The battle began before the sun rose.
The heart of the desert … the Starfall … was a vast circle of silver sand, shimmering faintly under the last stars of night. At its center, half-buried and cracked, lay the final shard: the largest of them all, a brilliant spire of crystal glowing with the light of a thousand suns.
Layla and Malik reached the Starfall just as the winds began to howl.
The Shadow Sultan was waiting.
He rose from the sands like a storm, his black form towering, his bronze mask gleaming in the moonlight. Smoke poured from his limbs, twisting into the shapes of beasts with claws and wings.
"Well done, little Dreamer," he hissed, his voice shaking the very ground. "You brought all the shards together … just for me."
Layla stood tall, clutching the three shards she carried, their glow almost blinding now.
"You'll never have them," she said.
The Sultan laughed, a hollow, cruel sound.
"You think courage will save you?" he sneered. "You think this cursed jinn at your side will save you? He is nothing but my shadow. My servant, still bound to me."
Layla's eyes darted to Malik … but he didn't flinch.
"I was your servant," he said coldly, stepping forward, his golden eyes blazing. "Until she freed me. You will never bind me again."
The Sultan roared and struck.
The air exploded into fire and smoke.
Layla raised her hands, and the shards blazed in unison, forming a wall of light around her and Malik. The desert itself seemed to awaken, sand swirling upward into shapes of stars and wings.
"You don't belong here anymore!" Layla shouted over the roar of the storm. "This is not your desert!"
She stepped forward, each shard in her hands now burning hotter and hotter, their light pushing back his darkness.
The Sultan screamed in fury, striking again and again … but this time his blows shattered against her light.
And then… she reached the Starfall.
She placed all three shards into the cracked spire.
The earth shook.
The spire blazed with a brilliance so bright it turned night into day.
The Sultan shrieked as his form cracked, splintered, and finally broke apart into dust.
For the first time in centuries, silence fell.
Malik dropped to his knees, gasping for breath. The golden glow around him pulsed brighter … then settled into something soft and warm.
Layla turned to him, her chest still heaving, her arms trembling.
"Malik?" she whispered.
He looked up at her.
And smiled.
For the first time since she'd met him… a real, unguarded smile, full of quiet joy.
"I'm free," he said softly, as though tasting the words for the first time.
His chains were gone. The faint black marks that had once curled around his wrists and neck faded to nothing.
He stood and took her hands gently in his.
"You did it," he said. "You broke his hold … not just on me. On all of us."
Around them, the desert sang.
The winds whispered with gratitude. The sands shimmered like stars. The horizon began to glow gold as the first light of dawn crept upward.
A new dawn.
Layla stood there, hand in hand with Malik, and watched the sun rise over the dunes.
For the first time in her life, she felt whole.
She didn't know what tomorrow would bring … but she knew this much: she had faced the darkness, and she had not broken.
And she would keep walking.
Malik glanced down at her, his smile still faint but warmer than the desert sun.
"Where to now, Dreamer?" he asked.
She smiled back.
"Wherever the stars take us."
And together, they walked into the light of a new day.