The Breathing Hall was forbidden, even to most demons.
It stretched beneath the palace like a valley of stones, hidden behind doors sealed by blood. Kaelith had not stepped within its depths since his Ascension as overlord. Few dared. The air itself whispered warnings.
Yet tonight, he brought her.
Elyria.
Wrapped in a black cloak. her eyes wide with the thrill of disobedience, she followed Kaelith in silence as the staircase curled downward. The shadows moved around them, alive but quiet.
"Are you sure you trust me enough to show me this place?" she asked.
"I trust the hall to know if you belong."
"What if it says I don't?"
Kaelith turned to her with a grin. "Then it will burn you alive."
She swallowed. "What?"
"But I don't think it will."
"You are loving this, aren't you?
"What? You asked, am just being truthful."
The final gate stood ahead, taller than any doorway in the palace, carved with ancient glowing sigils. Kaelith pressed his hand to the center. The flame symbol flared.
The symbol burned brighter with his touch. The doors opened.
Inside, the halls was not dust and decay.
It was crystalline silence. Bone white columns stretched upward into endless dark. Floating lanterns of trapped soulfire drifted in the air. Carvings circled the walls: demons crowned with flame, angels in chains, hybrid figures of myth and ruin.
Elyria exhaled slowly. "This… is interesting."
Kaelith's voice was low. "It is dangerous."
As they walked, the hall responded to her. Sigils under her foot pulsed softly with golden fire. Scrolls unrolled themselves. One of the murals flickered, then changed.
She stopped.
The mural showed a woman standing amidst flame. Her hands were chained, her mouth open in a scream. The fire spiraled from her chest in unnatural sights. Her eyes were glowing gold.
"…That's her," Elyria whispered. "From the Trial."
"No," Kaelith said tightly. "That's you."
The flames in the mural shifted again, morphing. The woman's face for a moment… mirrored Elyria's.
She stepped back. "Why does it know me?"
Kaelith didn't answer. He was watching her too intently. The weight of his gaze pinned her.
"You've been changing," he said. "Since the Trial. Since we bonded. You feel it, don't you?"
She nodded slowly. "There's fire in my blood. I feel it when you're near. I see things—flickers. Shadows and… fire."
He circled her, not touching, but close enough that she could feel it.
"You were human," he said softly, "but you walked through the fire and lived. The halls knows you. The flame calls you by name. Do you understand what that means?"
She turned, defiantly. "No. But I know you're not telling me everything."
Kaelith's jaw tensed.
"I saw you in the Trial," she whispered. "In chains. In pain. Why?"
He looked away, into the firelight. "Because power in this realm is always taken. I earned mine. You… were chosen. And that makes you dangerous to many."
"Is that why they monster attacked me?" She asked, waiting for him to turn around "Are you afraid?"
Kaelith turned back, suddenly close. "No," he said, voice low, dark. "I'm afraid of what you're becoming—and what I'll do to protect it."
His hand rose to her face, fingers brushing her cheek. Elyria shivered at the touch. The flame between them came to life.
"I should stay away from you," Kaelith murmured.
"Then do it," she challenged, stepping closer.
He didn't.
In a single breath, their lips met.
The kiss wasn't gentle.
His mouth claimed hers like she was already his. Her hands wrapped by the silk of his coat. He pulled her against him, the lights around them flaring with every heartbeat.
The halls shook.
When they finally parted, breathless, her hands still on his chest, Elyria whispered, "That was…"
"Stupid," Kaelith rasped. "Irrevocable."
She smiled slightly. "And inevitable."
Kaelith stepped back, his eyes still glowing. "This changes things."
Elyria's lips still burned. "It already has."
The hall sealed behind them.
And above, in the shadowed ceiling, a figure watched unseen, bathed in smoke, cloaked in silence, its eyes gleaming with secrets best left buried.