The passage ended in a circular room.
Small.
Compared to everything else, anyway.
Shelves lined the walls.
Stone tablets.
Scrolls.
Books sealed behind glass.
A central pedestal stood beneath a narrow opening in the ceiling.
Moonlight fell through it.
I stopped.
"Well."
Willow stepped beside me.
"Is this it?"
Tadewi walked slowly into the room.
Her eyes moved over the shelves.
Then the pedestal.
"I think so."
I stared at her.
"You think?"
"This chamber isn't in any of the temple records I know."
I looked around.
"Naturally."
Willow approached the nearest shelf.
"Then what is it?"
Tadewi examined a carved inscription.
Her expression changed.
"The Chamber of the Unanswered."
I blinked.
"That's an unfortunate name."
She read farther.
"'For those who seek beyond the voices of the divine.'"
My heartbeat quickened.
Oh.
Oh, that sounded promising.
I moved toward her.
"What else?"
Tadewi continued.
"'Let no prayer be mistaken for permission.'"
I smiled.
Willow noticed.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Because I like whoever wrote that."
Tadewi's eyes narrowed.
"'The threshold is not a gift.'"
I leaned closer.
"'It is a passage.'"
Silence.
Then—
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because after days of being told I couldn't open a spiritual doorway—
here was a room apparently dedicated to doing exactly that.
"Oh, you beautiful, irritating ancient people."
Willow smiled.
"Found something?"
I looked at the shelves.
The inscriptions.
The moonlight.
"Maybe."
Tadewi stepped toward the pedestal.
A single book rested upon it.
Its cover was pale.
Not leather.
Not exactly.
Something that shimmered faintly beneath the moonlight.
No title.
No markings.
Just a circle engraved into the center.
Broken by five lines.
Tadewi reached toward it.
The moment her fingers touched the cover—
the room went dark.
Every crystal extinguished.
Moonlight vanished.
I froze.
"That seems bad."
A voice spoke.
Not inside my head.
Not one of the gods.
From the room itself.
"Who seeks the threshold?"
Willow drew her sword.
Tadewi stepped back.
I looked around.
"Depends."
Silence.
"Are you going to try to kill us?"
Tadewi sighed.
"Lyra."
"What? It's a reasonable question."
The voice spoke again.
"Who seeks the threshold?"
I straightened.
"I do."
The darkness shifted.
"Name yourself."
I hesitated.
Not because I didn't know my name.
Because every time something ancient asked who I was, it generally had expectations.
"Lyra."
Silence.
Then—
"Name your blood."
My stomach tightened.
Ah.
There it was.
"I don't have a surname."
Nothing.
"I wasn't given one."
The darkness remained still.
I crossed my arms.
"If that's a problem, take it up with whoever abandoned me."
Willow made a strangled sound.
Tadewi closed her eyes.
The voice continued.
"Name your power."
I looked at my hands.
Fire.
Water.
Earth.
Moonlight.
And something else I didn't understand.
"I have several."
"Name them."
I sighed.
"Fire."
A symbol illuminated on the floor.
"Water."
Another.
"Earth."
A third.
I paused.
Then—
"Light."
Silver spread beneath my feet.
Tadewi inhaled sharply.
The voice fell silent.
For one heartbeat.
Two.
Then—
"And Air?"
I frowned.
"Not mine."
The darkness moved.
"Then you are incomplete."
I stared.
"Oh, fuck off."
Willow coughed.
Tadewi grabbed my arm.
"Lyra."
"No."
I looked into the darkness.
"I'm not here to collect another power."
The room trembled.
"Then why do you seek the threshold?"
I stepped forward.
"Because the gods are hiding something."
Silence.
"Because one of them is wearing the body of someone I love."
Willow's hand tightened around her sword.
"And because whatever happened between Light and Darkness is important enough that four gods have decided I don't deserve to know."
The silver light beneath my feet brightened.
I looked upward.
"So I'm going to ask them myself."
The voice spoke.
"The divine do not answer to mortal demand."
I smiled.
"Yes."
A pause.
"I've noticed."
The darkness deepened.
"The threshold cannot be crossed by force."
I looked toward Tadewi.
Then Willow.
Then back.
"Apparently."
"Nor by prayer."
My smile faded.
That was new.
"Nor by blood alone."
