---

  

  But he held tight. The Eye's chill surface throbbed within his hand, its power humming against his skin like a heartbeat. He could feel its huge energy, ancient and untamed, an artifact that was yet alive. It was raw and primeval in the narrow balance between light and darkness.

  

  The energy, so disorienting a moment before, began to ebb. Lian found his feet once more. The world stabilized, though the dimensions of the chamber now felt different, charged with an undercurrent of something *other*, as if it now vibrated in concert with the Eye.

  

  Ahead, the way was clear, yet impossibly ambiguous.

  

  ---

  

  Lian didn't tarry. Outside, Aeris was still beyond his reach, and with every minute, the relic's grasp on her was growing stronger. He secured the Eye safely inside his cloak and headed for the chamber's exit. But the farther he went across the room in that first step, the more the voice spoke suddenly behind him. Low and rumbling.

  

  "You've taken the Eye. Now you must face its trial."

  

  Lian froze. The voice was unlike anything he'd ever heard-deep, resonant, and ancient. He turned back toward the pedestal that the Eye had rested upon, but the chamber was empty.

  

  "Who are you?" Lian called, his hand instinctively falling to the hilt of his sword.

  

  The shadows of the chamber began to shift and swirl, thickening in the middle of the room into a massive compaction. It started to take on a form-a tall and imposing one-as if a person in dark robes was standing at its center, with features shrouded by its hood. All that could be seen were its eyes, bright with cold, blue light.

  

  "I am the Keeper of the Abyss," it said, its voice as steady as the flow of the river. "And you, Lian, have chosen a path few survive."

  

  Lian squared his shoulders. "I don't care about surviving. I came here to save Aeris."

  

  The Keeper inclined its head, a fraction. "You think yourself prepared to yield your life for her. Yet the shadows know your heart, Lian. The shadows know your doubts, your fears, your deepest regrets. With the Eye of the Abyss comes facing those shadows. Only then will you see its true cost."

  

  Lian's fists clenched. The shadows had tested him before, whispered lies and temptations in his ear, but he hadn't wavered. He wasn't going to falter now.

  

  "What do I have to do?" he asked.

  

  The Keeper raised a hand, and the shadows in the chamber thickened, twisting into shapes-indistinct at first, but slowly sharpening into figures. Lian's heart stuttered as he recognised them.

  

  Among them was his father, tall and towering, his arms across his chest, his face a mask of disappointment. Another was a younger version of Lian himself, barely into his teens, struggling to hold a sword that was too big for him. Behind them, even more figures came, faces from Lian's past, his darkest moments.

  

  "This is your trial, Lian," the Keeper said. "The shadows feed on fear, on pain, on the unresolved. If you wish to control the Eye, you must face these shadows and emerge unbroken."

  

  Lian's grip on his sword tightened. His father's figure came forward, his eyes cold and hard.

  

  "You were always a disappointment, Lian," the figure said, his voice low and sopping with contempt. "Never strong enough. Never brave enough. You couldn't even protect your mother."

  

  With the words, a familiar pain seemed to well from deep within him, and Lian's chest tightened. His father had been a hard man, one who demanded perfection, and Lian had never felt like he lived up to those expectations. He still carried the guilt of his mother's death in his mind; he had been too young, too weak to help her when she fell ill.

  

  But this had not been real. These were only shadows, illusions to bring him down.

  

  "You're not my father," Lian said, his voice firm while the ache seared his heart.

  

  The figure sneered at him. "You can't run from your past, Lian. It is part of you, no matter how much you may deny it."

  

  Lian's sword flashed as he cut it across the figure, but his blade passed through it like smoke. The figure dissolved, just to reappear a few steps away unharmed.

  

  "You can't fight the shadows with steel, Lian," said the Keeper. "Only with truth."

  

  Lian's chest heaved, but he gritted his teeth and forced a deep breath. He just could not let the shadows affect him. They were only echoes of his past, distortions meant to distract him. Confront the truth, as Khoren had warned him.

  

  He sheathed his sword and turned back to his father's figure.

  

  "You're right," Lian said in a quiet tone. "I wasn't strong enough to save my mother. And I've made mistakes-more than I can count. But I'm not that scared little boy anymore. I've grown stronger because of my past-not in spite of it."

  

  The figure stared at him for one long moment, its cold expression unreadable. And then, slowly, it began to fade, dissolving into the shadows like mist in the morning light.

  

  Lian let out a shaky breath. One shadow down, but more remained. The younger version of himself stepped forward next, his eyes wide with fear.

  

  "You're scared, Lian," young Lian said, trembling. "Scared you will never be good enough. Scared you will fail Aeris just like you failed everybody else."

  

  Lian's heart twisted, yet he did not move. "I am scared," he said, "but the fear no longer controls me. It's what pushes me to fight for the people I love."

  

  The younger Lian hesitated, then nodded slowly before disappearing into the dark.

  

  One by one, the shadows appeared before him-each one a reminder of some past fear, regret, or doubt in Lian's mind. And one by one, Lian confronted them, naming his pain, his failures, his weaknesses. It wasn't easy, and each confrontation left him raw and exposed. Yet, he was stronger with each shadow he dispelled, surer of his path.

  

  Until the last shadow disappeared and the stillness had returned to the chamber.

  

  The Keeper stared at him, its luminous eyes veiled. Then, in a drawn-out pause, it spoke.

  

  "You have passed the test of the shadows, Lian. The Eye of the Abyss is now yours to wield. Remember, though, the shadows are within you always. They are a part of you."

  

  Lian nodded, his fist closing over the Eye. "I understand."

  

  The Keeper drew back into darkness, his shape gone in the shadows. "Go, Lian. Your real trial lies ahead."

  

  ---

  

 TO BE CONTINUED