Alya
The light swallowed the entire room.
Alya could no longer feel the floor, the sword, or Kael’s hand gripping hers. Her body seemed to slip free of the world, floating among thousands of doors.
Behind every door, she saw another life.
Behind one door, she and Raka grew up with their mother in a small house filled with laughter.
Behind another, Raka never became sick, and Alya became a famous painter.
Behind the darkest door, Alya sat on Elyndor’s throne with a silver crown on her head. Kael knelt before her, his face devoid of emotion.
Behind another door, Kael had become an old man. His hair was white. His hands were wrinkled. He smiled at Alya, who still looked young.
Then he died in her arms.
Alya closed her eyes.
“Not this,” she whispered.
Voices answered from behind the doors.
“Choose one!”
“Choose your life!”
“Choose who must disappear!”
Alya felt the sword in her hand.
The silver blade was no longer cold. It pulsed in time with the beat of her palm.
Her blood flowed across the blade’s surface.
Every drop of blood opened a new door.
In the distance, Kael called her name.
“Alya!”
His voice sounded far away, muffled by thousands of whispers.
Alya tried to move toward it, but a hand seized her shoulder.
Her mother.
The woman’s face looked older than Alya remembered. White strands filled her hair. Black cracks ran along her neck, as though her body were made of porcelain that had once shattered.
“Mom?”
Her mother smiled.
“Don’t be afraid.”
“What happened?”
“You opened the door.”
“I wanted to save you.”
“I know.”
“I’ll take you home.”
“There is no home for me in the human world.”
“Our home is still there.”
“Only walls and memories remain.”
Alya gripped her hand.
It was cold.
But not cold like Kael.
Cold like something that had been dead for a long time.
“Did Seraphine torture you?”
“Seraphine took many things from me.”
“Your memories.”
“Memories, my name, and my will.”
“Then we’ll give them back.”
Her mother shook her head.
“Not everything can be returned.”
“Why?”
“Because some of it has become the price.”
Alya stared at the black cracks on her mother’s neck.
“What happened to you?”
“I became a door before you were born.”
“A door?”
“The first gateway wasn’t built beneath our house. It was built inside me.”
Alya felt her body freeze again.
“Why?”
“Because guardian blood can hold back the power of the immortal world only if it has a vessel.”
“And Raka?”
“Raka is a key planted in the human world.”
“Who did that?”
Her mother looked toward the darkness.
“Voren.”
Alya saw the gold-masked man behind the fog.
“He’s the founder of Elyndor?”
“Not just the founder. He was the first person to discover how to connect the human and immortal worlds.”
“And Seraphine?”
“Seraphine is his daughter.”
Alya turned sharply.
“Seraphine is Voren’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Why do they want to open the gateway?”
“Because they believe the human and immortal worlds should become one.”
“Isn’t that what Seraphine wants?”
“Seraphine wants to unite the worlds with humans as fuel. Voren wants to unite them so there will be no more death.”
Alya fell silent.
“Voren didn’t want to kill humans?”
“Not at first.”
“Then why did all this happen?”
“Because erasing death required an unlimited amount of time. He took it from the human world.”
Alya looked at the doors floating around them.
Inside every door, human lives repeated and came to an end.
“The gateway consumes time?”
“The gateway consumes possibilities. The longer it stays open, the more lives will vanish from the human world.”
“And Seraphine?”
“She wants to control all those possibilities.”
“For what?”
“To create a world that could never reject her.”
Alya looked at her mother.
“How do I stop her?”
Her mother held Alya’s face.
“Don’t close the gateway.”
Alya remembered the words she had heard before the light swallowed the room.
“Open it all the way!”
“Why are you telling me to open it?”
“Because the gateway cannot be closed from the outside.”
“Then?”
“The gateway must be opened until every bond comes undone.”
“If I open it completely, the human world will be destroyed.”
“If you open it with your own blood, yes.”
Alya looked at the sword in her hand.
“This sword?”
“It holds Mom’s blood. It can separate the gateway from Raka’s body.”
“And from your body?”
Her mother did not answer.
Alya understood immediately.
“No.”
“Alya.”
“No. I won’t kill you again.”
“I died a long time ago.”
“Your body is still alive.”
“This body is only what remains.”
“No.”
