The tunnel deepened, swallowing Caedia, Elias, and Seren in a silence so dense it pressed on the skin like cold fingers. Only the soft glow of embedded runes lit their path pulsing dimly in rhythm with Elias’s own resonance.Seren walked close enough that her shoulder brushed Elias’s arm every few steps. “Elias… are you sure about this?”“No,” Elias admitted quietly. “But we have no choice.”Caedia spoke from ahead, her pace smooth and deliberate despite her blindness. “You fear the Chamber. That is good.”Elias frowned. “Why is it good?”Caedia did not slow. “Fear keeps the Echo from consuming you.”Seren muttered, “Great. So we’re walking toward something designed to terrify him.”Caedia smiled faintly. “It is not designed to terrify. It is designed to reveal.”Elias’s stomach tightened. He wasn’t sure which was worse.They walked until the tunnel widened into a circular antechamber. The walls curved in a perfect ring, etched with spirals of bone-runes that glowed a muted blue.Sere

The Chamber darkened. Runes flickered out one by one, swallowed by a creeping darkness that slithered across the bone walls like living ink. Elias stiffened, heart pounding as cold air pressed against his skin.A whisper rippled behind him. Echo… Elias turned sharply. “Who’s there?”Silence. Then another whisper closer. The third truth… Elias’s breath caught. The Chamber of Echoes trembled underfoot, dust sifting from the curved bone ceiling. “Come out!” he shouted.The darkness pulsed. A shadow peeled itself from the wall tall, broad-shouldered, and familiar. Too familiar. Elias’s heart crashed against his ribs. “No… it can’t be.”The shadow stepped forward, forming a silhouette he had seen a thousand times. Kelren. But not the echo.Not the gentle memory.This version was twisted flesh dripping into shadow, eyes empty, face distorted by something darker than death. Elias stumbled back. “Father?”The shadow-Kelren tilted its head, voice a hollow rasp. “You think betrayal lives only i