In a realm built from echoes and regret, the past doesn't sleep — it waits. And when it wakes, it does so wearing a familiar face.
Kael approached the door of light.
Each step toward it felt like an unraveling — as if he were shedding parts of himself with every footfall. Not just thoughts. Not just memories. Essence.
He could feel his name slipping, his voice thinning, like the world behind this threshold demanded unbeing to gain entry.
"The closer I get, the less I am," he thought."Is this what Aeon felt? Walking toward a flame that forgets nothing?"
The door did not creak or boom. It breathed open — a silent inhale of the realm, revealing what lay beyond.
A throne room.
Not golden. Not grand. Burned.
Cracked pillars bent inward, like the realm itself had tried to collapse in on this place. The floor bore old scorch-marks shaped like runes, long faded. Above, the dome had shattered, revealing a sky of ash where stars should've been. Only dying embers floated.
And in the center of it all…
She stood.
Barefoot. Ash-streaked. Cloaked in scorched silk. A girl, no older than Kael in appearance — but her eyes held entire centuries. One eye gleamed gold. The other was burned out, a void where light had once lived.
She turned to him — slowly. Not surprised. Almost… disappointed.
"You're late," she said. "Aeon always is."
Kael's fists clenched. Instinct kicked in, rage at the name.
"I'm not Aeon."
She tilted her head, studying him like a painter examining a cracked canvas. "Then why do I remember you setting this place on fire?"
And just like that—
FLASH.
Kael was no longer in the same realm.
The room reset.
Everything was whole again — the dome above sealed, the pillars pristine, the throne unburnt. A sun glowed outside the windows. A memory, alive again.
The girl was gone.
Instead, a man stood where she had been.
Tall. Cloaked in flowing black royal armor, etched with glowing blue fire. His face was hidden by a crown shaped like twin blades crossed in flame. His eyes?
Divine judgment.
"They called me Aeon," the man said, stepping forward.
Kael was frozen. Couldn't move. Could barely breathe. The moment consumed him — like he was part of this memory, not a spectator.
The man — Aeon — walked through the memory, passing Kael as though he didn't exist.
And then—
Kael turned, just as the illusion twisted.
The girl, the same girl from before, now appeared again. Kneeling. Before Aeon.
No chains. No fear.
Just acceptance.
Aeon lifted a blade, long and curved like a crescent eclipse. Its flame was silent — not roaring, but cold.
"For the Flame to survive," he said, "one must be sacrificed to the Echo Mirror."
"Forgive me… child of ash."
The sword fell.
Memory shattered.
Kael collapsed back into the present — into the ruined throne room.
The light faded.
The girl stood before him. Still alive. Still ash-streaked. Still watching.
"That wasn't just a memory," Kael realized, gasping. "That was... a truth."
"Your past isn't your fault," she said softly, voice far more human now, "but it's still your responsibility."
Her hand extended.
"Name's Lysara. Last Echoborn of the Ash Mirror. You'll need me if you want to survive the next realm."
Kael looked at her. Her hand, her eyes, the truth hanging off her shoulders like a burden she'd carried alone for far too long.
He hesitated.
"If I take her hand, I accept the weight of Aeon's sins.""But if I don't... I let those sins destroy everything."
Kael took her hand.
The flame between them pulsed.
Not in anger.
But in recognition.
And far away, across a dying leyline, something stirred. Watching.
A sigil burned itself into a cliffside. Seven eyes opened. And one of them — a dead god — smiled.
[End Of Chapter 24]
The past has returned in the form of a girl with flame in her blood. But secrets burn brighter than trust — and not all of Aeon's sins have forgiven him. Lysara holds answers... and something far more dangerous: hope.
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Chapter 25: The Burned Crown Conspiracy
Lysara reveals the truth behind the Ash Mirror — and the ancient pact that Aeon broke. But as Kael learns the secrets she carries, a masked hunter stalks them across the ruins of memory... and he wears a crown that should no longer exist.