The kitchen felt almost unreal after everything they had seen. Warm light. A battered counter. A stack of mismatched plates. The faint smell of spices Elias had once insisted on hoarding “just in case.”It was painfully normal and somehow that made it sacred. Arin climbed onto one of the chairs, legs pulled up beneath them, watching Elias move around the stove like a man trying not to trip over his own exhaustion.Jenna leaned against the counter, arms loosely crossed, still watching Arin with an intensity halfway between awe and fierce protectiveness. Denilson, beside her, wasn’t any more subtle.His gaze never drifted far from their child as if the world might shift again the second he blinked. Elias cracked an egg into a pan, frowned at it, then added a second one with more confidence.“Okay,” he muttered. “Eggs don’t explode. We’re safe.”Arin giggled into their sleeve. Jenna’s eyes softened at the sound. It still surprised her, every single time. Surprised her how warm and real

The wind didn’t blow. The world didn’t breathe. Even the newborn sky seemed to hold itself completely still waiting. Arin stared at the blue child who wore their face, their height, their softness but none of their heart.None of their pain. None of their history. None of the broken pieces they had fought to reclaim.This version of them had no cracks. And yet Arin trembled as if they were staring into a shadow far darker than any they confronted before.Jenna stepped forward instinctively, shielding Arin with her body even though the blue child made no move to attack.“Stay behind me,” she whispered.Arin shook their head and pulled gently at her arm.“No Mama. I need to face them.”Denilson tightened his stance in front of both of them. “You don’t face this alone.”The blue child tilted their head with perfect stillness. “You do not understand,” they said softly. “This is not a fight. It is a path.”Elias flexed his hands, red light flickering between his fingers. “Funny. All the dan

The tower loomed like a wound against the newborn sky. A spire of shimmering black-gold stone, its surface rippling like something alive beneath the light. The hum pouring from it vibrated the bones of the world, making the grass sway as though exhaling under an unseen weight.Arin stood between Jenna and Denilson, one hand in each of theirs. The glow beneath their skin flickered weakly white, gold, black but none of the colors felt steady. The world around them responded to their fear, dimming and brightening in hesitant breaths.Elias stepped ahead, eyes narrowed, scanning the tower’s base.“We go slow,” he murmured. “This place is built from Arin’s buried fears. Anything can manifest.”Arin swallowed, the sound small in the heavy quiet.“I didn’t know I made this,” they whispered. “I didn’t know I had enough fear to build something so big.”Jenna knelt beside them, taking their hands.“Fear doesn’t mean weakness. It means you have something to lose.”Arin’s eyes glistened.“I don’t

The staircase to the third chamber felt different. Narrower. Tighter. As if the tower itself wanted to push them back.Arin buried their face against Denilson’s shoulder, breathing shallowly as they ascended. The air was thick like smoke without fire, like something burning inside a heart instead of a room.Elias kept checking over his shoulder. “Arin, talk to me. What are you feeling?”Arin’s answer was small. “Wrong.”Jenna moved closer, brushing their hair back. “What do you mean, sweetheart?”Arin’s glow pulsed white, gold, then a deep, unsettling black. “I feel heavy. Like there’s something inside me waiting to explode.”Elias exchanged a grim look with Jenna. That was enough warning. Because when they reached the next landing, the tower didn’t open gradually. It split open violently.Stones tore apart, ripping into the shape of jagged teeth. Air rushed inward like a scream. Red light blazed through the cracks.Arin clutched Denilson’s neck tightly. “No. No, no I know this place”

Light swallowed everything. White. Blinding. All consuming. Arin clung to Jenna’s arm, shaking, crying, unable to breathe through the weight of the choice pressing down on their small body.Jenna kissed the side of their head fiercely. “You’re not alone. You hear me? You’re never alone.”Denilson wrapped both of them in his arms anchoring them, shielding them from the storm of light tearing through the chamber.Elias staggered forward, fighting the brilliance pouring from the future Arin. “Arin listen this thing is not your destiny”The future Arin turned to him. Eyes bright. Calm. Unshakeable “Destiny is not the word. Completion is.”Arin whimpered. “I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to become something else. I want to stay me.”The future Arin knelt again, hand extended. “You won’t disappear. You will expand.”Jenna’s voice cracked with fury. “They are not ready! You don’t get to decide this!”The future Arin blinked. “I am not deciding. The world is.”The chamber trembled vi