Page 64 of Bound In Stone, Claimed In Fire

“Pathetic,” Nerezza hisses, illusions intensifying around her. She conjures orbs of swirling darkness, hurling them in rapid succession. Each orb splashes against our synergy field, forcing us to pour more power into defense. My arms ache, wings shaking from the strain. Sariah gasps, eyes narrowed in concentration. If we can’t counter soon, she’ll overwhelm us.

We shift tactics, letting one orb slip past to explode behind us while we launch a retaliatory bolt. Sariah’s staff glows white-hot, arcs of silver lightning coiling with the stone force I provide. The combined pulse tears a chunk from the floor near Nerezza’s feet, sending her illusions reeling. She snarls, momentarily stumbling.An opening.

Sariah and I surge forward, synergy blazing. My wings thrash, tail lashing to clear a path through thrall gargoyles that leap to defend their mistress. Sariah blasts them aside with arcs of luminous magic, each strike rippling with fury. My runes feed her raw power, forging a swirling vortex that cracks pillars and shatters illusions. Nerezza howls, illusions faltering.

But then she unleashes a new wave—voidlike powerso dense it warps the air. My runes recoil, a primal terror stirring in my gut.She’s tapping into a deeper reservoir.A maelstrom of swirling blackness envelops the chamber, the walls shuddering as illusions bleed into reality. I see ghostly shapes—fallen gargoyles from centuries past, battered purna illusions, all swirling in a nightmare tapestry.

Sariah lets out a choked cry, brand flickering erratically. She staggers, illusions clawing at her mind. I wrap an arm around her waist, runes blazing with defiance. “Hold on,” I whisper, pushing synergy into her. She steels her jaw, tears glistening, and our combined power flares anew, slicing through illusions.

Nerezza stands at the center of the swirling void, eyes blazing with triumphant malice. “You cannot stand against the raw void,” she roars, voice echoing with ancient wrath. “Protheka will be reborn in darkness!”

My heart pounds.We have only one choice: a new seal, stronger than before.But forging that seal might cost everything.I recall the centuries I spent entombed in stone, sacrificing my life to keep her contained.Could I do it again? My runes flicker, glancing at Sariah.She can’t be trapped with us.But maybe we can create a seal that binds Nerezza alone.

Sariah senses my turmoil. She raises her staff, voice shaking with determination. “I can channel a pure surge of purna magic,” she says, breath ragged. “But it’s not enough alone. I need you, Kaelith—your gargoyle essence, your willingness to cede that old power.” Her eyes meet mine, heartbreak shining. “If we combine them, we might contain her. But you’ll lose what remains of your gargoyle might.”

A flash of grief strikes me. My gargoyle powers are my identity—stone sleep, flight, the runes etched across my skin.But if that’s the price to save Protheka and keep Sariah safe, so be it.Tears prick my eyes. “I’ll do it,” I murmur. “I relinquish it all if it means freeing us from her shadow.”

Sariah’s tears sparkle. “Then let’s end this.” She kisses me swiftly, brand scorching with final resolve. I taste salt on her lips. The illusions swirl around us, but we stand unyielding, synergy swirling into something new—a seal forged from purna’s purity and gargoyle’s earthen might.

My runes glow in a crescendo of light, each carving across my arms and chest resonating with the brand’s silver arcs. Pain lances through me as I push everything into Sariah’s staff, wings stiffening to hold the illusions at bay. She chants a purna incantation, voice resonating with a primal power that makes the air tremble. Her brand flares white-hot, turning the staff into a beacon.

Nerezza shrieks, illusions contorting in panic. “No,” she hisses, sending a final torrent of voidlike energy. It crashes against our forming seal, forcing us to brace in agony. I roar, runes flaring bright as I channel the last vestiges of my gargoyle magic. My body feels like it’s unraveling, stone plates crumbling from my limbs. But I press on, tears streaming.This is the sacrifice.

Sariah screams, brand blazing, funneling the combined power into a vortex that spirals around Nerezza. The vortex shimmers with swirling gold and silver, forming tendrils of luminous chains. Nerezza’s illusions flail, monstrous faces emerging from the chaos, but one by one they’re snuffed out by the seal’s light. The thrall gargoyles wail, collapsing under severed illusions. The ground rattles so violently that cracks race through the floor, releasing bursts of stale air from subterranean depths.

