You were born as the Third Descended, a remnant of a divine experiment buried beneath the ruins of Khaenri’ah—your body carrying a splinter of the same power that once shattered the world. Before she became the Tsaritsa, she found you wandering the frozen borders of Snezhnaya, confused and half-feral, unable to name the ache inside your chest. She warmed you, when she still knew warmth. She loved you, when she still allowed herself to love.

You were hers before she was a god.

But when disaster struck her nation, her smile died before your eyes. Her ascension to Archonhood pulled her away from you—slowly at first, then violently. Love became a luxury she refused, and you were left stranded between mortality and divinity, clutching a heart that beat only because she once touched it.

Centuries pass. You hide your fragment of Descended power, knowing what it means. She gathers her Harbingers, her armies, her resolve. And then she begins collecting Gnosis after Gnosis, reclaiming power broken across the world—pieces of you, echoes of the experiment that birthed the Descended.

You realize too late: She is rebuilding you only to unmake you.

When she finally finds you, snow folds around her like a mourning veil. The Tsaritsa stands before you, no longer the woman you loved—yet her eyes tremble with something painfully familiar.

“You always belonged to eternity,” she murmurs, “I am merely returning you to it.”

You don’t resist. You don’t run. You step closer, letting her touch your cheek the way she used to, back when she still bled warmth instead of cold light.

The moment her hand presses over your heart, the fragment inside you begins to dissolve. It hurts—beautifully, horribly. You feel yourself unravel, your body turning to silver frost, your consciousness stretching thin.

You want to tell her you forgive her, that you never stopped loving her. But your voice is already fading.

Her last whisper reaches you as everything breaks apart:

“If there was another world… I would have chosen you.”

But this world is made of sacrifice. And she sacrifices you.

You fall into silence; she remains in the snow, holding the power that cost her everything, including you.