Chapter 55: The Voices Unbound
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The night air was thick with whispers fragments of forgotten names and memories clawing their way into the present. Lyra's body trembled violently on the cold ground, her breath ragged as the voices surged through her like wildfire.
Kael knelt beside her, gripping her trembling hands. "Fight it, Lyra. Hold on to me."
Her eyes snapped open, glowing faintly with an otherworldly light. The shadows behind her writhed, coalescing into indistinct forms ghosts of the past, bound to the curse.
Maerin stepped forward, chanting under her breath, weaving protective sigils in the air. "If she loses herself completely, the curse will devour everything we've fought to protect."
Oran's voice was steady but heavy with urgency. "The voices want her to surrender, to become the curse. We need to anchor her to her true self."
As the voices swirled, Lyra gasped, her voice breaking through the cacophony. "I... remember... all of you."
A cold wind swept through the clearing as the roots of the Heart Tree writhed, responding to her awakening power. The ancient tree groaned, threatening to collapse under the weight of the unleashed memories.
Kael's grip tightened. "You're stronger than this, Lyra. You are not them."
Lyra's eyes softened for a fleeting moment, a spark of herself breaking through the storm inside.
But then the shadowy figures pressed closer, their whispers turning to desperate pleas.
Suddenly, a chilling voice cut through the night:
"You cannot fight what you are."
Lyra's form convulsed again, and from the darkness, a figure stepped forward familiar yet terrifying.
It was Lyra's mother, bound in shadow, her eyes glowing with the same eerie light.
"Child, come home."