Garrick’s POV
*****
"Impossible." Amara cursed under her breath.
Garrick stood a few ters behind, squinting curiously. A few minutes ago, Amara had sensed sothing. A shift in the Divine crystal’s energy.
That led them to co here—a vast chamber of void energy located in the basent of Amara’s hidden manor.
Mana and void energy pulsed all through the chamber. And the mirror? It was a conduit Amara made centuries ago for the purpose of monitoring and controlling divine energy from the crystal.
"Have you found out what’s wrong yet?" Garrick asked, arms folded in front of his chest. "The Divine crystal’s energy has been unstable since—"
"The moon blessed." Amara’s fingers lingered inches away from the mirror. It glinted with a silver light, brightening the chamber. Garrick dimd his eyes as she continued. "He’s... He’s awakening the crystal. And the lost Stormborn prince is there with him."
Garrick’s brows furrowed. "Awakening the crystal?"
Earlier today she’d used the mirror to reach out to Sylas, activating the divine energy in him. The boy served his purpose—the combined presence of him and Elian caused the crystal to react violently.
A forced awakening.
Now, Kyren had to pause the excavation, and divine energy leaked onto the lands. If Kyren dared to continue with the excavations, he’d risk a cataclysmic explosion worse than the Blight.
The point is, in all technicality, the crystal was already "awakened" and searching for pieces of its divinity within Elian and Sylas.
So what was Amara talking about now?
Soon, she turned around, lowering her hood. "Minutes ago, the crystal was searching for Elian and Sylas. To consu their divinity. Now it’s..." The mirror humd behind her just then.
As she swerved back to it, the mirror showed a live scene. Elian and Sylas stood at the edge of the excavation crater, divine energy leaking out in wisps through cracks in the earth.
Then—sothing puzzling happened.
No explosions. No attempts from the crystal to absorb Elian. Instead, flora life blood erratically around the crater, spreading for hundreds of ters around it.
"... The moon blessed answered its call," Amara murmured, her tone ominous. "What’s happening now isn’t a forced awakening. It’s natural."
Garrick was still mostly confused, but he didn’t have ti to seek further explanations. Amara moved, walking past him and heading for the exit.
He blinked at the mirror briefly. Elian was glowing with divine energy, while life grew around him. His hair gained streaks of silver, eyes flaring with light of the sa colour.
"Co, Garrick," Amara called behind him. "We can’t waste even a mont now."
.
.
In her throne room, Amara held a figurine in her right hand. She raised it above her head, whispering a few words in the old tongue and spinning it around herself.
Garrick watched keenly.
"Elian destroyed the heart jewel bracelet." His wife mumbled. "But the curse has already taken root. I still have a hold on him... And those connected to him."
Suddenly, a sickly green light swallowed the figurine in her grasp. It wasn’t just a "figurine".
It represented Elian.
Garrick tensed the mont the curse-light thickened. The shadows around Amara swirled like hungry serpents, drawn to the figurine clutched in her palm.
A cold prickle crawled up his spine.
"Amara... what are you doing?" He stepped forward, though not too boldly — he had learned long ago never to get too close when she was weaving the old tongue.
She didn’t answer. Her eyes rolled white, pupils swallowed by divine and void energy fighting for dominance. For a split second, Garrick saw two silhouettes overlap behind her — her own shadow, and sothing taller and crowned with horns.
His breath stilled.
Amara exhaled sharply.
"The curse embedded itself deeper the mont he touched his divinity." Her voice vibrated—layered, distorted. "He thinks breaking the bracelet freed him. Foolish boy."
The figurine trembled violently in her grasp. Tiny cracks crawled along its chest like living ink.
Garrick’s lips parted. "You’re... strengthening it?"
"No." Amara’s lips curled. "I’m restoring it."
The green glow flared, casting sickly illumination across the throne room. Garrick lifted an arm to shield his face as the air rippled, tightening with pressure.
"Look," Amara commanded.
The mirror on the far wall flickered awake.
Elian was kneeling now at the edge of the crater, supporting Sylas — both glowing with unstable divine light. Vines spiralled outward from their feet, flowers blooming and withering in the sa breath, unable to decide whether to live or die.
Garrick swallowed. "The divine crystal is still reacting to his call."
"Yes." A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Except now every ti he calls to it... my curse intertwines."
Her other hand rose, fingers curled in a precise gesture. The figurine jerked violently, bending as if in pain. Far off, in the mirror’s shimr, Elian suddenly clutched his chest.
Garrick stiffened. "You’re hurting him—"
"He channels life," she snapped. "So I twist it." She flicked her wrist, making the figurine darken. "Every thread of divinity he pulls awakens its opposite inside him. Void in the veins. Fear in the heart. Pain in the spirit."
Elian’s light stuttered in the mirror, flickering like a candle in a storm.
"But you said it also affects—"
"Those tied to him, yes." Amara’s voice dropped lower, hungrier. "If he keeps pulling divine power... soone bound to him will bleed for it."
A crack streaked across the figurine’s ribs. In the mirror, Sylas faltered, staggering, gripping his head. Lucian lunged forward with alarm.
Garrick inhaled sharply. "Amara..."
"Do not question ." She spun the figurine, the green light coiling around her wrist like chains. "This curse was crafted for one purpose — to remind the moon-blessed what he truly is."
"And what is that?" Garrick asked quietly.
Her smile widened. "Incomplete."
The throne room throbbed with power as she lifted the figurine higher, the green glow rising to a blinding intensity.
"Until I decide otherwise," she continued, "every surge of divine energy he touches will wound him... and echo through the bonds he cherishes."
She whispered another incantation — ancient, sharp, slicing the air like razors.
The figurine cracked down the centre.
In the mirror, Elian collapsed to his knees with a gasp.
The vines around him shrivelled instantly, turning black. Sylas clutched his throat. Lucian shouted his brother’s na.
Amara lowered her hand, satisfied. The green light faded, but the cracks in the figurine remained, pulsing faintly.
"It’s done," she murmured, stroking the fractured surface. "Now let him awaken the crystal. Let him TRY."
Garrick stared at her.
"What happens when he uses too much divine energy?" he asked, voice barely above a whisper.
Amara’s eyes glead like cold moons.
"He breaks," she said simply.
"And soone he loves will break with him."
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