Absolute Cheater

Valeris looked at first painting it showed two kids in small houses like those of commoners.

They were barefoot, playing in the mud. A boy with silver eyes and a girl with a mane of dark crimson hair—the kind of red that wasn't natural. The kind that shimmered with soulfire in the right light.

There was no inscription, but the image sparked a strange pang in Valeris's chest. Familiar. Too familiar.

She moved on to the next painting.

The same children—older now. The girl standing on a craggy cliff beneath a storm-wracked sky, arms raised as if calling the lightning. The boy knelt behind her, bloodied but alive, clutching a broken sword. In the background, a dead creature loomed—a beast of many limbs, slain.

Her fingertips brushed the edge of the canvas. It felt warm. Almost pulsing.

The third painting—

A coronation. The girl, now a young woman, was crowned in a temple made of bone and starlight. Crowds cheered, but their faces were all blurred. The boy stood to the side, eyes downcast. She wore armor the color of ash, and a black flame burned above her head like a crown.

Valeris took a step back.

"That's… me." Her voice was barely a whisper.

She turned swiftly to the next painting—and the next. Each one sharper, more vivid. Wars, realms conquered, her eyes glowing with a fury no crown could contain. The boy beside her grew older, colder. Until in one frame—

—he stabbed her.

The image hit her like a punch to the chest. The boy—her brother—plunging a blade into her back on a shattered dais, as she reached toward a burning gate that looked like the entrance to the dungeon itself. Her mouth was open in a scream—but no sound escaped.

Valeris staggered.

"No… I trusted him…"

Her breath came in shallow gasps as she stepped into the center of the hallway. At the end, a final painting loomed, larger than the rest. Twice her height.

A woman crucified upon a throne of stone—soul-iron chains holding her limbs, her eyes open, blazing. The black flame above her head had become a sun, fractured and bleeding. Behind her, the dungeon cracked open… not beneath her, but from her.

In the painting's corner, the twin-eye sigil glowed faintly.

And below it, a small inscription flickered into view as Valeris approached:

"She who would become all. Bound by brother's blade. Awaiting her return."

Valeris trembled.

Her heart pounded with a rhythm no longer entirely her own. Shadows stirred at the corners of her vision—echoes of memories trying to awaken.

She turned slowly as a sound reached her ears—footsteps. Swift. Urgent.

"Asher…" she whispered.

And there he was.

Breathless. Eyes burning. He halted as he saw her standing among the paintings, the weight of centuries pressing down around her.

"Valeris," he said, voice low. "You found it."

She met his gaze. And for a moment, her eyes glowed with that same black flame from the paintings.

"Tell me the truth," she said, stepping closer. "Who was I?"

Asher didn't speak right away.

Then he nodded, slowly.

"Honestly, I just found out. An old man told me—he spoke of fate, of how it's all been going on for generations. He said that eventually, the previous life of yours would take over this one," Asher said, his voice quiet as he stepped closer. He touched her face gently. "I'm not here to stop you from learning the truth. I'm here to stop some past ghost from taking over the woman I love."

Valeris stared at him, her eyes shimmering.

"I'm here for you," he said softly. "My best wife. Not a memory in her place."

He caressed her cheek, and for a moment, her breath hitched.

"Come on," he said, glancing down the hallway. "I see a lot more paintings ahead. Let's go."

Valeris smiled faintly, wiping a tear from her eye as she nodded.

She took his hand.

And together, they walked deeper into the past.

They walked side by side, Asher's grip firm around her hand, grounding her as memories not her own whispered through the very walls. The deeper they went, the colder the air became, like the dungeon itself was drawing breath.

The next painting loomed into view, dimly lit by ever-burning soul-lanterns.

Valeris slowed.

It showed her—Valeria—kneeling before a ring of robed figures. The scene was tense. The figures bore the sigils of the Mimir bloodline—her bloodline—but their faces were masked in shadow. One held a crown. Another held a dagger. And a third—her brother—stood behind her with both.

Above the scene, written in glowing runes:

"To bind a god, one must offer love… then betrayal."

Valeris shivered.

Asher clenched his jaw. "This whole damn bloodline was built on a lie," he muttered. "They crowned the brother… after he struck her down."

They moved to the next painting.

Valeria's soul being torn apart. In the depiction, she was floating over a shattered altar, her body bound by soul-iron chains, her mouth open in a silent scream. Beneath her, golden threads extended into a spiderweb of realms—each thread carrying a fragment of her soul, spinning outward like echoes.

"She didn't die," Valeris murmured. "She… scattered herself."

Asher nodded grimly. "The legacy spell the old man spoke of. Soul-weaving across time. She made sure she'd return, one way or another."

Valeris blinked, and for a moment, her own voice layered with a deeper one—ancient and full of grief.

"To live again, I gave up who I was. I became the seeds of my return. But not even I knew… what I would awaken into."

Asher turned to her. "Do you feel like her? Like Valeria?"

Valeris hesitated. "Sometimes. Like she's a storm behind my ribs, waiting to break free. But I'm not just her. I'm me, too."

He nodded. "Then that's who I'll protect. You—both of you, if I have to. But you decide what you become. Not some prophecy. Not some painted memory."

She smiled at him—tired, but real.

Then they stepped in front of the final painting.

Unlike the others, this one had no frame. It was etched directly into the stone, glowing faintly with living runes. And it was unfinished. The image shimmered like it was still being painted by invisible hands.

It showed Valeris. Not Valeria. Her.

Standing atop the ruins of the Mimir throne, arms raised—not in war, but in transformation. Behind her, the dungeon cracked open like a shell, and something vast and luminous began to rise. And beside her…

Asher.

Not kneeling. Not behind her.

At her side.

Below, a single inscription had begun to carve itself in real time:

"What was torn shall be made whole. Not in conquest… but in choice."

Valeris stared.

"I think this is the first future painting," she whispered.

Asher grinned faintly. "Let's make sure it's a good one."

Then, behind them, the hallway trembled.

The dungeon stirred.

And far above—in the royal court of Mimir—a thousand soul-wards shattered in unison.

The final seal was breaking.

Valeria was waking.

And the world would never be the same.