Seris stood at the edge of the training yard, the morning mist coiling around her boots like restless ghosts. Above her, the sky was a muted gray, heavy with the threat of snow. She tightened her gloves, trying to shake the lingering ache from her dream and from the prisoner who haunted it, Kael.
His name was a scar across her thoughts. Since their encounter the night before, sleep had fled her. Every time she closed her eyes, memories surged forward like broken waves, too fast, too wild to make sense of. Faces she couldn't name, voices speaking words she felt in her bones but couldn't understand.
And always, always, that feeling. Like she was forgetting something vital, something hers.
By midmorning, she found herself descending the winding stair again, her steps betraying her better judgment. The guards at the dungeon entrance bowed low, stepping aside without question.
It should have been simple, interrogation, strategy and duty.
But as she entered the cell and saw him, sitting there, chained but unbroken, Seris knew this was not simple at all.
Kael lifted his head as she entered, a slow, knowing smile touching the corners of his mouth.
"You came back," he said, voice roughened by disuse but still carrying that dangerous softness that scraped against her defenses.
"You're a prisoner," she snapped, faster than she intended. "I don't answer to you."
He didn't flinch. He only watched her, like he was seeing through all the armor and walls she wore.
"Yet here you are," he said softly.
The silence between them thickened, dense as storm clouds ready to break. Without thinking, Seris crossed the cell toward him, close, closer.
The chains rattled slightly as Kael shifted, sitting straighter against the stone wall. His shirt was torn at the chest from his capture, exposing the faintly glowing glyph carved into his skin.
The mark pulsed as if alive.
Seris stopped mere inches away. Her hand hovered, trembling slightly, over the symbol, drawn by something deeper than thought. She could feel the heat radiating from it, a warmth that brushed against her skin like a whisper.
"Don't," Kael murmured, his voice a low warning. "If you touch it…"
But she was already reaching. Her fingertips brushed the edge of the glyph, and the world shattered.
Memory Flash —
She was running barefoot through the rain, laughter catching in her throat.
Kael chased her across a field of wildflowers, droplets clinging to his dark hair, his smile blinding in the storm.
He caught her around the waist, lifting her off her feet as she shrieked and laughed and hit his chest playfully.
"I'll find you in every life," he swore against her temple, voice thick with devotion. "Even if I have to walk through fire to do it."
The rain washed over them, and she believed him, with all her heart.
Seris jerked back with a gasp, her heart slamming against her ribs. Kael caught her wrist instinctively, his touch warm, calloused, achingly familiar.
For one long heartbeat, neither of them moved. Their breathing synchronized, rough, fast, alive.
Their eyes locked, and something shifted between them, something vast and terrifying and beautiful.
"I…" Seris tore her hand free, stumbling back several paces. Her breath steamed in the cold air. Her heart was beating too fast, too loud.
"You remember," Kael said, barely above a whisper. There was no triumph in his voice. Only raw, aching hope.
Seris pressed a trembling hand to her mouth, she should have called the guards. She should have drawn her blade.
Instead, she turned and fled.
Seris didn't stop until she was two corridors away from the dungeon.
Her boots slammed against the stones, her breath tearing from her lungs in ragged gasps. She braced herself against a pillar, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to block out the memory that pulsed behind her eyelids like a brand.
She could still feel his touch on her skin, scorching, devastating.
She could still hear his voice, a broken whisper calling her back to a life she no longer remembered.
Part of her wanted to run faster, to drown herself in duty, in orders, in anything that would erase the tremor in her hands.
Another part of her, the part she feared the most, ached to turn back. To fall into the arms that had once promised to find her across lifetimes.
It cannot be true, she thought desperately, I would remember, I would know.
But deep inside, beneath the carefully sculpted armor of Commander Valen, the girl named Lyra stirred.
And she remembered the feel of rain on her skin, the safety of his arms around her.
A single tear escaped down her cheek.
She crushed it away with a trembling hand,and marched forward into the gathering storm.
Kael slumped back against the wall, chest heaving.
He closed his eyes, the ghost of her touch still burning on his skin.
She's waking up, he thought. She's coming back to me.
Later, in the Upper Chambers
Seris stared into the mirror above her washbasin, searching the reflection for answers.
Her face looked the same, strong jaw, high cheekbones, the faint scar along her left eyebrow, but she no longer recognized the woman staring back.
Was this what they had hidden from her all these years? Had they erased not just her memories, but her entire life?
She remembered the boy now, the storm, the vow.
Kael, the name burned on her tongue like a secret.
A soft knock broke her trance.
"Commander Valen," a voice called from the hallway. "The council requests your presence."
Duty, it was always duty.
She shoved the memory down deep, farther than before, but it did not vanish, it lingered like a brand under her skin, humming with life.
As she fastened her sword belt, her hand brushed the empty space above her heart.
Something was missing.
And she was no longer certain she wanted to forget.
FLASHBACK — (Deeper Memory Unfolding)
A crown of wildflowers atop her hair.
A makeshift ring of braided grass slipped onto her finger by trembling hands.
"You'll wear my heart," Kael whispered. "Even if the world burns."
She had kissed him, sealing the promise with more certainty than she had ever known.
Present
The council meeting blurred into meaningless words.
All Seris could think of was a boy who had sworn himself to her without a kingdom, without a title, without a crown.
Just a promise, and the taste of rain.
Meanwhile, deep in the cells, Kael rested against the cold stone, feeling the tether between them stretch taut and electric.
Soon, he thought.
She will remember everything and when she does, nothing would stand between them, not the empire,not the crown, not even fate.