Her mother smiled sadly.
“Kael said the same thing when I asked him to kill me.”
Alya shook her head.
“He didn’t know how to save you.”
“No one can.”
“There has to be a way.”
“Not everyone we love can be brought home.”
The words struck Alya harder than anything else.
Outside the space between worlds, she heard Kael shout again.
“Alya! Don’t trust the gateway!”
Her mother turned.
“Kael can’t enter.”
“Why?”
“Because he is the new binder.”
“What if I don’t come back?”
“The contract will take him.”
Alya was startled.
“What does that mean?”
“The contract has moved into his body. But because you opened the gateway, the contract will seek the body closest to the source of the blood.”
“Your body?”
“Yes.”
“And Kael?”
“If he doesn’t let you go before the gateway closes, he’ll be absorbed into it.”
Alya saw Kael’s shadow in one of the doors.
He stood in the middle of a stone room, holding Raka’s hand. His face was covered in black lines. Blood ran from his nose and the corner of his mouth.
Seraphine stood before them.
Voren raised his hand.
Darian tried to turn back time, but his body froze.
Kael struggled to reach Alya.
But hundreds of doors stood between them.
Alya looked at her mother.
“How do I stop the contract?”
“Let him go.”
“How?”
“Give back what you took.”
Alya stared at the sword.
“Memories?”
“Not just memories.”
“What else?”
“Love.”
Alya choked.
Her mother took both her hands.
“The contract was made from the fear of loss. It grew because you tried to hold on to Raka, and Kael tried to hold on to you.”
“What if I stop trying?”
“The contract will collapse.”
“And Raka?”
“Free.”
“Kael?”
“Fully human.”
Alya remembered Kael’s face when he first opened his eyes in the hospital.
“Who are you?”
He didn’t remember her.
Yet Alya’s body still remembered the way Kael looked at her.
The way he always stood between Alya and danger.
The way he said, “I’m afraid to watch you die.”
“If the contract collapses,” Alya said, “what happens to the memories that are already gone?”
“Not all of them will return.”
“Why?”
“Because some were used to open the way.”
“Even my memories of Kael?”
Her mother looked at her.
“Memories never truly disappear. They only change locations.”
“Where?”
“Among the people who once experienced them.”
Alya looked toward the door where Kael stood.
“So they’re inside him?”
“If he’s able to remember them.”
Alya gripped the sword.
“How do I get back?”
Her mother pointed to the farthest door.
“Open that path.”
Two names were written across its surface.
ALYA PRAMESWARI
KAEL ARVETH
Alya walked toward it.
Before she could touch the handle, her mother called out.
“Alya.”
She turned.
“If you open that door, you’ll see all the memories you lost.”
“Why are you warning me?”
“Because you may not want to return after seeing them.”
Alya stood before the door.
“If those memories are happy, I’ll bring them home.”
“And if they hurt?”
“I’ll bring them home anyway.”
Her mother smiled.
“Then you truly are my daughter.”
Kael
Kael could no longer feel his left leg.
He had tried to walk toward the light where Alya had disappeared, but the floor beneath him kept turning into shadows that held his body in place.
Raka stood beside him, his breathing ragged.
“Kael,” he said, “you have to let her go.”
“I know.”
“You can’t get in there.”
“I know.”
“If you keep forcing your way in, the contract will take you.”
Kael raised his sword.
The silver blade was cracked from tip to hilt.
“I know.”
Raka looked at him.
“Why are you still trying?”
Kael gazed at the white light before them.
He couldn’t remember Alya’s face.
He couldn’t remember the sound of her laughter.
He couldn’t remember the first night they met.
Yet when he imagined her standing alone among thousands of doors, his body moved without command.
“I don’t know.”
“You love her.”
Kael looked at Raka.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know more than you think.”
“Love is the reason the contract binds us.”
“No.”
“Seraphine said so.”
“Seraphine was wrong.”
Raka looked at the light before them.
“The contract doesn’t bind us because of love. It binds us because of fear.”
Kael fell silent.
Raka continued, “Sis Alya was afraid of losing me. You were afraid of losing Sis Alya. You both let fear make your choices for you.”
“And you’re not afraid of losing anyone?”
Raka smiled sadly.
“I am.”
“Who are you afraid of losing?”
