The dream came again—but this one was not Auron's.
It belonged to *her*.
Chains bound her limbs, forged from words unspoken. Each link carved with names long erased from history. She knelt not out of defeat, but because the world demanded her silence.
And she obeyed.
Until now.
Somewhere far away, a voice had risen.
A name she hadn't heard in a hundred lifetimes.
**"Auron Vale…"**
She opened her eyes.
---
Auron jolted awake in his chambers, gasping.
The dream wasn't his—but it had *found* him. His mask pulsed against the side of his bed, as if it, too, had seen her. The system trembled faintly.
**\[Dream Link Detected – Unbound Entity]**
**\[Designation: ???]**
**\[Title Trace: Bound Queen]**
**\[Location: Sable Wastes – Forbidden Eastern Expanse]**
**\[Danger Level: Lethal]**
Mira burst into the room moments later, sword half-drawn. "You felt that?"
"I saw her," Auron whispered. "The Bound Queen."
Jace entered next, looking pale. "Everyone in the palace… they stopped breathing for a moment. Like the air vanished."
"It wasn't an attack," Auron said, standing. "It was a *signal*."
---
The next meeting of the Echo Court confirmed it.
The twelfth throne glowed brighter than before.
"She has stirred," the old echoes whispered. "The one they buried beneath time. The queen who sealed herself away so the world would forget her pain."
Auron listened, his jaw tight.
"Why now?"
"She heard *you*," said the child echo. "Your claim woke the old bonds. Her silence is ending."
---
He gathered his council that evening.
The table was covered in half-drawn maps, broken seals, forgotten roads.
"The Sable Wastes are cursed," Mira said. "No caravan ever returns. No birds fly above. It's a dead zone."
"It was a kingdom once," Jace muttered. "Before the Divide. Before the Gods fell."
Auron pointed to the mark on the far edge of the map—faint and almost erased.
The symbol was a broken crown encircled by chains.
"Her seal is breaking. If she wakes *uncontrolled*, the Abyss won't be our enemy. It'll be our *tool*."
Mira frowned. "You want to free her?"
"No," Auron said.
"I want to reach her first."
---
Far east, in the heart of the Wastes, the Queen walked alone through her prison of glass.
Every step shattered memories beneath her feet.
She wore a mask of porcelain, cracked at the center.
Around her, thousands of stone statues knelt, locked in permanent worship.
The sky above her was a dome of mirrorlight—reflecting *nothing*.
She reached the altar at the center of the ruins.
Spoke one word.
**"Hollow."**
And the earth answered back.
---
Auron left the capital before dawn with a small escort—Mira, Jace, and two scouts from the Deepmark clans who knew how to track through cursed land. He wore a black cloak over his armor, but the mask remained visible.
As they rode toward the edge of the known world, whispers followed them.
Not of fear.
But of prophecy.
Because the people remembered what their parents were taught to forget:
**When the Hollow King walks east, the chains will shatter.**
---
The Sable Wastes appeared after three days of riding.
Endless white dust.
No wind.
No sound.
And in the distance—shards of giant structures piercing the sky like broken teeth. Cities long turned to bone.
The system pulsed violently.
**\[Proximity Alert – Sealed Entity Near]**
**\[Warning: Mental Resistance Required – Dreamfield Exposure Imminent]**
Mira gripped her blade tighter. "I don't like this. The air's too thick. It feels like we're walking into someone's mind."
Jace scanned the horizon. "Not someone's mind…"
He pointed ahead.
A field of glass stretched before them.
And at the center stood a lone figure.
Waiting.
---
The Queen did not raise her voice.
She didn't need to.
Auron halted his horse, stepping forward alone.
Her eyes glowed behind the mask—pale silver like dying stars.
"You wear it well," she said softly. "The crown they tried to erase."
"You remember it."
"I wore one too."
A pause.
"Do you remember *me*, Hollow King?"
Auron didn't answer right away.
But something in his soul twisted, like an old song remembered after centuries of silence.
"I do now," he whispered.
And the system confirmed it:
**\[Connection Confirmed – Echo of the First Queen Recovered]**
**\[Bound Queen – Status: Locked]**
**\[Unlock Condition: Speak Her True Name]**
He took a step closer.
"I need you."
She tilted her head.
"Then remember who I was."
He reached toward her, and the dreamworld rippled.
The statues turned.
The sky cracked.
The chains rattled.
And behind her mask—
A tear fell.