The first thing I noticed was the smell.
Not blood.
Not ash.
Rain.
I stopped beneath the shadow of Virell and looked toward the horizon.
There wasn't a single cloud in the sky.
Yet somewhere beyond the mountains, thunder rolled.
Once.
Then again.
The thousands of wizards behind me had begun to scatter through the ruins of the square. Some searched for their homes. Some searched for names carved into stones. Others simply wandered, unable to understand the world they had returned to.
I couldn't blame them.
A thousand years was too long to call a disappearance.
It was an erasure.
I looked down at my hands.
They were shaking.
Not from fear.
From recognition.
Something about the rain bothered me.
I had never seen it before.
And yet I remembered its sound.
Droplets striking rooftops.
Mud beneath bare feet.
A woman's voice calling someone's name from behind a wooden door.
A child's laughter.
A field of yellow flowers.
Memories.
Not mine.
I closed my eyes.
They vanished.
I opened them again.
Nothing.
Just the ruined world before me.
"Are you alright?"
I turned.
Valerius stood several steps behind me.
His transformation was almost complete now. The stone had disappeared from his face, leaving behind an exhausted old man with deep lines beneath his eyes.
I stared at him.
"No."
He seemed surprised by the honesty.
"Then why are you smiling?"
I hadn't realized I was.
I touched the corner of my mouth.
"I don't know."
Valerius looked toward the sky.
"You should leave."
"Why?"
"Because they will come."
"Who?"
He didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he looked at the tower.
Virell.
The great tower stood behind us, its white surface slowly losing its color.
Cracks crawled across the walls.
The windows shattered one after another.
But there was something strange about it.
The tower wasn't collapsing.
It was changing.
White stone became grey.
Grey became black.
And beneath the surface, something red began to pulse.
Like veins.
Like a heartbeat.
Thump.
I felt the same rhythm inside my chest.
My smile disappeared.
"Valerius."
"Yes?"
"What's inside the tower?"
He lowered his eyes.
"Nothing."
I stared at him.
He corrected himself.
"Nothing that should still be alive."
A cold sensation travelled down my spine.
I turned toward the entrance.
The massive doors were open.
Beyond them was darkness.
Not ordinary darkness.
The kind that seemed to absorb the light around it.
I took a step forward.
Valerius grabbed my arm.
"Don't."
I looked at his hand.
Then at him.
His fingers were trembling.
"You're afraid."
"I am."
"Of me?"
"No."
He looked into my eyes.
"Of what will recognize you."
I slowly pulled my arm away.
"What does that mean?"
Valerius didn't answer.
Because something inside the tower answered for him.
A sound.
Soft.
Almost gentle.
Tick.
I froze.
Tick.
Another.
Then—
Tick.
A rhythm.
Like a clock.
Like a heartbeat.
Like something counting down.
The wizards in the square heard it too.
Their voices disappeared.
One by one, every head turned toward Virell.
I stepped closer to the entrance.
The moment my foot crossed the threshold, every candle inside the tower ignited.
One after another.
A path of fire appeared before me.
At the end of it stood a door.
I had never seen it before.
But I knew exactly what was behind it.
My heart told me.
My memories told me.
Something deeper than both whispered its name.
The Archive.
I reached for the handle.
Then I heard a voice.
Not Riven's.
Not Valerius's.
Mine.
But older.
Much older.
It came from the other side of the door.
"You took long enough."
My fingers stopped.
I stared at the handle.
For the first time since awakening, I felt something I hadn't felt when the world broke apart.
Fear.
Real fear.
Because the voice continued.
"You've forgotten everything."
A pause.
Then—
"But the wheel hasn't."
The door opened by itself.
And somewhere deep beneath Virell, something began to turn.
Clack.
I stepped inside.
The door closed behind me.
And the world disappeared.