The chamber remained silent.
The golden mark on Carlos’s palm pulsed once.
Then again.
The Celestial Compass rotated above the center of the room, its needle fixed directly toward him.
Carlos stared at it.
Then at his hand.
Then back at the Compass.
“I have a question.”
Nobody answered.
He raised his hand slightly.
“Is it supposed to do that?”
Sarah stepped closer.
“I think you’ve established that.”
“Right.”
Carlos lowered his hand.
“Just checking.”
The High Sovereign had not moved.
His expression remained controlled, but the calmness in his eyes was gone.
He was staring at Carlos as though he had just witnessed something impossible.
Emma noticed.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
The Sovereign looked at her.
“I told you what you needed to know.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
His gaze shifted toward the Compass.
“It isn’t.”
A faint tremor passed through the chamber.
The golden sphere surrounding the Compass flickered.
Carlos suddenly doubled over.
“Ah—”
Emma rushed toward him.
“Carlos!”
He caught himself against the floor.
His breathing became uneven.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
The mark on his palm brightened.
Images flashed through his mind.
A desert beneath a black sky.
A city floating among clouds.
A woman holding the Compass.
An army kneeling before her.
Then—
Blood.
A throne.
A crown falling onto stone.
Carlos gasped.
The vision disappeared.
He looked around.
“What the hell was that?”
Zahra’s face had gone pale.
“You saw the First Bearer.”
Carlos blinked.
“The what?”
“The first person chosen by the Celestial Compass.”
The Sovereign’s voice cut through the room.
“Enough.”
Zahra looked at him.
“You know what he saw.”
“I know what the Compass shows its chosen.”
Carlos slowly stood.
“So you do know.”
The Sovereign’s jaw tightened.
“Some knowledge is dangerous.”
Carlos glanced at Emma.
“That’s ruler-speak for ‘I’m hiding something.'”
Sarah sighed.
“For once, he’s right.”
The Sovereign’s eyes narrowed.
“You are remarkably comfortable insulting people who could have you executed.”
Carlos shrugged.
“I’ve been told I have a poor survival instinct.”
Emma stepped between them.
“We’re not here to fight you.”
“Not yet.”
The words slipped from the Sovereign’s mouth.
Everyone froze.
He seemed to realize what he’d said.
Then his expression returned to its usual calm.
“You misunderstand me.”
Emma didn’t answer.
She didn’t believe him.
The Compass suddenly began spinning again.
Faster.
Faster.
Until—
It shot toward Carlos.
He instinctively raised his hand.
The golden sphere shattered.
Light exploded across the chamber.
Carlos disappeared inside it.
“CARLOS!”
Emma lunged forward.
Ethan grabbed her arm.
“Wait!”
Inside the light, Carlos floated several feet above the ground.
His body was completely still.
Golden symbols appeared across his arms.
His eyes opened.
They were glowing.
Not with the Compass’s usual gold.
With a strange mixture of blue and gold.
Zahra whispered something in an ancient language.
Emma looked at her.
“What did you say?”
Zahra didn’t answer immediately.
Then she translated.
“The Compass isn’t choosing him.”
Emma frowned.
“What?”
“It’s recognizing him.”
Sarah stared at Carlos.
“What’s the difference?”
Zahra looked terrified.
“Choosing means the artifact accepts a bearer.”
She swallowed.
“Recognition means it remembers one.”
The light vanished.
Carlos dropped.
Ethan caught him before he hit the ground.
Carlos blinked rapidly.
“Did anyone get the number of the truck that hit me?”
Emma crouched beside him.
“Are you okay?”
“I think so.”
He looked at his hand.
The golden mark had changed.
It now resembled a tiny compass surrounded by four curved lines.
Carlos stared at it.
“That’s new.”
Emma touched his shoulder.
“What did you see?”
Carlos’s joking expression faded.
“A woman.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
He looked toward the Compass.
“But she had it before.”
The Sovereign turned away.
Emma noticed.
“You know her.”
He stopped.
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
The Sovereign slowly looked back.
“You should be careful with accusations.”
Emma stepped closer.
“And you should be careful with secrets.”
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then the temple shook.
A deep rumble traveled through the walls.
The Skybound immediately dropped to one knee.
Zahra looked toward the ceiling.
“What’s happening?”
One of the Skybound whispered something to the Sovereign.
His face changed.
Only for a moment.
But Emma saw it.
Fear.
“What was that?” Ethan asked.
“Nothing.”
Another tremor struck.
This time, cracks appeared across the ceiling.
Sarah raised her hands.
“That definitely doesn’t look like nothing.”
The Sovereign turned toward the Skybound.
“Seal the eastern passage.”
The soldiers moved immediately.
