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[Interior: Heart Core of Nir Valis — a vast, vault-like sphere layered in mirrored aetherglass. Kaelen, Sylrae, Thane, and Myrren stand before the Bound Prime—a faceless figure suspended above a pool of light, surrounded by thousands of silent choir-bodies pressed into the walls like petrified song.]
Bound Prime (in all their minds, voice like memory unspooling):
> "You remember fragments. We remember the whole."
Kaelen (draws his blade, holding it low):
"Then tell me why I dream of flames that never burned. Of cities that never fell."
Bound Prime (gently):
> "Because you lived them. A thousand versions of you. All paths tested. All lives written. We kept resetting the sky… until one version of you chose differently."
Sylrae (voice hard):
"You were using him. Every Kaelen, every version of this—scripted."
Bound Prime:
> "He was the only one who ever stepped off the path. The only one who broke the cycle. That deviation—you—is why we woke again."
Thane (whispers, trembling):
"They're not here to conquer. They're trying to… escape something."
Kaelen (quiet):
"The Cycle. The Fall. The Rebirth. You've been stuck in it, haven't you? Just like us."
Bound Prime (voice softening):
> "We were not born. We were written. Bound to keep rewriting this world until it broke right. But now… now, there is a fracture."
[The chamber shifts. Lights dim. The mirrored floor becomes a reflection of all their pasts—versions flickering—some noble, some monstrous. Kaelen sees himself in crown and in chains. Sylrae sees herself leading an armada—or burning it.]
Sylrae (stepping forward):
"What do you want from us?"
Bound Prime:
> "To end the recursion. To burn the root memory. But we cannot act. You must."
Kaelen:
"And what happens if we refuse?"
[Suddenly the walls scream—every choir-body surging with light. The chamber pulses.]
Bound Prime:
> "Then it begins again. And this time… the sky will remember you wrong."
---
[Scene Shift: Stormspire Conclave – War Command Chamber. Factions gather. High Strategist Rhyen stands before a fleet's holomap.]
Rhyen:
"The Bound Prime has shown itself. That citadel breathes through cracks in the sky. We strike now, or we wait for them to rewrite us from the marrow."
Aetherian Voice:
"Our psychics are breaking under pressure. The echoes are becoming self-aware."
Corsair Lord Venn:
"Then we turn the skies to glass before they do. Deploy the Dawnburners."
---
[Back in Nir Valis, Kaelen's hand trembles above the blade. The Prime watches silently.]
Kaelen (to Sylrae, voice raw):
"If I choose to burn the root... I think I burn us with it."
Sylrae (placing a hand on his):
"Then let's decide who we become… after."
---
End of Chapter Thirteen