The stone groaned open.
Ancient gears hidden somewhere deep within the mountain rumbled to life, their echoes rolling through the prison like distant thunder.
Raiden and I exchanged a glance.
Neither of us spoke.
We didn't need to.
The bond between us had sharpened to be perfectly in sync. The whispers still lingered, scratching at the edges of my thoughts, but they no longer felt as sharp.
Every time they found a crack...
He filled it.
Every time doubt reached him...
I felt it before it could root itself.
Somehow, without discussing it, we'd learned the prison's first lesson.
Not to fight the whispers alone.
Together.
I tightened my grip around the emerald shard.
The hallways merged into one.
We understood what it wanted.
And made our way to the end of the hall that opened into a different cavern.
Its soft green glow brightened as we crossed the threshold.
The chamber beyond stole the breath from my lungs.
It was enormous.
Far larger than anything that should have fit beneath the mountain.
Hundreds of stone pillars stretched upward until they disappeared into darkness, each carved with ancient trees whose roots intertwined across the ceiling.
An underground sky.
The floor reflected the lantern light like polished obsidian.
Not water.
Stone.
Perfectly smooth.
Perfectly still.
In the center of the chamber stood a circular platform surrounded by glowing emerald runes.
No exits.
No bridges.
No enemies.
Only silence.
"I preferred the troll," I muttered.
Raiden's mouth twitched.
"I was beginning to miss that sarcasm of yours."
We stepped onto the circular platform together.
The instant both our feet touched the runes—
The mountain awakened.
A deep pulse rolled beneath us.
The emerald lines flared brilliantly.
The entire chamber trembled.
Stone scraped against stone.
Massive walls began shifting around us.
The pillars moved.
Not collapsing.
Sliding.
Rearranging.
The chamber itself was changing.
I instinctively reached for Raiden's hand.
He caught mine before I could think twice.
Warm.
Solid.
Real.
The bond relaxed immediately.
Then...
Everything stopped.
Silence.
A single ancient voice drifted through the chamber.
Neither male nor female.
Older than kingdoms.
Older than dragons.
"Foundation..."
The word echoed endlessly.
"...is tested beneath weight."
Cracks exploded across the circular platform.
I looked down.
"They're spreading."
"We're moving."
The realization came too late.
The platform wasn't breaking.
It was splitting.
Straight down the middle.
Stone groaned violently.
The line widened between us.
Instinctively, both of us stepped toward the center.
Our hands tightened.
The gap continued growing.
One foot.
Three.
Six.
The mountain was pulling us apart.
I planted my feet.
"No."
The stone didn't care.
Raiden's grip tightened hard enough to hurt.
"Don't let go."
"I'm not planning to."
The prison answered anyway.
The ground lurched.
The force nearly pulled my shoulder from its socket.
Our fingers slipped.
I caught two of his.
He caught mine.
The bond surged with sudden alarm.
Not fear for himself.
Fear...
for me.
"No!" I shouted.
Another violent tremor.
Our fingertips slid apart.
Then—
Nothing.
Our hands separated.
The platforms continued moving in opposite directions.
Faster.
Far faster.
"Lyra!"
"I'm here!"
I ran toward the edge.
So did he.
The distance between us stretched impossibly quickly.
Twenty feet.
Thirty.
Fifty.
The chamber wasn't simply growing.
Space itself felt wrong.
The farther apart we moved...
the larger the room became.
I reached through the bond instinctively.
It answered immediately.
Warm.
Alive.
Relief flooded me.
He was still there.
Still connected.
Still...
steady.
Across the widening abyss, Raiden stopped running.
His crimson eyes locked onto mine.
Neither of us looked away.
The whisper returned.
He cannot reach you now.
I ignored it.
Distance changes everything.
No.
The bond pulsed.
A calm certainty drifted through it.
Not words.
Him.
The steady presence I'd grown used to without ever realizing it.
The prison felt it too.
Because the whispers faltered.
The ancient voice spoke again.
Closer this time.
Almost curious.
"This is old magic...."
The platforms slammed to a stop.
Hundreds of feet separated us.
Too far to jump.
Too far to shout comfortably.
Yet...
I could still feel him.
The bond stretched between us like an invisible thread of warm light.
Not weakened.
Simply...
longer.
Raiden placed one hand over his chest.
Directly above where I felt the bond pulsing.
I mirrored the movement without thinking.
The warmth doubled.
Across the impossible distance, I saw the corner of his mouth lift.
Just slightly.
The whisper hissed through my thoughts.
He will forget you.
Before I could answer it—
Warm reassurance flowed through the bond.
Not spoken.
Felt.
A quiet confidence.
A promise.
It settled every frantic beat of my heart.
Without using his voice, Raiden spoke into my mind two words.
Trust me.
I smiled despite everything as I replied.
Always.
The prison trembled.
The pillars groaned.
Emerald fire erupted along every carving in the chamber.
The ancient voice sounded... displeased.
"Distance..."
A pause.
Long.
Thoughtful.
"...is insufficient."
The emerald flames burst upward, swallowing both platforms in blinding light.
The warmth of the bond flared so brightly it almost hurt.
Then—
It vanished.
Not broken.
Blocked.
For the first time since our lives had become intertwined...
I couldn't feel him.
Not his calm.
Not his worry.
Not the steady thread that had quietly anchored me through every battle, every nightmare, every impossible choice.
Nothing.
Silence.
Real silence.
My heart lurched.
"Raiden!"
My voice echoed uselessly across the chamber.
He shouted something back.
I saw his mouth move.
I heard...
nothing.
The emerald fire roared higher.
Walls of glowing stone erupted from the chasm, climbing toward the ceiling until they completely blocked my view of him.
The prison hadn't severed our bond.
It had done something far crueler.
It had made it non existent.
A cold weight settled in my chest.
For the first time since entering the Prison...
I truly understood what it wanted.
Not to make us doubt each other.
Not anymore.
It wanted us to discover who we were...
when we could no longer lean on the other.
And somewhere beyond the emerald wall...
I knew Raiden had reached the same terrifying realization.