Chapter 72 – The Silent StormThe desert night was colder than anyone expected. The winds carried fine blades of sand that hissed against cloaks and armor, whispering like a thousand tiny betrayals. Elliott trudged at the front of the party, Relic shards humming faintly at his side as though urging him forward, though the sound was closer to a warning than encouragement.They hadn’t spoken much since Kestrel vanished with the Shard of Echoes. Silence had stretched between them, brittle as glass. Only the crunch of boots on hardened earth and the occasional cough of dust broke the stillness.“Never thought I’d miss Marvin’s endless complaints,” Elliott muttered finally, trying to pierce the gloom.“I can complain if you want,” Jax offered from behind him, voice hoarse. “About how my boots are filled with sand, how I haven’t had ale in three days, or how our rogue friend turned out to be an absolute viper.”Tamsin sighed. “She wasn’t just a viper. She was clever. Careful. She was planni

Chapter 74 – Echoes That Don’t BelongThe silence struck them like a wall of ice.No crunch of boots in sand. No rasp of breath. No shuffle of cloak.Elliott tried to clear his throat, but even that produced nothing. He felt the vibration, but no sound. The storm had stolen it.All right, he thought, gripping his staff tighter. Silent storm, silent thoughts. Great place for an introvert’s vacation, less great for staying alive.The passage twisted, walls of whirling gray pressing in. Every few steps, the sand rippled with faint flickers—images half-seen, like memories sketched in dust.A boy running barefoot, laughter spilling from his mouth—until the sound froze, leaving only the sight of his grin, locked forever in silence.A woman weeping into her hands.A soldier raising his sword, face painted with fury.All motion without sound. All lives without voices.Jax nudged Elliott, pointing to one illusion where a man crouched, chiseling a rune into stone. Elliott blinked. He recognized

Chapter 76 – The Shard of EchoesKestrel’s boots touched the chamber floor without sound.No swirl of sand. No echo of impact. Just a ripple through the silence, as if the storm itself had accepted her as its mistress.The Shard of Echoes pulsed in her hand.A fragment of glass, sharp as a fang, lit from within by shifting light. Its glow bent the air around it, warping even her silhouette, so she seemed less flesh and more mirage.“Finally,” she said, and this time her voice wasn’t muffled. It carried perfectly, unbroken by the silence. The storm wanted her words to be heard. “You’ve made it further than most. I’ll grant you that much.”Elliott wiped sweat from his brow, staff trembling in his grip. “Is that supposed to be a compliment? Because I’ve been stabbed, choked, nearly drowned in dust, and fought a silent version of myself. Honestly, my standards are low right now.”Kestrel’s mouth quirked upward. Not quite a smile—more like someone remembering the concept of one.“You think

Chapter 78 – The Shard UnboundThe chamber had no walls anymore. It had become a spinning fracture of worlds—snapping between crumbling stone, molten skies, seas inverted above their heads. Reality twisted with every beat of the Shard lodged in Kestrel’s chest.She stood at the center of it all, the storm flowing from her like wings of broken glass. Her smile was jagged.“You should have let me die when you had the chance. Now you’ll drown in me.”The storm lashed out.A thousand shards of light and shadow sliced toward them. Lyra loosed an arrow that split into five, each intercepting a streak of glass. The arrows shattered, but so did the shards.Jax roared, punching through the oncoming wave, but the storm folded around him and hurled him into the air. He dangled on Tamsin’s tether, coughing blood.Elliott’s staff trembled in his grip. He could barely breathe—the Shard bent pressure and sound until his thoughts themselves felt muffled.We can’t outlast this…Then a voice slid into

Chapter 80 – The Heart of the RelicThe chamber should have been quiet.Kestrel lay unconscious, her chest rising and falling in fragile rhythm. The fractured crystal sat in the center of the floor, pulsing faintly, like a dying ember.But embers, if left alone, can still start fires.The Shard twitched. The glow steadied. Then it rose—weightless, alive, as though it no longer needed a host.“Uh,” Jax muttered, sitting up despite his broken ribs. “Please tell me that thing is not about to grow legs.”It didn’t grow legs. It grew wings.Light burst outward, raw and jagged, forming a shape both skeletal and infinite. A being of crystal and flame hovered above them—a shard given will, hunger, and the memory of gods.The Relic’s Heart.It spoke without words, vibrating through their bones:YOU ARE FRACTURES. I AM WHOLE. YOU ARE MOMENTS. I AM ETERNITY. YOU WILL BE UNMADE.Elliott gritted his teeth, dragging himself upright on his staff. “Great. A talking rock with a god complex.”Lyra’s vo