The next morning, the King stood at the edge of the Vault’s entrance, with Aria beside him.
The door was enormous.
Black stone stretched from floor to ceiling, covered in ancient runes that seemed to shift whenever she looked away. Some glowed faintly. Others looked almost like they were breathing.
Aria stared at them.
"I don’t like the door."
The King glanced at her.
"You’ve been staring at it for five minutes."
"Exactly."
"That’s why you don’t like it?"
"No. I don’t like that it looks like it’s staring back."
The King looked at the door.
Then at Aria.
Then back at the door.
"I think you’re imagining things."
One of the runes moved.
Aria pointed.
"It moved."
The King sighed.
"You’re stronger than you know."
"That’s not an answer."
"It’s the only one I’ve got."
Aria took a deep breath.
"Ready?"
The King nodded.
"Remember what I told you. Whatever happens in there, don’t give up."
Aria looked at the door.
"You’re making this sound terrifying."
"It is."
She slowly turned toward him.
"That wasn’t encouraging."
"I’m trying to be honest."
The King placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Whatever it shows you, Aria, remember who you are when you went in."
Aria nodded.
Then she squared her shoulders.
"All right."
She stepped forward.
The moment she crossed the threshold—
The world disappeared.
Light swallowed her whole.
---
The light didn’t fade.
It changed.
Aria fell.
There was no floor.
No sky.
No up.
No down.
She simply drifted through something that felt too vast to be called space and too strange to be called time.
Colors she had never seen flashed past her.
Voices whispered around her.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Some laughed.
Some cried.
Some begged.
And one voice kept repeating the same sentence.
"It always ends the same way."
Aria twisted around.
"Who said that?"
No answer.
Then another voice.
"You cannot change the ending."
Aria opened her mouth.
"Well, that’s—"
The world snapped.
She landed on her feet.
She blinked.
A vast chamber stretched around her.
The floor was made of pale stone that glowed faintly from within. The ceiling disappeared into darkness, and shadows moved across it as though something enormous were crawling above her.
And in the middle of the chamber sat a young woman.
She looked around eighteen or nineteen.
Golden hair fell in soft waves around her shoulders. Her eyes were pale blue, almost luminous.
Her clothes were extravagant—silk, gold embroidery, jewels.
She looked like a princess.
Except she was crying.
The woman suddenly noticed Aria.
She froze.
"Oh."
She hurriedly wiped her face.
"I didn’t think anyone was coming."
Aria hesitated.
"Are you okay?"
The woman laughed bitterly.
"No."
That answer came so quickly that Aria didn’t know what to say.
The woman looked her over.
"You’re new."
"Yes."
"The Vault finally found someone else."
"Someone else?"
The woman smiled.
"You really don’t know where you are, do you?"
"No."
"Good."
Aria frowned.
"Why is that good?"
"Because you’ll have a few minutes before you start regretting coming here."
The woman stood.
"My name is Guinevere."
She looked around the chamber.
"And I’ve been here longer than you could possibly imagine."
Aria glanced around.
"You’re trapped?"
Guinevere’s smile disappeared.
"That’s one way to describe it."
---
Guinevere led Aria through the corridors.
Aria quickly realized that calling them corridors was being generous.
The walls changed whenever she wasn’t looking.
Stone became glass.
Glass became darkness.
Darkness became forests, oceans, cities, battlefields—
And then everything would be gone again.
"What exactly does this place do?" Aria asked.
Guinevere kept walking.
"It gives you what you came for."
"My class?"
"Yes."
Aria waited.
"That’s it?"
"No."
Guinevere glanced over her shoulder.
"It gives you your class by making you live the life of someone who already possessed it."
Aria stopped.
"Wait."
Guinevere continued walking.
"You’re telling me I have to live someone else’s entire life?"
"Yes."
"How long?"
Guinevere shrugged.
"Outside?"
"Yes."
"Minutes."
Aria relaxed slightly.
"And inside?"
Guinevere stopped.
She turned around.
"That’s the problem."
She smiled.
"Inside, time doesn’t care about you."
---
They stopped in front of a wooden door.
It looked completely ordinary.
That somehow made it worse.
Guinevere placed her hand on the handle.
"This is where my life begins."
Aria looked at her.
"Your life?"
"My first life."
Aria frowned.
"First?"
Guinevere opened the door.
Warm sunlight spilled into the corridor.
"I’ve lived it many times."
She stepped inside.
"And every time, I die."
Aria’s expression changed.
"What?"
Guinevere looked back at her.
"You heard me."
