Skaafin Prize — Dv-s The

“The Prize,” Vethis purred, stepping through the memory like a ghost, “is the return of one thing you have lost. A person. A moment. A piece of your soul. But to claim it, you must choose which loss you value most. And then you must relive the others.”

Vethis tilted his head, genuinely curious. “Then what do you claim?”

“You reject the Prize,” the Proctor said slowly, “by accepting the weight you already bear. That is… unprecedented.” DV-s The Skaafin Prize

And then he understood.

Vethis laughed—a dry, ancient sound, like stones grinding together. “Very well, DV-s bearer. You have completed the fourth Trial. You have shown the Skaafin something we forgot: that the greatest prize is not what you regain, but what you refuse to abandon.” “The Prize,” Vethis purred, stepping through the memory

The glass walls rippled. Suddenly Venn was no longer in the galleries. He was back in the salt-flat village of his childhood, the day the fever took his younger sister. He watched his twelve-year-old self hold her hand as she slipped away, helpless.

“The right to carry all of them. Not one. Every loss. Every scar. I don’t want to undo the past. I want to stop running from it.” A piece of your soul

The galleries fell silent. The brass light in Vethis’s eyes flickered, dimmed, then flared bright gold.