I stepped closer.
"Then how?"
The room went silent.
The book opened.
By itself.
Pages turned.
Fast.
Faster.
Then stopped.
A single page glowed beneath the darkness.
Words appeared.
Ancient script.
Not Air.
Not Water.
Not anything I recognized.
But somehow—
I could read them.
The divine and mortal are separated not by distance, but by recognition.
I stared.
The next line appeared.
To cross the threshold, one must carry a bond to the divine.
My heart jumped.
I had four.
That wasn't a problem.
Then—
The bond must be anchored in the mortal world.
I frowned.
Anchored?
The words continued.
For the soul that crosses must not forget the body it leaves behind.
Something cold settled in my stomach.
I looked toward Tadewi.
She was reading too.
Her expression had gone pale.
"Lyra..."
I looked back.
Another line appeared.
The threshold opens only when the seeker releases the body and follows the bond beyond the veil.
Silence.
I read it again.
Releases the body.
Follows the bond.
Beyond the veil.
Oh.
That sounded...
Dangerous.
Willow stepped closer.
"What does that mean?"
Tadewi answered quietly.
"It means the body remains here."
I looked at her.
"And the soul?"
Her eyes met mine.
"Crosses."
My heartbeat slowed.
I looked at the book.
The words shifted again.
Without an anchor, the seeker may wander beyond return.
There it was.
The catch.
Of course there was a catch.
I stared at the page.
"So someone has to keep me connected."
Tadewi nodded slowly.
"Perhaps."
Willow frowned.
"How?"
The book answered.
The anchor must hold the seeker in memory, in name, and in living will.
I blinked.
"That's very poetic."
Tadewi wasn't smiling.
"Lyra."
I looked at her.
She pointed toward the final line.
I read it.
And went still.
If the divine refuse the seeker, the threshold may close before the soul returns.
Silence.
Long.
Heavy.
I looked at the book.
Then at the darkness surrounding us.
"So I could get trapped."
No answer.
"Or die."
Still nothing.
Willow stepped forward.
"No."
I looked at her.
She shook her head.
"Absolutely not."
I sighed.
"You're starting to sound like Revik."
"Good."
Tadewi closed the book.
The room brightened.
Moonlight returned.
The crystals awakened.
The voice disappeared.
And just like that—
we were alone.
I stared at the pedestal.
Willow looked at Tadewi.
Tadewi looked at me.
Nobody spoke.
Finally—
I smiled.
"Well."
Willow's expression hardened.
"Don't."
"We found it."
"We found a way for you to potentially die."
"Technically, we found a way to cross the threshold."
"Lyra."
I looked at her.
Really looked.
Willow's arm was still bleeding beneath its makeshift bandage.
Tadewi's temple had dried blood along her hairline.
We'd fought our way through an occupied nation.
Crossed mountains.
Burned the dead.
Survived corrupted beasts.
And reached a place nobody had entered in generations.
For this.
A book.
A doorway.
A choice.
I exhaled.
"I'm not doing it now."
Both women went still.
Willow blinked.
"You're not?"
"No."
Tadewi studied me.
"Why?"
I gestured toward the two of them.
"Because you're injured."
Then toward myself.
"And I'm exhausted."
Willow's expression softened.
"And because I promised we protect each other."
Silence.
I looked at the book.
The words had vanished from its pages.
But I remembered them.
Every one.
"We came here for answers."
I touched the cover.
"We found a way to get them."
Tadewi stepped beside me.
"Not all of them."
"No."
I looked at her.
"But enough to know what comes next."
Willow sighed.
"Which is?"
I looked toward the moonlight.
Then the book.
Then the ancient carvings on the walls.
"First..."
I smiled.
"We figure out how to get back out of this ridiculous mountain."
Tadewi laughed.
Willow groaned.
I grinned.
"And then..."
My smile faded.
I looked at the book again.
At the threshold.
At the doorway the gods had refused to open.
The answer had been here all along.
Not prayer.
Not permission.
Not waiting for someone divine to decide I deserved the truth.
A passage.
A way through.
Dangerous.
Possibly fatal.
But real.
For the first time since Mortimer took Raiden—
I had something more useful than anger.
A plan.
And somewhere beyond the veil...
four gods were going to have a very unpleasant conversation with me.