The silence was not mercy.

It was the weight of two worlds holding their breath.

Adrielle’s body shook as she forced herself upright. The hollow was gone—no trees, no chants, no veil—only a vast expanse of ash drifting in a colorless sky. Every step sank her deeper, as though the ground wanted to claim her.

The coin in her hand no longer seared. It pulsed steadily, a rhythm that matched neither her heart nor her breath. Silver veins spread from her palm across her wrist, etching themselves into her skin like chains—and yet, they did not bind. They marked.

“Adrielle!”

The voice broke through the stillness. She turned sharply. Alex stumbled toward her, his chains glowing faintly, the links rattling with each step. He looked almost unreal against the pale wasteland, his eyes burning with desperate relief.

But before she could reach him, another presence emerged.

Maren.

Unscarred, whole, radiant with a light that did not belong to the world they had left behind. His gaze locked on the coin, not her, as though she was only a vessel, a fracture holding something far older.

“You’ve done it,” Maren whispered, awe lacing his voice. “The veil no longer hides us. It remembers.”

Adrielle staggered back, her throat tight. “No—I didn’t… I wasn’t—”

But the coin pulsed harder. Yes, it seemed to whisper. You chose not to forget. And now nothing will.

The sky trembled, a ripple of light running across its ash-gray canvas. Shapes shifted in the horizon—shadows with wings, echoes of voices that had never belonged to mortals. The veil was not simply broken. It was bleeding.

Alex grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to face him. “Adrielle, listen to me. If it obeys you, then you can end this—close it before it devours us!”

“No,” Maren cut in, his hand outstretched. “Don’t listen to him. This is the only way forward. The world we knew was a lie. The veil was the lie. If you close it now—you’ll bury the truth forever.”

The ashstorm rose around them, fierce, blinding. Adrielle’s hair whipped in the wind, her skin burning with silver light as the coin’s pulse synced with the storm.

Two voices. Two paths.

And at the center, her own scream broke free, raw and trembling:

“Then tell me—who am I to this power? A weapon? A curse? Or the memory it has been waiting for?”

The ash froze midair, suspended like shattered glass.

Both Alex and Maren fell silent.

And for the first time, the coin answered aloud.