Emma frowned.
“Why?”
“The temple is under attack.”
Carlos slowly stood.
“By what?”
The Sovereign didn’t answer.
Not human.
Not animal.
Something far older.
The Skybound rushed toward the doors.
The Sovereign looked at Carlos one final time.
“The Compass has awakened.”
He paused.
“And now…”
His eyes darkened.
“They will come for you.”
Emma tightened her grip around the Tidecaller’s Trident.
“Who?”
The Sovereign looked toward the sealed doors.
“The things that have been waiting for its return.”
The doors slammed shut.
And from somewhere beneath the temple…
Something began climbing toward them.
Chapter Twenty-Five: The One Who Was Chosen — Part Two
The sound came again.
Scrape.
Pause.
Scrape.
Something was dragging itself up the walls beneath us.
The entire temple seemed to hold its breath.
Carlos looked toward the floor.
“I don’t want to alarm anyone…”
Another enormous scrape echoed through the chamber.
“…but I think something has a personal vendetta against stairs.”
Sarah glared at him.
“Not now.”
“I know.”
Carlos swallowed.
“I’m coping.”
The Skybound formed a defensive line around the Sovereign.
Their silver blades appeared simultaneously.
Emma tightened her grip around the Tidecaller’s Trident.
Ethan raised his shield.
Zahra stepped closer to Sarah.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
Zahra shook her head.
“I’ve read about creatures beneath the Sky Temple.”
Carlos looked at her.
“And?”
“They aren’t supposed to exist anymore.”
“Excellent.”
A crack appeared across the floor.
Then another.
The golden tiles began lifting.
The Sovereign immediately turned.
“Everyone back.”
Emma stared at him.
“You knew this could happen.”
“I knew the Compass would attract attention.”
“From what?”
His expression hardened.
“You don’t want to know.”
The floor exploded.
A creature burst through the stone.
It was enormous.
Its body was long and skeletal, covered in silver-black scales that reflected the light like broken mirrors.
Four massive wings unfolded from its back, each one covered in glowing symbols.
Its head resembled a serpent.
But its eyes—
Its eyes were human.
Hundreds of them.
Opening and closing across its face.
Carlos stared.
“No.”
He pointed.
“Absolutely not.”
The creature screamed.
Every eye opened at once.
A wave of psychic energy slammed through the room.
Emma dropped to one knee.
Memories flooded her mind.
Ravenwood burning.
Atlantis collapsing.
Ethan dead.
Sarah screaming.
Carlos disappearing into darkness.
She clutched her head.
“No…”
“Emma!”
Ethan’s voice sounded distant.
The creature attacked again.
Ethan slammed his shield into the ground.
A blue barrier expanded around them.
The psychic force struck it.
The shield cracked.
“Whatever that thing is…”
Ethan gritted his teeth.
“…it’s getting through.”
Sarah stepped beside him.
“I can block it.”
She closed her eyes.
Her psychic energy spread outward.
The creature’s influence recoiled.
For the first time, it seemed startled.
Sarah opened her eyes.
“Go!”
Emma stood.
The Tidecaller’s Trident erupted with blue light.
Water surged from the air itself.
It wrapped around the creature’s wings.
Emma pulled.
The creature slammed into the floor.
Carlos disappeared.
A second later—
BOOM!
He reappeared above it and drove both feet into its back.
“That…”
He vanished again.
“…was for…”
He appeared beside Emma.
“…the nightmare…”
He vanished.
“…where you…”
He reappeared behind the creature.
“…killed everybody!”
The creature roared and threw him across the room.
Carlos crashed into a pillar.
“Okay.”
He coughed.
“That was excessive.”
Emma ran toward him.
“You okay?”
“Ask me after I remember my name.”
The creature rose.
The Sovereign finally moved.
He raised one hand.
A wave of black energy tore across the chamber.
The creature screamed.
Emma froze.
That wasn’t ordinary magic.
It looked familiar.
Too familiar.
Dark.
Almost demonic.
The creature collapsed.
The Skybound stared at their ruler.
Zahra’s expression changed.
“That…”
She whispered.
“That wasn’t Sky magic.”
The Sovereign lowered his hand.
“Return to your positions.”
Zahra didn’t move.
“What did you just use?”
The Sovereign looked at her.
“Something necessary.”
“That power is forbidden.”
His expression hardened.
“Do not question me.”
Zahra stepped backward.
Emma noticed the fear in her eyes.
The Sovereign turned toward the creature.
“It’s dead.”
Carlos slowly got to his feet.
“Can we leave now?”
“No.”
Everyone looked at the Sovereign.
He pointed toward the creature’s corpse.
“It wasn’t here to kill you.”
Emma frowned.