“Mom.”
Kael looked at him.
Raka lifted his face.
“Mom is still inside the gateway. If the gateway closes without freeing her, she’ll be trapped forever.”
“If the gateway opens, the human world will be destroyed.”
“That’s why Sis Alya has to make the choice Mom never could.”
“What choice?”
“Choosing to let go.”
Kael looked at his hand.
The black lines had reached his heart.
Darian knelt a few steps away, trying to move the hands of his pocket watch. But time inside the room was no longer moving.
Seraphine stood in the center of the circle of light.
“Kael,” she said, “you’re not going to save her.”
Kael raised his sword.
“I don’t need to save her.”
“Then what do you want?”
“To make sure she has a choice.”
Seraphine smiled.
“Choice is an illusion humans created to feel free.”
“No.”
Kael stepped forward.
“Choice is something you fear because you can’t control it.”
Seraphine raised her hand.
Kael’s body was instantly hurled backward.
He slammed into one of the doors. Cracks spread across its surface.
Seraphine approached.
“For three hundred years, you lived because of my curse.”
“One hundred and twenty years in Elyndor.”
“That’s irrelevant.”
“You’ve always liked that word.”
“Because small things don’t change the outcome.”
Seraphine crouched before Kael.
“You gave up your immortality for a girl who doesn’t even remember your face.”
“She can still remember.”
“No.”
Seraphine touched Kael’s chest.
The black lines immediately spread.
“The contract has taken every memory connected to her.”
Kael felt his mind growing emptier.
He remembered Alya as a name.
Not as a face.
Not as a voice.
Not as someone who had once held his hand.
Seraphine smiled in satisfaction.
“See? You’re already starting to forget her.”
Kael closed his eyes.
In the darkness, he heard a voice.
“Don’t leave me alone!”
Alya’s voice.
The memory was incredibly faint.
But it was still there.
Kael held on to it.
“I may not remember her,” he said, “but my body still knows where to go.”
He drove his sword into the floor.
The blade’s shadow spread like cracks.
The entire room trembled.
Seraphine stepped back.
“What are you doing?”
“Cutting the contract away from its source.”
“You have no power.”
“No.”
Kael pulled the sword from the floor.
“But this sword has her blood.”
“Whose blood?”
“Alya’s mother’s.”
Seraphine stared at the sword.
For the first time, her face showed concern.
Kael swung at the circle of light.
The silver blade struck the golden line.
An explosion of light split the room.
Seraphine screamed.
Raka dropped to his knees.
Darian was thrown backward.
In the middle of the white light, Alya appeared.
She stood with the sword in her hand.
Her hair moved without any wind. Golden light shone from her eyes.
A woman stood behind her.
Her mother.
But the woman’s body was becoming increasingly transparent.
“Alya!” Kael shouted.
Alya ran toward him.
Kael tried to rise, but his leg couldn’t support his body.
Alya knelt before him.
“Kael.”
She touched his face.
The touch filled Kael’s head with light.
Suddenly, he remembered.
Rain suspended in the air.
Alya standing alone beneath a streetlamp.
Her stubborn gaze.
Her trembling voice as she said, “I’m not selling my soul.”
Their first night in Elyndor.
Alya, who had lost her mother’s face.
Alya holding his hand and saying, “Then don’t die.”
All the memories returned at once.
Kael groaned and clutched his head.
Alya pulled her hand away.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.”
“You remember everything?”
“Not everything.”
“But you remember me?”
Kael looked into her face.
“Yes.”
Alya let out a relieved breath.
Behind them, Seraphine shouted at Alya’s mother.
“You can’t free yourself!”
Her mother looked at Seraphine.
“I don’t need to free myself.”
She raised her hand.
The light from her body flowed into the sword in Alya’s hand.
“My children are the ones who must be freed.”
Seraphine raised both hands.
Voren stepped forward.
His body was larger now, and his gold mask was cracked around the eyes.
“Alya Prameswari,” he said. “You opened the gateway with your blood. Now submit.”
Alya stood.
“I will not submit.”
“You are a descendant of the guardians. Your duty is to guard the gateway.”
“Not to open the way for you.”
“The human world will end.”
“Not if I break the contract.”
Voren laughed.
“You think the contract can be broken?”
Alya looked at Kael.
