The eastern road was quiet.
Too quiet.
Mist curled low over the ground as Seraphina and Kael rode side by side, the mountain shrine looming ahead like a scar carved into the land. The air grew colder with every step closer, heavy with old sorrow.
"This place remembers grief," Kael said at last. "I can feel it pressing in."
Seraphina nodded. Her chest felt tight—not fear, but recognition. "It feeds on what was lost."
The shrine revealed itself as they reached the mountainside—an ancient structure half-swallowed by stone, its entrance split by a glowing fracture pulsing slowly, painfully.
The Second Seal.
They dismounted in silence.
The moment Seraphina crossed the threshold, the world shifted.
The air thickened, sound muffled, and the stone beneath her feet softened into something almost alive. Kael's grip on her hand tightened as memories—not hers—brushed against her thoughts.
A child crying.
A lover calling a name that would never answer.
A crown abandoned beside a grave.
"Stay with me," Kael murmured.
"I am," she replied—but the shrine was already working.
The seal flared, and the chamber transformed.
Seraphina gasped as she found herself standing in a familiar place—her childhood estate, long destroyed. The scent of jasmine filled the air. Her mother's laughter echoed softly.
"No…" Her breath caught.
Across the courtyard stood her mother, smiling warmly. "You've grown so strong," she said gently. "But strength always demands a price."
Kael appeared beside her, jaw tight. "It's an illusion."
"I know," Seraphina whispered. "But it hurts anyway."
The vision shifted again.
Now it was Kael's turn.
He stood frozen as the shrine conjured his past—his father's throne room, blood-stained and silent. The weight of expectation, the years of loneliness, the burden of being the Devil King's son pressed down on him.
"You could have ruled without her," a voice whispered. "You could still choose power."
Kael clenched his fists. "I already did choose."
Seraphina stepped forward, placing her hand over his heart. The bond flared, cutting through the illusion like fire through fog.
"We choose each other," she said firmly.
The shrine trembled violently.
The Second Seal screamed—not in rage, but frustration.
Give me loss, it demanded. Give me sorrow.
Seraphina lifted her chin, power steady despite the ache in her chest. "We've had enough of that."
She turned the pain inward—not to surrender to it, but to understand it. Love had taught her loss. Loss had taught her control.
Her power surged—not brighter, but deeper.
The fracture in the seal began to close.
Kael wrapped his arms around her, anchoring her as the shrine shook. "You're rewriting another rule," he murmured.
She smiled faintly, breathless. "Seems to be a habit."
The seal dimmed, subdued—but not destroyed.
Silence fell.
The shrine remained standing, its hunger quieted, though not erased.
Seraphina exhaled slowly. "It wanted us broken."
Kael brushed his thumb along her cheek, eyes dark with emotion. "Instead, it found us unbreakable."
As they stepped back into the mountain air, Seraphina felt it again—a distant stirring.
Another seal.
Waiting.