The Shared Dream Before the Sacrifice
Suddenly ....Elanora found herself not in the chamber anymore, but in a place between waking and memory.
She stood in a meadow of stars, night-blue flowers blooming around her feet, and the moon above them so close it hummed.
And there he was.
Aryan.
Eyes full of sorrow. Hands shaking.
Elanora: "Where are you? I feel you fading."
He didn't move toward her. He only looked at her like he was trying to memorize her face one last time.
Aryan: "I don't want to lose you."
Elanora: "Then don't. Whatever this seal is, we'll break it together."
Aryan: "We can't. This one… it needs a price."
Elanora: "Then I'll pay it. Take my memories if you must."
He shook his head, stepping forward now, slowly.
Aryan: "No, Elanora. You have to remember. One of us has to remember for both of us."
Her voice cracked.
Elanora: "Please. Don't do this. Not this way."
He cupped her cheek, and she leaned into the warmth knowing it would be the last.
Aryan (voice trembling): "If forgetting you will save you... then I'll do it. Even if it breaks me."
The dream began to shatter. The flowers wilted into dust. The stars blinked out one by one.
Elanora (screaming): "No! Aryan! Please stay!"
The Sacrifice and the Breaking of the Seal
Back in the abyss, Aryan stood. The circle of runes flared blindingly bright.
He closed his eyes. One last whisper escaped him:
"I love you. And I choose to forget you."
A searing light engulfed him. His memories cracked images of her, of their shared laughs, of their past lives all torn away like pages in a storm.
And then, silence.
The mountain roared its rage turning into collapse.
But the seal...
The seal broke.
Elanora's Collapse
Elanora screamed as a part of her soul was torn from her.
She felt it instantly—like her heart had been scooped out and scattered across centuries. She could still remember him. But she knew, in the deepest part of her, that he couldn't remember her anymore.
Tears burst from her eyes not from pain, but from the unbearable loss of being forgotten by the one she had lived and died for.
The ground around her lit up.
The final seal had shattered.
The mountain began to still. But inside her, everything was breaking.
She fell to her knees, hands trembling.
Elanora (to the emptiness): "You were supposed to come back to me. Not like this... not as a stranger.".......
Tears...........