Chapter 127: The Girl Who Became No More
The Cradle was no longer just a place.
It had become a pulse, alive and ancient, wrapped around my bones like a second skin, watching, waiting. It wanted something from me now. Not my strength. Not my loyalty.
It wanted a piece of me that I could never get back.
I stood barefoot in the center of the final chamber, surrounded by obsidian pillars glowing with silent fire. Every echo that bounced off the walls sounded like a version of my own voice — younger, softer, broken.
This was no longer a trial. This was judgment.
A pool of starlight shimmered before me — no water, no reflection, just magic. Raw and knowing.
Willing sacrifice, the voice of the Cradle whispered.
The same phrase I’d heard a hundred times, but this time... the words coiled like a blade around my soul.
"What do you want from me?" I asked aloud.
No answer came, only a sudden memory. My brother’s laughter. My mother’s voice calling me in the dark. Lucas’s fingers brushing my cheek.
The pool responded to memory, not speech. And it showed me the root of my strength — not power, but love. The people who tethered me. The emotions that shaped me.
I dropped to my knees.