---
The white flash from the soul fusion had not yet faded when heavy footsteps echoed through the ceiling of the void. Aldric pulled me close, positioning himself in front of me like a shield, while my body still trembled from the ripples of that vision—the merging of Seraphine and Elara, two halves of me now becoming whole.
But before I could even grasp the meaning of it all, a deep, resonant laughter shattered the silence.
"How amusing," said a voice, cold and suffocating. "You think that by uniting your souls, you can erase a curse born from your very blood?"
From the darkness emerged a tall man with eyes as black as midnight and a crimson cloak that swirled like smoke. He stood above an invisible floor, floating, as the air around him tensed with pressure.
"Eladrian…" Aldric whispered, his voice strained. "The first guardian of the curse. You were supposed to have vanished with the first circle."
Eladrian chuckled darkly. "Oh, Aldric. Still naïve as ever. I was never truly gone. I fused with the curse's soul itself. And now I'm here… because your merging awakened the deepest core of the curse—the source of hatred you tried to bury."
I stepped forward. "If you're the source of that hatred, then I'll end you here and now."
Eladrian raised a hand, and at once the air tightened into a sharp vortex. "Such bravery in your tone, Elara… or Seraphine… or whatever you are now."
"I am both. I am whole," I said firmly.
Eladrian's smile turned wicked. "Then prove it. Fight me— but not with magic. Fight me with your memories."
The ground beneath us shattered. My body fell into the abyss, and when I opened my eyes… I was in a garden of thorns.
This place… I knew it. It wasn't just an illusion. It was a memory. Elara's memory.
I stood in the midst of a whirl of Valeria blooms—blood-red and thorned. Before me stood a man with jet-black hair and a gentle smile. He wasn't Aldric… but his face resembled him, younger, softer.
"Aldric?" I asked.
He stepped closer. "I'm Alden. Elara's first love. I… am part of this curse."
The world around us pulsed. Alden's smile turned bittersweet. "You deserve the full truth, Seraphine. You didn't curse the world for power. You cursed it… because of loss."
"Your loss?"
He nodded. "When you were betrayed by the Astoria bloodline… I died. And in your grief, you summoned the blood magic to strike back. But ancient magic never comes cheap. It bound you—and their descendants—into a cycle of vengeance."
My hand went to my chest. So that's how it began.
"But Elara forgot," Alden continued, "that she was given a chance to break the cycle. One chance. You had to choose: let go of vengeance and love again… or sink deeper into wrath and burn everything."
"And Seraphine…"
"…was that chance."
A gust of wind blew. Thorns fell like rain. My voice sounded distant, even to my own ears. "So… if I choose love, this curse ends?"
"Yes. But the love you choose… must be real. And it must accept every wound from your past."
I nodded slowly. My eyes stung with heat. "I know someone who can."
When I opened my eyes, I was back in the third circle. Aldric gripped his sword. Eladrian now stood with two figures beside him—mirrors of our past selves, versions of me and Aldric twisted in rage and resentment.
"Face your shadows," Eladrian roared. "Or the curse will consume you from within!"
My shadow stepped forward. "You're weak, Seraphine. You want redemption, but you can't even forgive yourself."
"And you," Aldric's shadow growled, "you believe love will save everything, but it was love that made you a traitor in your past life."
Aldric and I locked eyes.
"I won't deny it," I said. "I once drowned in anger. But I also know what it's like to regret every night because of that choice."
Aldric nodded. "And I know if I keep hating myself for the past, I'll never be able to protect the Seraphine standing before me."
The shadows roared. Eladrian shouted, "You cannot escape this cycle! You *are* part of it!"
"No," Aldric said, stepping closer to me. "We are the end of it."
We joined hands. Light burst from our chests, driving away the shadows. Eladrian screamed in agony, his body cracking like porcelain struck by truth.
"No!" he howled. "Blood must be paid with blood!"
"But we choose another way," I said. "We choose redemption."
Eladrian fell into darkness, his form slowly crumbling into silver dust.
But before he vanished completely, he looked at me with eyes burning in hatred.
"This curse may end… but your blood… will still carry my echo."
The world began to tremble.
"Seraphine," Aldric pulled me close. "It's time to leave this circle."
Light enveloped us, consuming everything. But just before I was pulled away entirely, a voice whispered in my ear—not Eladrian's, not Alden's, but… another woman's.
"Elara… you haven't seen everything. Beware… the blood that lies still."
---
We fell into the middle of an old castle hall. But nothing was the same.
The sky outside bled red.
And upon the central throne stood someone.
Not Eladrian.
Not a shadow.
But a woman crowned in black thorns, with eyes that… matched mine exactly.
"Welcome back, Elara," she said.
Aldric gripped my arm. "Who is she?"
I stared at the woman, trembling.
Because I knew exactly who she was.
She… was the part of my soul that had never awakened.
"She… is the me that never lived."
---