"Even a sword forged of gods will not yield to a name lost in time."
---
The roots of the mirrored tree groaned.
The air pulsed with heat and silence as Rhaelor stood before the blade — its hilt blackened like scorched bone, its edge flickering with embers that didn't warm the air.
He reached for it.
Again.
And again, the blade refused.
Every time his fingers neared it, the ground hissed, the tree shuddered, and the sword screamed back:
> "You are not him."
But he was.
He knew it now.
He had seen the bargain in the vision. Felt the weight of all his lost names.
Still — the sword would not obey.
---
"I am Rhaelor," he rasped. "I bled for her. I gave up my soul for her. Isn't that enough?"
The blade pulsed once — then stilled.
> "You are empty," it whispered.
> "She is the flame. Without her… you are only ash."
Rhaelor stumbled backward, fury rising.
Was he truly nothing without her?
Or had the gods cursed him to forever be incomplete?
---
Far away, in the depths of Velmar's crypt, Siyara felt it too — the same fire, the same ache. The moment she drank from the goblet, memory seared through her veins like lightning.
She remembered his face as he made the pact.
She remembered her scream as she was pulled into the River of Echoes, spared from death.
She remembered loving him so much… she burned heaven for him.
---
Back at the tree, Rhaelor collapsed beside the sword, shoulders shaking.
"I gave everything…"
> "Then why do you not speak your true name?" the sword asked.
> "Because it was erased!" he roared.
> "Not from her," came a new voice.
Soft. Familiar. Like a fire returning to its hearth.
---
He turned.
Siyara stood in the ash-field, her eyes lit like twin suns.
> "I never forgot," she whispered.
> "Even when I didn't know your name, I looked for you. In dreams. In stars. In every lifetime where I woke up crying."
> "Then say it," the sword commanded.
She stepped forward.
Her voice steady, strong.
> "His name is Rhaelor.
And he is the fire I would destroy kingdoms for."
---
The sword trembled.
The ash-field ignited.
And in a spiral of black flame, the blade rose into Rhaelor's hand, singing like the cry of a god denied.
He gripped it, and it did not resist.
It remembered.
So did he.
---
And in that moment, beneath the mirrored tree that once cursed him, Rhaelor remembered everything.
His oath.
His sin.
And the name of the god he once defied.
---
End of Chapter 18: When Fire Forgets Itself
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