The Vale of Whispers narrowed into a gully where light fell only in broken fragments. Kael and Seris walked in silence, every step heavier, every shadow longer.
They followed the old path until it ended at a shattered gate. Vines strangled the broken archway, silver leaves fluttering in an unseen breeze. Kael's fingers brushed the ancient stone. His breath caught.
Seris stepped beside him, her voice a hushed breath.
"This was once… the Hall of Accord."
He nodded slowly. "Where the Elders met. Where war was forbidden." His eyes darkened. "Until it wasn't."
The Hall of Accord
They stepped inside.
What had once been a grand hall was now a skeleton, pillars cracked, the roof open to the pale sky. Trees had grown through the stone, their roots tangled in the bones of the past. And those bones… they were real.
Dozens of them, strewn across the floor like fallen leaves, skeletal remains, armor rusted, blades fused to brittle fingers. Some had fallen holding each other. Some had clearly tried to protect others. A child's skeleton lay beside a broken lute.
Seris stumbled forward, her knees giving out as she knelt among the remains. Her hand trembled as she reached out, not touching, just hovering.
"No," she whispered. "Not here. Not them."
Kael said nothing. He dropped to one knee beside her.
"The last stand," he murmured. "Not in battle, but in memory. They tried to preserve something. The truth."
Seris's breath came in short gasps. "We weren't told this. None of the stories… not one of them said they died here. Not like this."
"No one wanted it remembered."
She turned to him, eyes burning. "But why?"
Before Kael could answer, the mist thickened, and with it, the scent of burning wood.
Flames flickered at the edge of his vision. Smoke twisted around the trees. He rose sharply, drawing his blade but there was no enemy. Only memory.
Flashback – The Last Council
The Hall stood pristine. Torches lined the pillars, casting gold across polished stone. Kael stood beside the others, still wearing his armor, still bleeding from the battle beyond the city wall.
Seris entered late, her cloak damp with rain, crown still gleaming. Her eyes found his instantly.
"We can't hold them," someone said, an Elder with shaking hands. "The northern gates have fallen."
"We still have the vaults," said another. "If we destroy the records, they won't—"
"No," Seris cut in, voice sharp. "We do not erase ourselves. If they take the city, let them find us written in stone."
Kael's voice rang clear. "They'll twist whatever they find. You know that."
"And still," Seris said, stepping forward, "we don't erase ourselves. We make it harder for them to lie."
The council argued. Voices rose. Some begged to flee. Others begged to fight.
In the end, only a few stayed.
Kael stood by Seris. She looked at him like a storm finally spent.
"Will you stay with me, Kael?"
"I was never leaving."
And as the doors slammed shut behind them, sealing in the truth, Kael felt the first note of mourning-song tremble through the stone.
Kael staggered back to the present, gasping. Seris knelt at a wall, her fingers brushing faint glyphs carved in haste.
"Names," she whispered. "They wrote them here. Before the end."
She traced the letters one by one. Her own name was there. His, too.
And more, people they'd known, forgotten, lost to time.
"This was their memorial," she said softly. "And their grave."
Kael stood over her, silent. Then he said, "There's something else."
He crossed to the center of the hall where the stones were more intact. Kneeling, he pushed aside moss and soil. A rune pulsed faintly beneath his hand. When he pressed it, the ground trembled.
A hidden chamber opened. Stairs spiraled into the dark.
Kael lit a torch. "Come."
The Hidden Chamber
Seris followed, eyes wide. The stairs descended deep into the earth beneath the Vale. The walls were lined with murals, faded but still legible.
Scenes of their people in peace. Of the crowning of the first queen. Of magic once used to heal and protect.
Then—fire. Invaders. The sundering. Flames devouring the Tower of Accord.
At the bottom was a circular chamber. In its center stood a pedestal, and on it, a crystal bowl filled with still, glowing water.
Kael stepped forward. The moment he looked in, visions surged:
Visions – Fractured Memory
A city burning. Seris, on a high balcony, crying out as guards dragged her away.
