The room Corren led him into was quieter than the rest of the enclave, its walls polished smooth, the ceiling low and arching like the inside of a ribcage. At the center stood a single pedestal, no larger than a basin. Resting atop it was a glass sphere the size of a heart, glowing faintly from within.
"This," Corren said, gesturing toward it, "is one of the few shards we kept."
Kael approached slowly. The sphere's light pulsed like breath. Inside it, vague shapes flickered-shadows caught in amber.
"What's in it?" Kael asked.
Corren didn't answer. Instead, he stepped forward and placed a hand on the sphere. It responded instantly, humming with a low frequency Kael could feel in his teeth.
The glass shimmered.
Kael saw a courtyard again. Familiar. The same one from the memory at the Glass Vault, but this time with more clarity.
He stood at the center, clad in black and silver. The same voice, calm and commanding, filled the space.
"The rebellion must be crushed here," he heard himself say. "No trials. No records. No names."
People knelt in rows. Some wept. Others stared, hollow-eyed.
"You knew," Corren said softly beside him. "You knew there were innocents. But you gave the order anyway."
Kael saw himself raise a hand. Soldiers moved. Screams followed.
Then the memory shifted. The view narrowed, focusing on one face in the crowd. A young man, not more than twenty. Dark hair, proud jaw, eyes full of disbelief.
"Ralen," Corren said. "My brother."
Kael stumbled back from the sphere.
"I didn't-"
"You did," Corren snapped, stepping toward him. "You ordered the purge that killed him. You told me it was necessary. Then you walked away like it meant nothing."
"I don't remember-"
"But you did it."
Corren grabbed Kael's collar and slammed him against the wall. The impact knocked breath from his lungs.
"You erased everything," Corren growled. "Not just from yourself, but from history. You let people die to protect some secret, and now you get to start over like none of it mattered?"
Kael didn't resist. He couldn't. The weight of the memory pressed down like stone.
"I didn't want this," he whispered.
Corren let go and stepped back, breathing hard.
"No," he said. "But you built it."
Silence filled the chamber. The glass sphere dimmed.
Kael sank to the floor, not from pain, but from the unbearable knowledge of who he might have been.