"She is the one we were trying to stop."
My mother's words echoed through the chamber.
I stared at the woman beside me.
The woman who had my face.
The woman who had carried the pain I had forgotten.
The woman I had just chosen to accept.
"You?"
She didn't answer.
She simply looked at Marina.
"You promised you would never tell her."
Marina's eyes filled with tears.
"I promised to protect her."
"You protected her from me."
"I protected her from what you were becoming."
The woman laughed.
"You still don't understand."
I stepped between them.
"Then explain it to me."
Marina shook her head.
"Bjei, please."
"No."
My voice trembled.
"I've spent my entire life being told pieces of the truth."
I looked at everyone.
"The First Queen lied."
"Celestia hid things."
"Angela hid things."
"Nerath hid things."
"And now you're telling me my own mother hid the biggest secret of all."
Marina lowered her eyes.
"I was trying to keep you alive."
"Alive from what?"
She looked at the woman.
"From her."
The woman finally spoke.
"You should ask your mother what happened the first time I was free."
I turned to Marina.
"What happened?"
Marina's hands began shaking.
"You were five."
I froze.
"I remember being five."
"No."
She shook her head.
"You remember what we allowed you to remember."
The chamber became silent.
Marina continued.
"When you were five, your power awakened."
I remembered the sea.
The strange dreams.
The feeling that someone was always calling my name.
"You disappeared for three days."
My heart raced.
"I did?"
"Yes."
"We searched everywhere."
Marina looked at the other Bjei.
"Then she came back."
I looked at her.
"What did she do?"
Marina closed her eyes.
"She tried to open the first world."
The woman shook her head.
"I was trying to go home."
Marina's voice broke.
"You nearly destroyed the boundary."
"I didn't know what I was doing."
"You knew enough."
"I was five years old!"
The woman screamed.
Her voice shook the chamber.
"I was five too!"
I stepped backward.
Five?
They both looked at me.
"What do you mean?"
The woman looked at me.
"We weren't separated when we were born."
My breath caught.
"We grew up together."
"No."
"Yes."
She touched my chest.
"Inside you."
I stared at her.
"You were there?"
"Every day."
My mind began filling with strange memories.
A little girl laughing beside me.
A voice talking to me when nobody else was around.
A hand holding mine in the dark.
I had always thought those moments were imaginary.
They weren't.
"You were my imaginary friend."
She smiled.
"I was your sister in every way that mattered."
Marina began crying.
"But when your power became too strong, the First Queen separated you."
I looked at the First Queen.
She didn't deny it.
"You removed her from me."
"We had no choice."
"There is always a choice."
The First Queen looked at the floor.
"You were destroying yourself."
"So you destroyed her instead."
Silence.
The woman looked at me.
"And that is why I became what you fear."
Suddenly, the ground shook.
A deep sound came from beneath us.
Everyone turned.
The First Mother looked upward.
"No."
Shawshank grabbed my hand.
"What is it?"
The First Mother looked at me.
"The first world is waking."
My heart stopped.
"But I thought I was the first world."
"You are its heart."
She pointed at the woman beside me.
"And she is its shadow."
The chamber cracked.
Golden light poured through the floor.
Black darkness rose beside it.
The two forces began moving toward us.
The First Mother shouted:
"Do not let them merge!"
I looked at her.
"Why?"
Her expression was terrified.
"Because if your heart and your shadow become one…"
She paused.
"…the first world will be reborn."
I swallowed.
"And what happens then?"
The First Mother looked toward the five worlds.
"They won't need queens."
She looked at me.
"They won't need kings."
Then she whispered:
"And they won't need humans."
Shawshank tightened his grip on my hand.
"Bjei…"
I looked at him.
He was afraid.
Not for himself.
For me.
I squeezed his hand.
"I won't let it happen."
The woman beside me stepped forward.
"You can't stop it."
"Watch me."
She smiled.
"You still think this is about power."
She looked at Shawshank.
"It isn't."
Then she looked at me.
"The first world isn't waking because of us."
Her golden eyes turned black.
"It's waking because of him."
Shawshank froze.
"What?"
She pointed directly at him.
"You are the final piece."
His golden mark suddenly turned black.
He fell to his knees.
"Shawshank!"
I rushed toward him.
His eyes lifted toward mine.
But they weren't his eyes anymore.
They were completely black.
And when he spoke…
It wasn't his voice.
It was mine.
"Bjei… run."