The door stood where the world had split apart.
Three names were carved into its surface.
AURELIA.
VEYNE.
THE CHILD.
The letters seemed to breathe.
Aurelia stared at them.
"Why our names?"
The silver-eyed boy didn't answer.
He was staring at the final name.
His own.
For the first time since they had met him, he looked afraid.
Veyne noticed.
"You knew this was coming."
The boy slowly shook his head.
"I knew the door existed."
"That isn't what I asked."
The boy looked at him.
"I didn't know my name would be here."
The red moon above them pulsed.
Once.
The door opened.
Beyond it was not darkness.
It was a world.
White trees stretched toward a colorless sky. Black rivers crossed fields of silver grass. Mountains made of pale stone rose in the distance.
And above everything floated thousands of dead stars.
Aurelia stepped forward.
The moment her foot crossed the threshold, she heard voices.
Thousands of them.
All whispering her name.
"Aurelia…"
She stopped.
Veyne stepped beside her.
"Don't listen."
"Why?"
"Because they're trying to make you remember."
The boy walked through behind them.
"They aren't."
Aurelia looked at him.
"What?"
"They're trying to make you remember correctly."
The door disappeared.
They were trapped.
Aurelia looked around.
At first the world seemed empty.
Then she saw them.
Figures standing between the trees.
One.
Then ten.
Then hundreds.
Then thousands.
Aurelia froze.
Every figure had her face.
Different clothes.
Different ages.
Different expressions.
Some carried crowns.
Some wore armor.
Some were dressed like ordinary people.
Some looked broken.
Others looked furious.
All of them stared at her.
Veyne moved closer.
"What are they?"
The nearest Aurelia stepped forward.
"You."
Another spoke.
"And you."
Another:
"And you."
Aurelia looked at the boy.
"You said the cycle was broken."
"It was."
"Then why are they here?"
The boy's eyes darkened.
"Because breaking the cycle didn't erase what came before it."
One of the alternate Aurelias laughed.
"You thought freedom meant we would disappear?"
Aurelia turned.
The speaker looked exactly like her.
But older.
Much older.
"You are the first," Aurelia whispered.
The woman smiled.
"No."
She pointed toward the thousands behind her.
"We are all first."
Aurelia felt the ground beneath her shift.
Veyne looked toward the horizon.
Something enormous moved between the mountains.
A shadow.
The boy whispered:
"Don't let them take you back."
The oldest-looking Aurelia stepped forward.
"You have no idea what you've done."
"I ended the cycle."
"You opened the door."
"What is behind it?"
The woman smiled.
"Everything you were afraid of."
The sky turned red.
The dead stars began falling.
Aurelia reached for Veyne's hand.
The woman noticed.
Her expression changed.
"You still choose him."
Aurelia answered:
"Yes."
The woman looked at Veyne.
"And you still choose her."
Veyne didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
The woman closed her eyes.
Then she smiled.
"Then perhaps you really are different."
Aurelia frowned.
"Different from what?"
The woman looked toward the mountains.
"Us."
A deep sound rolled across the world.
Not a roar.
Not thunder.
A heartbeat.
The thousands of Aurelias turned toward the mountains.
The boy stepped backward.
"What is it?"
The oldest Aurelia answered:
"The thing that existed before the first Aurelia."
Aurelia looked at the mountains.
A pair of enormous silver eyes opened within the darkness.
The world went silent.
And the voice that followed did not come from the creature.
It came from everywhere.
"THE CHOICE HAS BEEN MADE."
The ground cracked.
The alternate Aurelias began disappearing.
The oldest one looked at Aurelia.
"Run."
"Why?"
"Because now it knows you are free."
The mountains split apart.
Something began to emerge.
And for the first time, Aurelia understood why the kings had always been afraid.
They had never been the monsters.
They had been the locks.