The Mountain did not speak immediately.
After its last inhale the one that did not end the world settled into a strange suspension, as if time itself had chosen to slow in order to listen more carefully. The pale veins of light threading the stone pulsed at longer intervals now, each one steady and deliberate, like a heart that had lived too long to rush.
Solance stood at the edge of the terrace, feeling the pressure not as weight, but as attention.
It was different from the Memory Forest.
The forest had watched him with emotion, with sorrow and longing woven into every leaf and root. The Mountain watched him without judgment but without comfort either. It did not care who he was, or what he felt.
It cared only about what would happen because of him.
Aurelianth sensed it too. His posture was still, grounded, wings folded tight against his back not in fear, but in respect. Lioren, for all her bravado, had gone quiet again, her sharp eyes scanning the terrace as though she expected the stone itself to move.
The presence before them...the Mountain's Warden...remained unmoving.
Not blocking their way.
Not welcoming them forward.
Simply existing.
Solance drew in a careful breath.
The air tasted different here. Not cold, not thin measured. As though the Mountain were aware of every molecule entering his lungs and weighing it before allowing it to remain.
He placed a hand over his chest.
The Fifth Purpose responded softly.
It did not surge.
It did not defend.
It waited.
That waiting unsettled him more than any test could have.
The Warden finally spoke.
Before the Second Breath is given…a question must be answered.
The words were not loud, but they resonated through the terrace, settling into the stone beneath Solance's feet and echoing faintly in his bones.
Aurelianth's gaze sharpened. "A question?"
The Warden did not turn its attention to him.
All who reach this place are questioned.
Most do not realize it.
Lioren frowned. "That's… ominous."
Solance took a step forward. The pressure increased not painfully, but insistently, like the Mountain leaning closer to hear him better.
"What's the question?" he asked.
The Warden did not answer immediately.
Instead, the terrace changed.
The stone beneath them darkened, smoothing into a reflective surface not polished like glass, but like still water frozen at the exact moment of calm. Pale light rippled outward from the Warden's position, forming a wide circle around Solance.
Aurelianth's breath caught. "This is..."
"A projection," Solance finished quietly. He could feel it already. Not a memory like the forest's, but something closer to possibility given shape.
The Mountain's voice returned.
If the world breathes with you…what will you do when it chokes?
The question landed softly.
And then...
The reflection shifted.
Solance found himself standing somewhere else.
Not physically...his body remained on the terrace but his awareness was pulled into the stone's surface, where images formed with unsettling clarity.
A city rose before him.
Not grand.
Not ancient.
Alive.
Buildings woven from stone and light stood close together, streets filled with people moving about their lives. Children laughed. Merchants argued. A breeze carried voices, scents, warmth.
The world felt healthy.
Solance's heart tightened.
"This is… after," he whispered. "After the world stabilizes."
The Fifth Purpose hummed faintly, neither confirming nor denying.
Then the image fractured.
The sky darkened.
Not dramatically.....subtly.
Crops failed in the fields beyond the city's walls. Water levels dropped. The air thickened. People grew tense, then fearful. Disagreements turned sharp. Resources dwindled.
A problem emerged.
Not caused by malice.
Not caused by an enemy.
Just… consequence.
The city's leaders gathered, arguing fiercely. Their voices overlapped, desperate.
"We need more power!"
"We need control!"
"We need someone to decide!"
The image zoomed outward.
Solance saw himself there.
Standing at the city's edge.
Not crowned.
Not worshiped.
Simply known.
They turned to him.
"Help us," they pleaded. "You can fix this. You're connected to the world make it right."
Solance's chest tightened painfully.
The Mountain's voice echoed.
What do you do?
The image paused.
The pressure increased.
Aurelianth's hand brushed Solance's arm in the real world, grounding him.
Solance swallowed.
He knew the answer he could give.
He could reach into the world, adjust the flow of creation, force balance back into place. He could decide which fields lived and which failed. Which people were saved first.
He could become necessary.
The Fifth Purpose pulsed warm, uncertain.
Solance shook his head slowly.
"I wouldn't do that," he said aloud.
The image rippled, but did not disappear.
