.
Liora paused, her emerald cloak billowing as she knelt to touch the ground.
The dead walk here,"she murmured, her voice sharp as shattered glass. Th eir whispers cling to the stones."
A chill slithered down Eldrin's spine. The sigils on his arm flared briefly, reacting to unseen energies. Then we move faster."
The mist parted abruptly, revealing a figure standing atop a moss-covered boulder. Silver hair cascaded down her shoulders, glowing faintly in the gloom. Her bare feet left no imprint on the damp stone as she turned to face thema-young woman with eyes like polished obsidian.
You tread where only ghosts dare,"she said, her voice echoing with layered tones, as though multiple souls spoke through her. I am Thalara, keeper of the Veil. Why do you disturb the sleep of Titans' fallen?"
Eldrin stepped forward, his chaos-fire flickering instinctively. We seek the fourth shard. Ophiras shadow hunts it."
Thalaras gaze lingered on his grain. You carry death in your veins, Chaos Child. Yet you bargain with it."She raised a hand, and the mist coalesced into spectral shapessoldiers in ancient armor, their faces frozen in eternal screams. The fourth shard lies in the Frostreach Crypts. But Ophira's claws have already scraped its edges."
A familiar voice cut through the visions.
Eldrin."
He froze. Floating among the specters was Rivennhis oldest friend, his armor charred, his eyes hollow. The ghost reached out, fingertips brushing Eldrin's grain. She's close.The crypt's heart bleeds with her lies."
Tira gasped, clutching her shard. His soulit's *anchored* here."
Liora's dagger gleamed. A memory imprint. The dead cannot linger unless bound by"
By vengeance,"Thalara interrupted. She gestured to a fissure in the valley wall, its edges glowing with sickly blue light. The Well of Echoes lies there. Speak to the Keeper of Scales·if you dare."
---
The Well of Echoes was not a well at all, but a gaping maw in the earth,its depths radiating cold so profound it seared the lungs. Thalara led them to its edge, where a pool of black water reflected no light. Eldrin peered into the abyssand recoiled.
The water showed not his face, but Ophira's.
She stood in a cavern of ice, her hands pressed against a shard twice her height, its surface weeping black ichor. Behind her, shadows writhedeountle ss souls trapped in her wake.
An echo of the present,"Thalara said. The shard calls to its kin-and to you."
Eldrin's grain pulsed. How do we reach it?"
Through the Well." Thalara's voice hardened. But the dead demand payment."
Before he could protest, the water *moved*. A skeletal hand erupted from the pool, gripping Eldrin's wrist. Ice spread up his arm, crystallizing his grain into jagged spikes. He tried to pull back, but the grip was iron.
*Eldrin!* "Nim lunged, her mech's claws slashing at the handbut they passed through it like smoke.
A figure rose from the depthse-hooded silhouette with a face of shifting shadows. Its voice boomed, shaking the valley.
"*A life for a life, Chaos Child. Three days of sight-for his breath.**
The pool's surface rippled, revealing Jaces bodypale and lifeless, his left arm severed at the elbow, blood soaking through crude bandages.
No tricks,"Liora hissed, though her own sigilstwisted mirrors of Eldrin'sfared in warning. Death does not bargain."
The Keeper's laughter rattled Eldrin's bones. **Death *is* the bargain.**
Eldrin met the void where its eyes should be. Do it."
The Keepers hand plunged into his chest.
Agony.
Visions tore through himOphira and Liora as children, kneeling before a Titan altar. A shard splitting, its halves burying into their hearts. A scream Li ora'ses Ophira pushed her into the abyss.
*You were never sisters," the Keeper whispered. *You were experiments."
The pain vanished. Eldrin collapsed, gasping. Thalara caught him, her touch unnervingly cold. The price is paid."
Across the pool, Jace lurched upright, coughing black water. His remaining hand flew to his throat. What in the seven hells?"
Nim tackled him in a half-laugh, half-sob. Welcome back, you stubborn*bastard*."
But Eldrin did not rejoice. The world had gone dark.
Your eyes"·Tira whispered.
He blinkedor tried to. Only endless blackness greeted him. The Keeper's voice echoed in his mind:
**Three days. Then the Void claims whats owed.**
Shapes moved in the gloombHurred, indistinct. Eldrin staggered, guided by Tira's grip on his arm. The grain on his left side burned brighter, compensating in cruel mockery of his stolen sight.
Ophira's shadow approaches,"Thalara warned. The dead sense her hunger."
Jace cursed, his voice raw. Weapons. Now."
Liora's dagger hissed from its sheath. Too late."
The mist *twisted*. Figures emergednot specters, but living shadows clad in blackened armor. Their leader carried a spear tipped with a shard fragment, its light warped by Ophira's corruption.
The Nexus Child,"the soldier sneered. Lady Ophira sends her regards."
Eldrin's grain flared. He *felt* the chaos-fire before he saw ita-roaring tide in his veins. With a snarl, he unleashed it blindly, liquid shadow carving through the attackers.
But the darkness betrayed him. A blade grazed his ribs. Another sliced his thigh.
Left!"Jace barked, his throwing knives whirring past Eldrin's ear. *Move!*"
Eldrin obeyed, relying on the grains unnatural pull. He *felt* rather than saw the next shadowe- cold presence at his flank. His fist ignited, melting armor and bone.
The fight ended as abruptly as it began. The surviving shadows dissolved into smoke, their leader's laughter lingering. This is but a taste, Chaos Child. Her shadow grows *hungrier*."
Thalara stood at the Well's edge, her silver hair glowing like a spectral banner. The path to Frostreach is open. But tread carefullyOphira's game has only begun."
As the team retreated, Eldrin stumbled. Tira caught him, her shard's light brushing his grain. Youre burning up."
He said nothing. In the darkness, new visions flickeredOphira's face, the fourth shard weeping in the crypt, and a voice that was not his own:
*Three days and then you're mine."
The grain pulsede-countdown etched in flesh.
Somewhere in the void, the Keeper laughed.