Aria followed her through the door.
"You said the Vault makes you live someone’s life."
"It does."
"And you said you can’t change the ending."
"I can’t."
"So what happens if you try?"
Guinevere’s expression became strangely sad.
"You’ll see."
---
The world changed.
Aria stood in a magnificent courtyard.
White marble towers rose around her.
Golden banners fluttered in the wind.
Fountains sparkled beneath the afternoon sun, while servants hurried through the palace grounds.
It was beautiful.
Almost painfully so.
"This is the Solari Palace," Guinevere said.
Her voice was quieter now.
"My home."
She looked toward the towers.
"The place where I was born."
A pause.
"Where I grew up."
Another pause.
"And where I lost everything."
Aria looked at her.
Guinevere wasn’t crying anymore.
She was staring at the palace with the expression of someone looking at a grave.
"This is the day it fell."
The world changed.
The peaceful courtyard vanished.
Soldiers flooded through the gates.
Steel clashed.
People screamed.
Smoke rolled across the palace.
Aria flinched.
Then she saw a young girl.
Guinevere.
Barely old enough to understand what was happening.
An older boy grabbed her hand.
Golden hair.
Pale blue eyes.
"Vise," Guinevere whispered.
"My brother."
Aria watched as he dragged the girl away.
"He promised he would save me."
Her voice became bitter.
"He was right."
Aria looked at her.
"He saved you?"
Guinevere smiled.
"He saved my life."
She watched the burning palace.
"Everything else?"
Her smile vanished.
"He destroyed."
---
The years passed around them.
Not one by one.
In flashes.
Aria saw Guinevere fleeing across the sea.
Starving.
Cold.
Watching her brother turn from a frightened boy into a bitter man obsessed with reclaiming a throne he could barely remember.
She watched him sell their family’s possessions.
Their titles.
Their dignity.
And eventually—
Her.
Potential husbands appeared one after another.
Princes.
Nobles.
Warlords.
Every meeting ended the same way.
Viserys smiled.
Guinevere remained silent.
Another bargain was made.
Aria’s stomach twisted.
"Did he really do this?"
"Every time."
"Every time?"
Guinevere nodded.
"The Vault doesn’t change."
Aria clenched her fists.
"This is horrible."
"Yes."
"You just accept it?"
Guinevere looked at her.
"No."
She smiled.
"That’s the interesting part."
---
The wedding arrived.
Aria found herself inside a massive tent.
Guinevere stood before Khal’zor, leader of the Dothrazi steppe tribes.
He was enormous.
Scarred.
Silent.
The kind of man who could make a room feel smaller simply by entering it.
But Aria barely noticed him.
Her attention was drawn to three objects sitting on a velvet cushion.
Crystal orbs.
Ancient.
Dull.
Lifeless.
Guinevere stared at them.
"My family’s relics."
Aria could hear her thoughts.
I’ve spent years studying these.
I thought they were dead.
I was wrong.
Guinevere reached toward one.
Her fingers trembled.
"They’re not dead."
Aria stepped closer.
"What are they?"
Guinevere whispered:
"They’re waiting."
Her finger touched the crystal.
And the world exploded.
---
Light filled the tent.
The three orbs awakened.
Their glow intensified until Aria could barely see.
Guinevere stood in the center of it all.
She wasn’t afraid.
She was amazed.
For the first time, Aria saw genuine happiness on her face.
"I can feel it."
Guinevere laughed.
"I can feel everything."
The light spread.
Beyond the tent.
Beyond the camp.
Beyond the kingdom.
Aria watched in horror as the world seemed to bend around Guinevere.
Something had awakened.
Something enormous.
And Aria suddenly understood.
This was where everything began.
The Vault.
The stories.
The cycles.
Guinevere’s power.
Her madness.
Her death.
All of it.
"Guinevere!"
Guinevere turned.
But she no longer looked eighteen.
For a brief moment, Aria saw something ancient behind her eyes.
"What have you done?" Aria whispered.
Guinevere smiled.
"I woke the orbs."
"And?"
Guinevere looked down at her hands.
"I woke myself."
---
The world shifted again.
Aria stood inside a throne room.
Guinevere sat upon the throne.
Older now.
Beautiful still.
But there was something wrong with her.
Her eyes were too bright.
Her smile lasted too long.
Her fingers twitched constantly.
The room was filled with gold.
And blood.
"I became a queen," Guinevere said.
"I became a conqueror."
She stood.
"I built an empire."
Her voice grew louder.
"I became stronger than anyone who had ever tried to control me."