Kael, bloodied, screaming her name as the gates closed.
Children hidden beneath a library, silenced forever when the ceiling fell.
A final message carved into stone:
We did not fall to war. We were betrayed from within.
Then-
A hand reaching into flame. A whisper:
"Find the root. Restore what was taken."
Kael reeled back. "Seris—"
But she had seen too.
Tears traced down her cheeks.
"It wasn't just war," she said, voice hollow. "Someone… someone opened the gates. Someone let them in."
Kael's jaw clenched.
"A traitor. One of our own."
Seris looked at him, wide-eyed.
"It changes everything."
He nodded slowly.
"The war. The exile. The lies we were told… We were never meant to survive."
"But we did," she whispered.
They stood in silence, grief swallowing them whole.
Kael finally spoke.
"This chamber, it was a witness. Left here so one day… someone would remember."
Seris touched the bowl. "What do we do now?"
Kael took her hand.
"We carry them with us. We finish what they couldn't."
Beneath the Old Spire
The path through the Vale led to a clearing. At its center, half-buried in moss and time, stood the remnants of a ruin. White stone cracked and streaked with ivy—once a tower. A Kavaran spire.
Seris froze.
"I know this place," she whispered. "But not from dreams."
Kael moved slowly, reverently. "It was a sanctuary. For the blood-marked. For those who carried the old light."
"My mother told me stories… I thought they were just lullabies."
They stepped through the crumbled arch. The air shifted, cooler, heavier.
Below their feet, the floor had shattered open. A stair descended into shadow.
They began to descend.
At the bottom lay a vast hall, lined with stone columns like grave markers. At its far end, a mural.
Half-scorched, half-preserved, it showed warriors with glowing glyphs, kneeling before a throne wreathed in shadow.
Seris stepped closer.
"That throne… it's not Kavaran.""
No," Kael said. "It's Imperial."
Etched below were sigils—bloodlines. Some crossed out. Others faded.
And there, they saw their own.
Seris sank to her knees.
"This was no sanctuary. It was a prison."
Kael stared, the weight of realization crushing him.
"They rounded them up," he said. "The glyph-bearers. Forced them to kneel. Then erased them."
"My mother… my line… they were hunted. And I never knew." Seris's voice broke. "I thought we were forgotten."
"They weren't forgotten," Kael said. "They were buried."
A gust of wind swept through the chamber. A voice stirred, not spoken, but felt:
You were the last. The last of the light.
The Soft Moment
Kael gripped the mural's edge—another vision took him.
A thousand voices crying. His mother screaming as she was pulled away, her hands glowing. His father, kneeling beside a pyre.
"Live," he said. "Even if it means forgetting."
Kael staggered back, breath ragged.
Seris was already sobbing, her face in her hands.
"I remember it now. My aunt shielding me in the night. The fire… the black flags… I thought it was just fever. But it was real."
He dropped to his knees beside her.
"Seris…"
"I don't want it to be true."
He reached for her hand, trembling.
"We were children," he said. "They took everything and left us empty. And yet, we're still here."
She looked at him, red-eyed. "But what are we now?"
He pulled her into his arms, holding her like the last whole piece of a shattered world.
"You're still the girl who stood beside me at Ismeryon. The one who said she'd burn the crown for me."
"And you're the boy who made me believe in love when the world was ending," she whispered. "Even now, Kael… I still do."
He pressed his forehead to hers.
"I'll carry this truth with you. We'll carve their names into the stars, Seris. We'll make sure they're never erased again."
Outside, the fog had begun to thin.
As they emerged into the waking Vale, Kael wrapped his cloak around Seris. She leaned into him, quiet and exhausted.
"You came back for me," she whispered.
"I never stopped trying," he said.
"Don't let go this time."
He didn't answer.
He only held her tighter, as if letting go meant letting the past win.
And as they walked deeper into the Vale, Kael knew: something had changed.
Not just in what they remembered…
But in what they were becoming.