Then Raka.
Then her mother.
“I’m not going to break it.”
Kael understood first.
“Alya, don’t.”
“I’m going to change it.”
Seraphine went pale.
“No.”
Alya raised the sword.
The silver blade began to crack.
“This contract was made from blood, memories, and fear.”
Golden light gathered in her palm.
“I can’t erase the price that’s already been paid.”
She looked at Kael.
“But I can erase the fear that keeps it alive.”
Alya pressed the sword against her own chest.
Kael ran toward her.
“Alya!”
The sword pierced her body.
Blood flowed.
But no wound opened.
Instead, the contract mark tore free from Alya’s wrist and moved onto the blade.
Raka screamed.
The light from his body was sucked into the ground.
Seraphine tried to flee, but Kael’s shadow bound her legs.
Voren raised his hand.
Darian finally managed to open his pocket watch.
Time stopped.
Everyone froze except Alya, Kael, Raka, and Darian.
Alya saw her mother approach.
“Mom,” she said.
Her mother touched her forehead.
“Now let go.”
“I’m afraid.”
“Be afraid.”
Alya looked at her mother’s face.
“But let go anyway.”
Alya pulled the sword from her body.
The blade shattered into light.
The gateway beneath the house shook violently.
One by one, the doors of the lives closed.
Seraphine screamed.
Voren tried to move, but time still held him in place.
Alya looked at her mother.
“Are you coming home with me?”
Her mother smiled.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m already home.”
Her body began to transform into light.
Alya gripped her hand.
“I’m not ready to lose you again.”
“No one ever is.”
“I’ll remember your face.”
“You don’t have to force yourself.”
“I’ll remember your voice.”
“You don’t have to force yourself.”
“I’ll remember everything.”
Her mother kissed Alya’s forehead.
“If you forget some of it, that doesn’t mean you’ve stopped loving me.”
The light from her body grew brighter.
Alya cried.
“Mom…”
“Take care of Raka.”
“Mom…”
“And don’t let fear choose your life for you.”
The body vanished.
Alya fell to her knees.
Time began moving again.
The gateway closed with a sound like the sky collapsing.
Voren screamed as his body was dragged into the crack. Seraphine tried to grab his hand, but Kael slashed through the link of light between them.
They were torn apart.
Voren was dragged behind the door.
Seraphine fell to the floor.
For the first time, the crown above her head shattered.
Raka fainted.
Darian stared at his pocket watch.
Its hands had stopped forever.
Kael ran to Alya.
“Alya.”
Alya didn’t answer.
She was still staring at the place where her mother had disappeared.
Kael knelt before her.
“The gateway is closed.”
“Raka?”
“Still alive.”
“Seraphine?”
“She’s still here.”
Alya finally looked at him.
“And Mom?”
Kael couldn’t bring himself to lie.
“No.”
Alya lowered her head.
Kael wanted to embrace her, but hesitated.
He didn’t know whether touching her would make everything worse.
Instead, Alya moved first.
She rested her head against Kael’s chest.
Kael froze.
“I can’t remember her face anymore,” Alya whispered.
Kael closed his eyes.
“I can remember it.”
“Tell me.”
Kael embraced her slowly.
“She had green eyes. When she was angry, she looked like someone who had never feared death.”
Alya cried harder.
“Keep going.”
“Her laugh was low. She liked touching your hair while you slept. She always tied her hair with a blue ribbon.”
“Keep going.”
Kael told her everything he remembered.
Behind them, Seraphine rose from the floor.
Her cracked crown had vanished.
She looked older.
But her smile remained the same.
“Interesting,” she said.
Kael turned.
Seraphine looked at Alya.
“You managed to close the gateway.”
Alya stood.
“Get out of here.”
“No.”
Kael raised the sword, which had transformed into shards of light.
Seraphine laughed.
“I don’t need the gateway anymore.”
She raised her hand.
A new mark appeared on Alya’s chest.
Not a cracked crown.
Not the contract symbol.
But the mark of an open eye.
Raka suddenly screamed from the floor.
Golden light flared in his body again.
Seraphine smiled.
“Because now, the gateway is inside you.”
Alya looked at Raka.
Kael gripped her hand.
From inside Raka’s body came Voren’s voice.
“And at last, I have a new home.”