SWNOVELXO Chapter 15: Chapter 15 – Beneath the Stone
The tunnel smelled like old fire.
The moment Elara stepped across the shattered threshold, a wave of memory slammed into her chest-uninvited and merciless.
She stumbled.
Kaelith caught her arm instantly, his eyes alert. "Elara?"
"I'm fine," she said, though her voice trembled. "It's just… familiar."
He didn't press her. Instead, he raised the torch higher, revealing narrow stone walls carved with ancient runes. Most of them had faded, but a few still pulsed faintly with a soft violet hue. As they moved deeper, the temperature dropped. Every breath came out in mist.
The air felt alive.
Not welcoming.
Not hostile.
Just... watching.
Kaelith's grip on his sword never loosened.
The silence down here wasn't natural. It was the kind of silence that came after too many secrets had been buried in the same place. Like the ground itself was trying to hold its breath.
He glanced at Elara.
Her steps were steady, but her face had gone pale.
"You've been here before," he said-not as a question, but a fact.
She nodded. "Yes. But not alone. The first time… I was brought here."
"By who?"
Elara didn't answer right away.
Then finally, "By someone I trusted."
They walked in silence for several more minutes. Then the tunnel widened-opening into a chamber lit only by soft light leaking through cracks in the ceiling. The room was round, and in its center stood a raised stone altar, marked with sigils burned deep into its surface.
Elara stopped.
Kaelith felt her hand tighten around his sleeve.
"This is it," she whispered.
She stepped forward slowly, reaching the altar. Her fingers brushed the cold stone and the world shuddered.
Images flashed behind her eyes-Fire.
Blood.
A blade held in shaking hands.
Kaelith-crying.
And her voice-screaming something to the sky.
She gasped and stumbled back.
Kaelith reached her again, steadying her with both arms.
"What did you see?"
Elara was shaking now. "I remember… I remember making the vow. I was on my knees. You had just died. And I said-I said I would trade my soul to keep yours from fading."
Kaelith stared at her, breath shallow.
"But I didn't realize," she continued, "that to bind your soul to mine… I had to tether it to my death."
"What does that mean?"
She turned to him with tears in her eyes. "It means that every time I return, you do too-but only after I die."
Kaelith said nothing.
His grip on her arms loosened, just slightly.
"You cursed yourself… so I could live," he murmured.
Elara nodded. "And now we're trapped. Because the vow was made in grief, not truth. The gods took it as a binding oath. A trade."
Silence fell again.
But not for long.
From the tunnel behind them, a sound rose-soft, rhythmic.
Footsteps.
Kaelith spun, sword drawn in a flash. Elara stepped behind him, her hand glowing faintly as she summoned a ripple of protective magic.
Out of the darkness came a man.
Or what once had been a man.
Tall, draped in a cloak of shadows that twisted unnaturally with every step. His face was hidden behind a steel-white mask, and his presence made the air feel colder than stone.
Kaelith whispered, "Who is that?"
Elara's voice was hollow. "One of the Hallowed."
The figure stopped several paces away, and though he didn't speak, a voice echoed in their minds-ancient, layered with too many tongues.
"The curse must not be broken."
"Return to the surface. Forget."
"Or face the memory that devours."
Kaelith stepped forward, blade pointed low but ready. "We're not turning back."
The voice sharpened. "Then you will remember the pain."
Without warning, the figure raised a hand.
The runes on the altar flared.
Elara screamed.
Kaelith lunged.
Steel met shadow.
The chamber exploded with sound-clashing metal, pulsing magic, the roar of something ancient coming alive.
Elara dropped to her knees, hands pressed to the altar as more memories surged forward-faster now, uncontrollable.
A kiss beneath a red moon.
A death by poison.
A crown falling into fire.
And Kaelith-always Kaelith-dying again, and again, and again.
She gasped for air.
In the chaos, Kaelith fought with everything he had. But this opponent didn't bleed. Every blow he struck passed through cloth and bone and darkness as if it fought the very memory of the Hallowed-not the flesh.
Then Elara rose.
Eyes glowing.
Hands burning with light.
"Enough!" she shouted.
The energy exploded from her body in a wave.
The Hallowed staggered, screaming-not with pain, but with fury-as the magic wrapped around him and began unraveling the veil that kept him tethered to this place.
He vanished.
Just like that.
Silence returned.
Kaelith was breathing hard. Sweat on his brow. Sword still raised.
Elara turned to him slowly.
"I remembered something else," she said.
"What?"
"The name I used when I first loved you."
He froze.
"What was it?"
She smiled, tears sliding down her face.
"Elanora."
And the name-like a key-unlocked something in him.
A memory he had never known he was missing.