The Hooded Stranger lunges from the cracking threshold, and their hood tears back in the wind. Kynes sees the face at last, a face from House of Xar, sharp with old memory and bitter intent.

The tower answers with a groan. Stone rains from above, and Kynes and Bren stumble farther onto the narrow ledge, daylight and gale striking them full in the face.

The Stranger plants their feet against the broken arch, half wounded, half desperate, one hand clawing toward the glass key while the floor behind them splits wider. They are not just hostile now, they are revealed.

Kynes snaps his free hand up, a sharp gesture in the wind. Dark light knifes from his palm into the Stranger, and the rebel’s bravado breaks under the удар.

The Stranger jerks as the spell drains color from their face. Their grip falters, and the reach for the key turns into a stagger.

Bren recoils, then clutches the glass key tighter as the nearest stones crack loose behind her. The key catches the light, bright and real in her shaking hand.

A slab tears free from above and slams into the ledge between them, spraying dust and splinters of stone. The Stranger is driven back from the edge, unsteady and suddenly separated.

Bren thrusts the key toward Kynes, eyes wide. "Take it, then move. Now!"

Kynes closes his open hand on the glass key as Bren thrusts it across the slab. His draining spell keeps running, and the Stranger’s breath catches like the air itself is being pulled thin.

The key flashes once in his grip, cold and bright, then goes still. A hairline crack races across the stone at his feet, but the ledge holds.

The Stranger braces one hand on the broken arch, glaring past the slab. Bren steps in beside Kynes, shoulders tight, watching the gap where the floor has split wide.

Dust pours from the ceiling in a thin, steady rain. Beyond the slab, the Stranger’s boot slips on loose grit, and they snatch for balance instead of the key.

In Kynes’s palm, the key gives off a faint pulse that syncs with the tower’s groan, as if it answers the ruin around them.