“Then why was it here?”
“To test the Compass.”
Carlos looked down at the mark on his hand.
“Test me?”
The Sovereign nodded.
“The Compass has been dormant for generations.”
He looked toward Carlos.
“Now that it has awakened…”
“…others will know.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
“The demons.”
The Sovereign didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
Sarah stepped closer.
“So they’re coming here.”
“They are already here.”
Silence.
Carlos looked around.
“Where?”
The Sovereign’s eyes moved toward the eastern corridor.
“The Sky Temple has many entrances.”
A low sound echoed from the darkness.
Not the creature.
Something else.
Footsteps.
Several.
Slow.
Deliberate.
The Skybound immediately raised their weapons.
Emma’s Trident began glowing.
Ethan positioned himself beside her.
Sarah’s hands crackled with psychic energy.
Carlos stared into the corridor.
“Please be something normal.”
A shadow moved.
Then another.
Figures emerged from the darkness.
Not demons.
Not Skybound.
People.
Dozens of them.
Their faces were hidden beneath silver masks.
The first figure removed theirs.
Emma’s breath caught.
She recognized him.
He was the man from the village below.
The same man who had appeared in Zahra’s stories.
The man who had supposedly disappeared after questioning the ruler.
His eyes were filled with hatred.
“You finally came.”
The Sovereign’s expression remained cold.
“You should have stayed dead.”
The man’s smile was bitter.
“I tried.”
He looked toward Emma.
“Then I remembered who killed me.”
The chamber went silent.
Carlos slowly turned toward the Sovereign.
“…Well.”
His voice was quiet.
“This just got interesting.”
The man remained where he stood.
Still.
Unmoving.
Almost unreal.
Emma stared at him.
There was something wrong with the way the light passed through his body.
The edges of his silver robes flickered faintly, as though he wasn’t completely present in the room.
Zahra slowly stepped forward.
“He’s not alive.”
Carlos looked at her.
“That is somehow not the sentence I wanted to hear.”
Zahra ignored him.
“The Compass…”
Her eyes moved to the golden light surrounding Carlos’s hand.
“It must have brought him back.”
“Back from where?” Ethan asked.
Zahra shook her head.
“Not back.”
She swallowed.
“Remembered.”
The word settled over them.
Emma looked at the stranger again.
His expression hadn’t changed.
He wasn’t looking at any of them.
He was looking at the Sovereign.
“You wanted the Compass,” the man said.
The Sovereign’s face hardened.
“You refused to give it to me.”
“I refused to bow to you.”
A silence followed.
Carlos glanced at Emma.
“Okay. Definitely history there.”
The man slowly raised his hand.
A faint golden glow appeared around his fingers.
The same light surrounding Carlos.
Emma’s breath caught.
“The previous bearer…”
The man looked toward her for the first time.
His eyes were strangely familiar.
Not because she had seen him before.
Because she could feel the Compass recognizing him.
“I carried it once.”
Carlos stared at his own hand.
“So I’m basically holding your inheritance.”
The man gave the faintest smile.
“You are holding a burden.”
Carlos’s expression faltered.
“That’s… less exciting.”
The Sovereign stepped forward.
“You don’t belong here.”
The man’s gaze returned to him.
“Neither do you.”
Black energy flickered around the Sovereign’s hand.
The projection didn’t move.
“You were offered power,” the man continued.
“You were offered a place among those who promised you a new world.”
Emma’s eyes narrowed.
The Sovereign said nothing.
“But you never asked what that new world would cost.”
The chamber trembled.
The projection began fading.
Carlos instinctively stepped forward.
“Wait.”
The man’s eyes settled on him.
“Do not trust everything the Compass shows you.”
Carlos frowned.
“That’s… incredibly unhelpful.”
The man almost smiled.
Then his gaze shifted toward the golden Compass.
“It chose you for a reason.”
The projection dissolved into thousands of particles of golden light.
They rushed toward Carlos.
The Compass flashed.
And suddenly
Carlos gasped.
A vision tore through his mind.
A vast celestial temple.
The previous bearer standing before the Sovereign.
The Compass between them.
The Sovereign extending his hand.
And the bearer shaking his head.
“I will never give it to you.”
Darkness.
Then another image.
The bearer running through the mountains.
Blood staining his robes.
The Compass glowing in his hand.
And finally
The man turning toward the sky.
As though he knew someone would eventually come after him.
Someone who would finish what he couldn’t.
The vision disappeared.
Carlos staggered.
Emma caught his arm.
“What did you see?”
Carlos stared at the Compass.
His usual smile was gone.
“I think…”
He swallowed.
“…he was waiting for me.”
Far across the chamber, the Sovereign watched him with an intense look in his eyes.