I crowned the system.
But she was the first piece it ever stole from me.
The shrine was still burning behind me.
Talraine hadn't moved—still kneeling in the smoking rubble, her aura cracked but whole. She'd chosen me. And the system had broken itself to make room.
But I couldn't stay.
Not yet.
Something tugged at the edge of my crown. Not pressure. Not warning.
Memory.
The Matron.
She wasn't calling me.
She was remembering me.
And memory always pulls harder than power.
I turned without a word. My boots echoed down the unseen path beneath the shrine's core—a corridor only I could walk now.
Because the crown wasn't complete.
Not without her.
The shrine didn't fight me anymore. It pulsed with me. Around me. Through me.
The glyphlight didn't flicker. It bowed.
Maybe it always had.
Maybe the shrine wasn't waiting for a king. Just for someone who remembered what came before kings.
[Quest Update – Reforge the Matron's Anchor – Final Glyph Pending]
