Chapter 15: The Voice That Isn't His
The first time Kael heard it, they were half-asleep.
It slipped beneath their dreams like a shadow under glass, soft and slow, speaking words that didn't belong in Riven's voice.
"The bond was never meant to be shared."
Kael sat bolt upright, breath catching in their throat.
They were in Relewyn Keep's upper chamber, nestled in a circular alcove of stained-glass windows and moon-pale stone. The others were scattered across the fortress, either resting or maintaining watch, but Kael had taken solitude.
The fire had burned low.
The candle at their bedside flickered, though the air was still.
Kael pressed trembling fingers to their temples.
"Riven?" they whispered.
A pause.
Then, his familiar voice: "Yes?"
"You weren't just… speaking to me?"
"No. I was asleep."
Kael's heart raced. The voice hadn't felt like Riven's. It had been… colder. Older. The timbre was wrong. Too deep. Laced with something metallic and ancient.
They stood, wrapped their cloak tighter, and stepped into the hall.
Riven's chamber was just across. The door was cracked open.
He was lying on the bed, unmoving but breathing. A line of runes pulsed faintly across his chest, synchronized to Kael's own.
Kael reached out then stopped. Afraid.
Then the voice came again.
"The Hollowblood was never meant to be your gate."
Kael recoiled, clutching the doorframe. "Who are you?"
No answer. But the rune on their chest burned.
Kael staggered back, nearly colliding with Laeth, who had just emerged from the shadows.
"You look like you saw a ghost," they murmured, tilting their head.
Kael breathed hard. "I think I heard one."
Laeth frowned. "Not Riven?"
"No. Someone else. Something else."
Laeth narrowed their eyes, took Kael's arm gently. "Come. We should tell Aeris."
Downstairs in the war room, Aeris stood barefoot in a circle of chalk and candles, drawing a string of glowing thread between her fingers. She was murmuring to herself, the way she always did when trying to track a future.
When Kael and Laeth entered, she didn't look up.
"You heard it," she said.
Kael froze. "How did you ?"
"I saw your thread twitch like a snagged line."
She looked up, her eyes glowing faintly. "Describe the voice."
Kael hesitated. "It was in my head. But wrong. Too deep. Detached. Like it wasn't meant for this world."
Aeris drew a sigil in the air. It shimmered for a moment, then shattered.
"The fusion isn't holding cleanly anymore," she said. "There's a third presence."
Laeth stiffened. "You mean like a parasite?"
"No," Aeris said slowly. "Like a reflection. In the soulmirror."
Kael's pulse thudded in their ears. "You said I was Mirrorborn."
"I said the bond made you into one," Aeris said. "Which means you don't just exist in this world. You exist in several. That voice could be… another you. Or worse. A version that isn't you."
Kael staggered backward, nausea curling in their gut.
"Can we block it?"
Aeris frowned. "We can try."
She began pulling herbs, crystals, and drops of oil from her satchel. "But if it's already speaking through the bond, we may be too late to stop it. We may only be able to contain it."
"Then contain it," Kael said, fists clenched. "Before it takes over."
The ritual took place at moonrise.
Everyone gathered in the upper hall, where the moon shone directly through the domed skylight. Aeris drew a massive sigil around Kael and Riven, who had reluctantly agreed to participate.
"I don't feel anything," he muttered.
"You wouldn't," Aeris replied. "You're the gate. Not the echo."
Riven scowled.
Kael sat cross-legged at the center. Riven stood behind them, arms folded.
Aeris lit the outer circle with firethread. "I need you to focus, Kael. Close your eyes. If the voice speaks again, answer it."
Kael nodded.
Their breath slowed. The world narrowed.
Silence.
Then…
"They will betray you. All of them."
Kael's eyes flew open. The voice had returned. But louder. Closer.
"Who are you?" they whispered.
The flame around the circle flared blue.
Riven looked alarmed. "Kael?"
Kael's voice was low. Distant. "It's here."
Aeris's hands trembled as she continued chanting.
Kael's body went rigid. Their chest glowed violently, the runes pulsing out of sync.
Then Kael spoke, but it wasn't them.
Their voice was overlaid, distorted.
"This body was a doorway. The soul was never meant to be alone."
Riven drew his sword. "Back away from them."
Kael no, the voice turned their head toward him.
"You. The one who opens doors. You're not welcome in what comes next."
Laeth and Kiel shifted, ready to fight. Thorne's coral armor began to harden.
But Aeris shouted, "Don't touch them! We risk shattering the bond entirely."
Kael's body began to rise into the air.
Light erupted from their chest, splitting the skylight into a hundred fractured beams.
A swirling mass of color, dark and bright and wrong, poured from Kael's mouth.
And a figure began to take shape.
It looked like Kael.
But taller. Pale. Eyes filled with stars.
Riven whispered, "Gods below. That's…"
Aeris's voice shook. "That's the Other."
The room buckled.
Kael collapsed back to the floor.
The figure remained.
It smiled.
"Hello, Kael," it said, in a voice like thunder.
Kael blinked up at it, dizzy and shaking.
"Are you… me?"
The figure stepped closer. "I am what you become. In another thread. In another war. I burned the world to save someone. And now I've come… to finish what I started."
Kael tried to stand, but their limbs were numb.
The figure looked at the others.
"I have no quarrel with you. Not yet. But Kael is mine. Always has been."
Riven stepped forward, sword raised. "Not this Kael."
The figure tilted its head. "We'll see."
And with a snap of its fingers, it vanished into smoke.
The chamber fell silent.
Aeris sank to her knees. "It's begun."
Kael curled into themselves, body wracked with tremors.
Riven knelt beside them, hands unsure.
"I'll protect you," he thought.
Kael didn't answer.
Because inside their mind, two voices were speaking now.
And one of them wasn't theirs.