The darkness started to spread.
It came out from the stone beneath us. The Void was waking up. Something had been waiting for twenty years. The darkness reached out like smoke, like water, like hands coming out of a dream.
Then there was light.
Many torches lit up. They came from the shadows at the edge of the room from tunnels from unexpected places. The light pushed the darkness back, which retreated, waiting quietly.
People came out from the shadows. Women wearing desert robes, their faces covered by fabric with only their eyes showing. They were watching, waiting.
They did not. Talk. They just stood there, lighting up the darkness with their torches, their eyes fixed on the Void.
One of them stepped forward.
An old woman, with a face lined with age and white hair, had eyes as if she had been watching for a long time.
She looked at Kael at the stone beneath him and at the waiting darkness.
"You opened it," she said, her voice tired, as if she had been waiting for a time.
Kael stood up, his hand on the warm stone. The darkness stayed.
"We opened it," he said.
The old woman nodded, her gaze moving to Lina, whose eyes still had a fading light.
"You are the one who woke up," she said. "The one who chose. The one who sees what others cannot."
Linas's grip on Kael's hand tightened. "Who are you?"
The old woman smiled a little. Not welcoming or threatening, just acknowledging.
"We are the ones who stayed," she explained. "When your grandfather sealed this place, we stayed. When he tried to erase it from memory, we remembered. For twenty years we have guarded this door, waiting for someone to return, waiting for someone to reopen it."
She turned her gaze back to Kael.
"Your grandfather was brave. He was also scared. He saw what was in the Void... And then he ran. He buried it, hid it and spent his life pretending it was not there."
She stepped closer, her eyes piercing and her voice low.
"You came. You opened the door. You are ready to face what he ran from."
She showed a stone that was dark and pulsing with light like the void and the stone in Kael's pocket.
Before you go in, you must see. You must understand what he saw. You must know what scared him much."
Her gaze included Kael, Lina and the others.
"Are you ready to see?"
A heavy silence filled the air.
The torches flickered. The darkness stayed patient. The stone in the woman's hand pulsed with light.
"What is it?" Maya asked softly.
The old woman looked at her. "A memory. Not a recollection of something that happened. A memory of something that was seen. Your grandfather saw it. We saw it... Now you will see it too."
"How?" Rakas's voice was rough.
The old woman kept the small smile. "You must drink. The stone has the memory. When you drink, you will see what he saw. You will feel what he felt. You will know what he knew."
She looked at Kael.
When you wake up, you will have to make a choice. Not the choice your grandfather made. Not the choice we made. Your choice."
Raka stepped forward. "What if we choose not to drink?"
The old woman looked at him calmly. "Then you will go into the Void without seeing. You will face what is there without understanding what it is, without knowing its intentions and without realising what it cost your grandfather to seal that door."
She glanced at the darkness below them.
"He once closed it. He buried it. He spent his life trying to forget... You have opened it. You cannot close it again without understanding what you are sealing."
She offered the stone to him.
"Drink. See. Then decide."
Kael took the stone.
It felt warm, like a cup of tea, like his grandfather's hands. Something that had been waiting for him.
He looked at Lina, who was watching him closely, with no glow in her eyes.
"Kael—"
"I must," he said. "He was my grandfather. He left this for me. I need to see what he saw."
She held his hand, her warmth reassuring. "Then I'm going with you."
The old woman shook her head. "No. Each must see alone. What he saw he saw alone. What he felt, he felt alone."
She turned to Lina.
"You will see... Your experience. Not his. Not anyone else's. Yours."
Lina clung tighter to Kael's hand, refusing to let go.
Kael studied the stone, watching the light pulsing inside it.
He lifted it to his lips.
"Wait," Ombak's voice cut through. He stepped forward, his gaze and hands firm.
"I was there," he said. "When your grandfather opened the door. When he saw what was inside. I was there."
He turned to the woman. "Let me go first. Let me see what I saw. What I've tried to forget for twenty years."
The old woman looked at him and then nodded.
Ombak took the stone from Kael's hand, hesitating for a moment. His face was pale. His grip was firm.
"I've been running from this for twenty years," he said. "I've pretended I didn't see what I saw. Pretended I didn't feel what I felt."
Raising the stone to his lips, he said, "It's time to stop pretending."
He drank.
The change was immediate.
Ombak's eyes widened, his body tensed, and his hands fell to his sides. The stone slipped from his fingers, clattering to the stone floor and rolling to a stop at Kael's feet.
He stood there frozen, his eyes wide and mouth open, his expression not Ombaks.
We all watched in silence. The torches. The darkness stayed.
Then Ombak screamed.
It was a scream, the sound of someone releasing something they had kept inside for far too long.
He collapsed to his knees, shaking hands and with tear-filled eyes.
"What did you see?" Maya's voice was gentle.
Ombak didn't reply. His gaze was fixed on the darkness, the Void.
"I saw it," he rasped. "I saw what he saw. What he feared much."
He looked at Kael, his eyes red and his cheeks wet.
"Kael—" His voice faltered. "Don't. Don't look. Don't see."
He couldn't finish his thought.
The old woman knelt beside him, her hand on his shoulder, her demeanour calm.
"He saw," she said. "He remembered. Now you must see. You must remember. You must choose."
She picked up the stone from the floor. Offered it to Kael.
"Are you ready?"