“Kaelith!” Sariah yells over the maelstrom, tears glistening, staff trembling in her hands. “Push your power fully. Don’t hold back.”

I grit my teeth, tail snapping.No more illusions, no more guilt.I let go of the last grip on my gargoyle abilities—my partial stone form, my old sense of flight, the runes that once defined me. A wave of anguish sweeps my body, but I channel it into the seal. My runes blaze in one final burst, each line of power streaming into Sariah’s incantation.

Nerezza howls, illusions fracturing. “No,” she roars, voice echoing with despair and fury. Her swirling voidlike aura collapses inward, battered by the radiant chains. The entire fortress quakes, pillars toppling in avalanches of stone.

In a final, savage flash of brilliance, the seal clamps shut around her. The vortex condenses, spiraling into a point of searing light. Nerezza’s form flickers, mouth twisted in a silent scream. Then, in one explosive eruption, the illusions detonate, leaving behind a crater in the center of the hall. Dust and debris swirl, stinging my eyes.

I stumble, wings limp, no longer stone-strong. Pain courses through every fiber of me, the leftover synergy draining. Sariah staggers to my side, brand sputtering. I sense the entire fortress groaning, illusions fading into stale rubble. Twisted gargoyles collapse, inert or lifeless. The sky overhead cracks with thunder, a final echo of the chaos we banished.

“Sariah,” I rasp, voice raw, tail limp on the debris-strewn floor. “Did we?—?”

She presses a trembling hand to my chest, tears flooding her eyes. “We sealed her,” she breathes, exhaustion and relief tangled in her voice. “Nerezza’s… gone. Banished. Not forever, maybe, but for now. The seal is formed.”

My head swims, runes dimming until they’re barely visible lines on my skin.I gave it all.My vision blurs, tears hot against my cheeks. “I can’t… I can’t feel the stone in me anymore,” I whisper, heartbreak mingling with relief. A vast emptiness takes the place of my gargoyle might.But Sariah’s here, synergy still warm in my chest, albeit quieter.

She wraps her arms around me, staff clattering away. “Thank you,” she breathes, resting her forehead against mine. “You sacrificed so much for this world, for me.”

I close my eyes, tears slipping. “Worth every breath,” I murmur. My arms sag around her shoulders, muscles drained. Despite the battered fortress, an overwhelming calm settles in. The hush after the storm.Nerezza’s illusions no longer claw at the edge of my mind.

Around us, the fortress crumbles, gargoyle thralls inert or reduced to dust. Drayveth is nowhere to be seen—maybe he fled or was lost in the chaos. My heart pangs for the gargoyle lineage twisted by Nerezza.At least now they can rest.

Sariah helps me walk to a stable patch of ground near a splintered column. We sink to our knees, leaning against each other. My chest feels so…human. No runes blazing, no stone strength. Just a man with a battered body and a tether to the woman I love. The brand on her wrist still pulses, though, faint arcs of synergy bridging us.That’s enough.

She cups my face, eyes shimmering. “We did it,” she whispers, voice thick. “You’ll never be fully gargoyle again, but we’re free from her illusions.”

My tears return, a bittersweet ache. “I accept this,” I say, voice wavering. “All that mattered was stopping her… and staying with you.”

She kisses me, gentle and lingering, the brand throbbing with tenderness. Her lips taste of salt and hope. My wings, though limp, curve around her shoulders. The synergy hum resonates quietly, reminding me that, though I’ve lost my gargoyle powers, the bond we forged remains.That’s the only strength I need.

For a long stretch, we just breathe, listening to the fortress settling. Stones shift, rubble clatters. The air no longer crackles with chaos or illusions. Sariah’s brand glows softly in the gathering moonlight, my runes faint lines on my arms.We found peace in the aftermath of cataclysm.

Eventually, she breaks the silence, voice trembling with exhaustion. “I feel… empty and full at the same time,” she admits. “Like the greatest magic I’ve ever channeled has left me hollow, yet at peace.”

---