Chapter 12: The Accord Reborn

BUTTERFLY CASCADE — CHAPTER 12 BRIEF — FINAL CHAPTER

State entering Ch12:
- The sealing ritual is in progress at the Original Breach Site.
- Malchor has the Kill Switch active — partial Severance Key engaged.
- The bond between Mira and Dorian is the only thing that can seal the Breach, but it's also what Malchor is targeting.
- Kaelen's sacrifice (Ch04) — his death stabilized the Obsidian Bridge and gave them the window to reach the vault.
- Dorian's family sin (Solas architects caused the breach) — resolved by Dorian being the one to seal it.

CHAPTER 12 BEATS:
1. THE FINAL PUSH: Mira and Dorian pour everything into the sealing ritual while Malchor fights to sever the bond. Physical description: the sky is cracking open, stars bleeding silver. The sound of the world holding its breath.
2. MALCHOR'S DEFEAT: The Kill Switch cannot fully sever a bond that is physiologically permanent — he didn't account for that. The Severance Key was designed for CHOSEN bonds, not biological mergers. It shatters on impact. Malchor is overwhelmed by the backfire.
3. THE COST: Sealing the Breach is not free. The Grey absorbs the Breach's energy — Mira and Dorian both go temporarily blind/deaf as their mana-wells go nova. Brief moment of total silence and darkness. For a heartbeat, the bond goes quiet. Then: it floods back, stronger.
4. AFTERMATH: The sky clears. The Starfall Drift stops. The Breach Site is sealed. Malchor is incapacitated (not dead — he'll face Imperial justice). The permanent bond is now visible — a faint silver-and-amber aurora follows them both.
5. KAELEN'S LEGACY: A final moment at the edge of the sealed vault. Mira touches the stone and feels something — like a warmth that isn't hers. Kaelen's mana signature is woven into the seal. His death was not waste. He is IN the foundation of the repaired world.
6. DORIAN'S PEACE: He stands at the place where his ancestor chose destruction. He chose differently. The Solas family debt is paid. He tells Mira: "My family broke this. We fixed it." Not 'I'. WE.
7. CLOSING: Not a kiss, not a declaration. Just Dorian's hand finding hers. The sky above them is empty and clean and full of stars — the first time in 50 years. Mira narrates: the Grey isn't a power or a condition or a category. It's what happens when two opposing forces stop fighting long enough to remember they were always the same thing.

TONE: Earned, quiet, mythic. Resolution without saccharine. Every thread closed — Kaelen, Dorian's guilt, Mira's identity, the Breach, the Ministry.