Episode 22 – "The Girl Beneath the Sunken Spire"
---
The Path Through Hollow Sky
The world had grown colder since the last Fragment. Not by temperature—but by presence. The trees bowed differently. The wind whispered less. And the stars above had begun to pulse in irregular rhythms, like the heartbeat of something ancient and awakening.
Zane, Kaela, and Raelion now traveled through the lowlands of Caer Volneth, a sunken territory where once a city had stood proud over the sea. A magical cataclysm centuries ago had drowned it beneath shimmering tides of salt and memory. Now, the Sunken Spire of Solveth stood alone—its topmost tower peeking from the mirror-like ocean, like a skeletal finger pointing at the sky.
And beneath that spire… the Fourth Astral Fragment waited.
Raelion spoke first as they neared the cliff's edge, looking down into the valley where the sea kissed ruins of shattered palaces. "This place remembers being sacred," he said. "Now it just feels like a wound that never healed."
Zane gripped the hilt of his memoryblade. "Then let's stitch it shut."
---
Descent Into the Drowned Realm
They sailed on a skiff conjured from Kaela's tethered soulsteel, gliding over the glimmering water. Below, shapes twisted—memories of drowned nobles still tethered to a world that forgot them.
"I feel eyes," Zane whispered.
"They're not eyes," Kaela muttered, "they're regrets."
Suddenly, the sea parted—not with force, but with invitation. A gentle recession like breath exhaled. Revealing beneath: a wide staircase of bone and coral, leading into the sunken ruins of Solveth Prime. The Spire rose from the center, its gates agape.
As they stepped inside, time slowed.
Walls were adorned with ancient paintings that shifted when not directly observed. The air was warm and moist, filled with the scent of sea lilies and forgotten ink.
They walked through halls of living memory—each one echoing voices from a life not their own. But when Zane stepped near the central spiral chamber… he froze.
A portrait was etched into the stone wall.
It was her.
---
The Echo of the Past Life
Evelyn.
From Earth.
From his world.
From before.
Zane's knees nearly buckled. Her face hadn't aged a day since the last time he saw her—when she gave him her umbrella at that train station on the day he died. The same soft eyes, same half-smile that always made him forget he was broken.
Kaela's voice pierced the silence. "Who is she?"
Zane didn't answer.
Because the shadows behind the spire shimmered—then parted.
And Evelyn stepped out.
But she wasn't Evelyn anymore.
She was clad in ceremonial Abyssal garb—robes that whispered when they moved, ink-black with veins of silver magic. Her eyes glowed with faint violet light. A brand pulsed on her collarbone: the mark of a Herald.
"Zane," she said softly, voice untouched by the corruption. "You came."
---
The Herald of Mercy
Zane's mouth went dry. "How… how are you here?"
She smiled, bittersweet. "The gods didn't just bring you. They brought me, too. But I fell into the wrong hands first."
Raelion stepped forward, magic bristling. "Step back. She's been rewritten by the Covenant."
"No," Zane said sharply. "Not her."
Evelyn looked at him—no malice, no trickery. Just pain.
"I tried to find you," she said. "But the Abyss found me first. They gave me a choice: Die and vanish... or serve and watch over the one I love."
Kaela tensed. "You're the test."
Evelyn nodded slowly. "The Pale King sent me not to kill you, Zane… but to see if you'd hesitate. If you'd abandon your quest for love. Or lose it to obsession."
She drew a blade—not hostile. Gentle. A token from Earth. The old butterfly knife she once kept for self-defense. Rusted now, but still hers.
"Fight me," she whispered. "Show me if your heart still beats for something human… or if the Fragments have made you a god without soul."
---
Duel Beneath the Spire
The chamber warped.
A dome of memory sealed around them. Old memories: a classroom, a rooftop, raindrops on a city street. Evelyn summoned these places, twisted them with her Abyssal power until the line between reality and the past blurred.
Zane gritted his teeth. "You think I want this?! You think I chose to be the Reclaimer?!"
Evelyn's blade flashed. "No. But you never looked back."
Steel met steel. Zane's fire danced against her light-bending strikes. Her movements were surgical, elegant. Not meant to kill—but to test. To pierce the doubt in his heart.
"I loved you!" she cried during a clash. "Even before you ever noticed!"
"And I died before I could say it back!" Zane roared.
The memories shattered. Rain fell in the chamber—water from his Earth, soaking the stones of Solveth. Zane stood panting, sword pointed at her throat.
But he lowered it.
"I'd rather lose the Fragment," he said, "than lose you again."
Evelyn blinked.
And smiled.
The Abyssal markings dissolved. Her robes faded. The knife vanished. And in its place appeared the Fourth Astral Fragment, shaped like a tear.
She pressed it into his chest.
"I'll always be watching," she whispered. "But don't come looking for me again."
She vanished with the last raindrop.
---
Aftermath and Awakening
Kaela approached slowly. "You hesitated. But not out of fear."
Zane nodded. "I remembered who I was. That has to count for something."
Raelion held out a scroll that had appeared where Evelyn vanished. He unrolled it.
It was a prophecy. Written in Evelyn's hand.
> "When the Fourth is claimed, the Abyss will no longer test—
—it will act."
Far away, in the Obsidian Deep, a god chained in silence opened a single eye.