Selphira kept recounting the story, this time without the sanitized edges Sirius had given his daughter.

"The door did open. Not immediately after the statues descended. But later. When the ancient mechanisms finished processing their... sacrifice."

Ren absorbed this, connecting pieces.

"And the crystallized hearts?"

"Were keys. Not just for that door but for the entire ruin system." Selphira's expression darkened. "The ancients built failsafes. Required living sacrifice transformed into crystal to access deepest secrets. Maybe because they believed only those willing to pay the ultimate price deserved knowledge that could reshape the world."

She paused.

"Maybe they were idiots… But very powerful idiots."

"When Orion activated the final mechanism with the Platinum core," Selphira continued, "he completed the sequence. The door opened."

"And?"

♢♢♢♢

And around him, the survivors of the expedition began to process what had happened.

To understand that the two factions of one the great houses had just lost their queens. That families would be shattered. That children would grow up without mothers.

That all of this… had come from greed, impatience and refusal to follow rules that existed for reasons.

Orion stood alone, staring at where Lyzea had vanished.

Not moving, nor speaking... Just standing like a statue himself.

And Sirius, kneeling on warm stone, finally understood something that would haunt him forever:

He'd saved Orion.

Had pushed himself beyond limits to save his brother from the consequences of his terrible decisions.

And in doing so, he'd made the woman he loved sacrifice.

Had ultimately, even if indirectly, let Lykea die so Orion could live.

The guilt of that would follow him for the rest of his life.

Because living meant remembering.

Remembering the already done damage every day.

The damage that would ripple through families and factions and ultimately destroy a little girl's world when she learned what happened to the mother who loved her with intensity that was embarrassing.

The mother who would never embarrass her again.

Never hold her too tight.

Never proclaim love in ways that made everyone uncomfortable.

Because all that remained was crystal somewhere beneath stone.

And a heart that had been extracted and left embedded on a door.

♢♢♢♢

The wolf's core at the door's center glowed once more, intensely enough that everyone had to shield their eyes from the brilliance that seemed to come from somewhere beyond normal light.

And then it disappeared, perhaps absorbed by the ancient mechanism as consumed fuel. The kind of total conversion that suggested technology far beyond what modern tamers understood about mana and matter.

The door opened with the grinding sound of mechanisms unused for centuries finally engaging, revealing stairs descending toward a long tunnel that disappeared into darkness so complete it seemed to swallow even the ambient mana light.

And from the indentations in each of the door's two sections something fell with soft crystalline sounds.

Two crystals dropped to the stone floor.

One white as pure light, the other black as absolute void. Both pulsing with residual power that made the air around them shimmer with energy.

Crystallized hearts.

What had been extracted from the statues. Essence concentrated into a form that could be held.

Mana systems, souls compressed into something that shouldn't be possible but was.

Everything that remained of Lykea and Lyzea reduced to objects small enough to hold in one hand.

Sirius grabbed the white crystal with hands that trembled so badly he nearly dropped it. The grief and exhaustion and shock of the past hours making even simple motor control difficult.

It was warm against his palm, pulsing gently like a real heart beating inside a crystalline prison. The rhythm was familiar in ways that made his chest ache with recognition and loss.

And he felt... something.

A presence so faint it might have been imagination, an echo of the person who had been rather than the person herself. Connection that suggested not all of Lykea was truly gone even if most of her was beyond reach.

It wasn't Lykea, not really. Not the woman who'd laughed and loved and driven him crazy with her dramatic declarations. Not the mother who'd embarrassed Luna with overwhelming affection.

But it was the only thing that remained of her. The last fragment of existence that could be touched, held, maybe somehow restored if they could find the right knowledge or power or desperate miracle.

Orion picked up the black crystal with mechanical movements that suggested an emotional shutdown rather than actual calm. His face had gone blank in the way people's faces went blank when processing trauma too large to feel all at once.

He looked at Sirius with eyes that held too many emotions to name individually.

Sirius looked back with hatred that could shatter diamonds, rage so pure it burned away everything else until only fury remained.

"You killed her," he whispered, his voice trembling with a fury that threatened to explode into violence despite his exhaustion. "Your stupid ambition, your impatience, your..."

"You killed Lyzea too," Orion interrupted, his voice equally cold but carrying a different flavor of anger. The defensive rage of someone who knew they were guilty but couldn't accept full responsibility without going insane? Or just… "If you hadn't jumped, if you'd let me..."

"SHE PUSHED ME!" Sirius roared, the words tearing out of him with force that made nearby soldiers flinch. "LYKEA CHOSE TO SAVE US! BUT YOUR WIFE...!"

He stopped because the truth was he didn't know.

He couldn't know with certainty what had happened in those frantic milliseconds when everything had gone wrong simultaneously.

He didn't know if Lyzea had interposed herself deliberately or if Orion had used her as a shield. The chaos and speed and panic of the moment made certainty impossible, leaving only speculation and suspicion that would poison everything.

And that uncertainty, that question without answer, would envenom everything that remained between them. Would transform brotherhood into something twisted and toxic that could never be repaired.

The silence extended, heavy with everything left unsaid and everything that could never be unsaid once spoken.

"Are you insinuating something, brother?" Orion insisted, his voice tight with tension that suggested he was barely holding himself together. "Are you saying I pushed Lyzea? That I used her as shield?"

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