Chapter 23: Ep 23 - Vessel
The crystal cracked.
It began softly—no more than a whisper of light from within the core of the Spire—but it carried the weight of history behind it. Veins of silver-blue light spidered across the obsidian surface, as if something inside had finally stirred after centuries of slumber.
Kurumi's body floated weightless in the air above the crystal, suspended by unseen glyphic tethers. Her breathing was shallow. The tips of her fingers twitched.
Then her eyes opened.
No longer the warm chestnut brown Akira remembered—now they glowed, silver-blue, unearthly. Alien. Divine.
Akira's heart dropped.
"Kurumi?" he said her name like a prayer, afraid to believe what he saw. "Is that... still you?"
She lowered to the floor gently, like a petal carried on wind. Her feet touched down, but the weight of her presence made the air heavier, like gravity had thickened around her.
"I... am the Queen's vessel," she said.
Her voice wasn't just hers anymore.
It echoed.