"Why not?" Lioren asked quietly, standing beside him now within the projection. Her expression was serious. "You could. And people would thank you for it."
Solance looked at her.
"And then they'd need me again," he said. "Every time something went wrong. Every time the world changed."
Aurelianth nodded faintly. "Dependence."
"Yes," Solance said. "That's not connection. That's replacement."
The Mountain was silent.
The image shifted again.
Solance saw himself refusing to intervene directly. Instead, he taught the city how to adapt how to redistribute water, how to prepare for lean seasons, how to argue without tearing itself apart.
Progress was slow.
People suffered.
Some blamed him.
Some left.
Some died.
Solance flinched at that part.
The pressure intensified.
And when they curse you? the Mountain asked.
When they say you could have saved them faster?
Solance's throat tightened.
"I'd stay," he said hoarsely. "Not as a savior. As someone who helps them learn how to breathe without me."
The image dimmed.
The terrace returned.
But the Mountain was not finished.
The Warden raised one indistinct arm.
The stone reflected again.
This time, the scene was different.
Solance stood on a battlefield.
Not one of swords or spells but ideologies.
People faced each other across a shattered land, divided by belief, by fear, by incompatible visions of how the world should be.
They all turned to him.
"Choose," they demanded. "Your connection makes your choice final."
Solance felt his pulse spike.
The Fifth Purpose trembled not in fear, but strain.
If he chose one side, the world would align accordingly. Stability would return.
At a cost.
If he refused, the conflict would continue.
At a cost.
The Mountain's voice pressed closer.
What do you sacrifice? Unity… or freedom?
Solance closed his eyes.
The silence stretched.
Aurelianth waited.
Lioren waited.
Even the Mountain waited.
"I wouldn't choose for them," Solance said finally. "I'd choose with them."
The image cracked.
"That means no clean outcome," Lioren said. "No perfect ending."
"I know," Solance replied softly. "But if I force unity, it's just another form of suffocation."
The Fifth Purpose steadied.
The battlefield dissolved.
Once more, the terrace returned but now the Mountain's veins glowed brighter, their rhythm quicker.
The Warden spoke again.
Final question.
The air thickened.
The pressure focused.
The stone beneath Solance's feet grew warm.
The reflection formed one last time.
This one was smaller.
More intimate.
Solance stood alone.
Aurelianth and Lioren were not there.
The world around him was stable healthy, breathing, alive.
But he was… fading.
Not dying.
Being left behind.
People walked past him without seeing him. The world no longer needed him. The connection he had forged no longer centered on him at all.
The Fifth Purpose dimmed.
Solance felt a pang of quiet fear.
The Mountain's voice was almost gentle now.
When the world no longer needs you…will you let it go?
The silence that followed was absolute.
Solance's chest ached.
This was the question Ariasen had never been asked.
This was the question the Architect would never accept.
He thought of the child he saved how he had not known if anyone would remember him afterward.
He thought of Ariasen, carrying the world until there was nothing left of themselves.
He thought of connection not as importance, but as participation.
Solance opened his eyes.
"Yes," he said.
The word was quiet.
Firm.
"Yes. I would let it go."
The Fifth Purpose pulsed not bright, not dim.
Balanced.
"I don't want the world to need me," Solance continued. "I want it to live. Even if that means I'm no longer at the center of it."
The reflection shattered completely.
The terrace shook not violently, but deeply, as though something vast had shifted its weight.
The Warden inclined its form again this time more clearly.
Answer accepted.
The pressure lifted.
Solance staggered slightly as the Mountain exhaled not sharply, not explosively, but fully, for the first time since they had arrived.
Aurelianth caught him, steadying him.
"You did it," he murmured. "That was the First Question."
Lioren exhaled hard. "Remind me never to argue with a mountain."
The stone around them reformed once more.
This time, a clear path opened downward wider than before, leading deeper into the Mountain's body. The air beyond it glowed faintly, carrying a resonance Solance felt in his bones.
The Warden spoke one last time.
The Second Breath continues.
You may proceed.
Solance looked ahead, heart steady, chest warm with the quiet presence of the Fifth Purpose.
He did not feel powerful.
He felt… ready.
"Let's go," he said softly.
They stepped forward together.
And the Mountain breathed on.