She smiled.
"And then I stopped being myself."
Aria stared at her.
"What happened?"
Guinevere looked at her reflection in the polished black floor.
"I couldn’t sleep."
Her fingers trembled.
"I started hearing voices."
She laughed quietly.
"They told me everyone was lying to me."
Aria’s expression hardened.
"The power?"
"The power didn’t make me evil."
Guinevere looked at her.
"It made me afraid."
A pause.
"Then it made me paranoid."
Another.
"And eventually..."
Her smile disappeared.
"...it made me mad."
Aria swallowed.
"And that’s the price?"
Guinevere nodded.
"Not the power."
She touched her temple.
"Me."
The throne room seemed to grow colder.
"I lost myself."
---
Aria looked around.
"What happened afterward?"
Guinevere didn’t answer.
"Guinevere."
Still nothing.
Then she pointed toward the throne.
"Look."
Aria turned.
The scene changed.
Guards entered the throne room.
Guinevere stood alone.
Older.
Exhausted.
The empire she had built was collapsing.
Her own people had turned against her.
The woman who had once been celebrated as a savior was now feared as a tyrant.
Aria watched silently.
Then she saw Guinevere fall.
The vision ended before Aria could see anything more.
Silence.
Aria looked at Guinevere.
"You died."
"Yes."
"Because you went insane."
Guinevere nodded.
"Yes."
"And the Vault makes you live this again and again?"
"Yes."
"Knowing exactly how it ends?"
"Yes."
Aria stared at her.
"That’s horrible."
Guinevere smiled faintly.
"You finally understand."
---
The throne room disappeared.
Darkness surrounded them.
Guinevere’s voice echoed from somewhere ahead.
"The Vault says you cannot change the ending."
Aria looked around.
"But can I change everything before it?"
Silence.
Guinevere appeared in the darkness.
"Perhaps."
Aria frowned.
"You said it was impossible."
"I said the Vault doesn’t allow you to change the ending."
"That’s not the same thing."
Guinevere stared at her.
For the first time, she looked surprised.
Aria stepped forward.
"If I know how you died, then I know what I’m supposed to avoid."
"Aria—"
"I don’t need to beat the Vault."
Aria’s voice became firmer.
"I just need to stop becoming you."
Guinevere’s expression changed.
"You think it will be that easy?"
"No."
Aria smiled.
"I think it’ll be horrible."
She looked directly at Guinevere.
"But I’m still going to try."
---
The darkness vanished.
Aria opened her eyes.
She gasped.
Something was wrong.
Her body felt strange.
She lifted her hands.
They weren’t hers.
They were slender.
Pale.
Elegant.
Golden hair fell across her shoulders.
Aria froze.
"No."
She stumbled toward a polished wall.
A young woman stared back at her.
Golden hair.
Pale blue eyes.
Guinevere.
Aria touched her face.
The reflection did the same.
"I’m inside her body."
The realization hit her all at once.
She was Guinevere now.
She could feel her heartbeat.
Her breathing.
Her hands.
Her clothes.
Everything.
Aria stared at herself.
Then the memories began flooding in.
The palace.
The exile.
Viserys.
The wedding.
The orbs.
The throne.
The madness.
The death.
Aria squeezed her eyes shut.
"No."
She opened them again.
"Absolutely not."
She looked at herself.
Then remembered the first major turning point.
The wedding.
The moment Guinevere’s life began its descent toward everything she had just witnessed.
Aria’s expression hardened.
"First rule."
She raised one finger.
"I’m not getting married."
The Vault remained silent.
Aria pointed at her reflection.
"Especially not to Khal’zor."
She paced across the room.
"I don’t care if the Vault says this has to happen."
She stopped.
"Maybe it does."
Her eyes narrowed.
"But maybe the ending only happens because Guinevere makes the choices that lead to it."
The runes on the walls began glowing.
Aria noticed.
She smiled.
"Oh."
She stepped closer to the wall.
"So you don’t like that idea?"
The runes pulsed.
Aria’s smile widened.
"Good."
She turned toward the door.
"Because I’m not here to follow your story."
She grabbed the handle.
"I’m here to ruin it."
The door opened.
And somewhere deep inside the Vault, something ancient awakened.
Aria stepped forward.
Not knowing whether she could change the ending.
Not knowing whether the Vault would allow it.
Not even knowing whether she could survive the life waiting for her.
But she knew one thing.
Guinevere had lived this story a thousand times.
Aria only needed to live it once.
And this time—
She intended to do things differently.
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