Rael felt the world unravel the moment his hand closed around the Keeper's. The white sands beneath his feet dissolved into drifting fragments, lifting like ash into the air. The violet sky twisted inward, folding over itself, and for a brief, terrifying instant, Rael felt as though he were falling through his own chest.
Then the memory took shape.
Sound came first.
Not words. Not screams. Just a distant hum—low, constant, almost comforting. The sound of a city alive.
Rael stood in the middle of a wide stone avenue bathed in warm light. Towers of pale marble rose on both sides, their surfaces etched with sigils he instinctively understood but could not name. People passed by him, laughing, arguing, living. None of them noticed him.
He was not there.
He was inside it.
"This is… the past," Rael whispered.
The Keeper stood beside him, their silver cloak now duller, heavier, as if affected by the weight of the memory. "Not the past," they corrected gently. "Your past."
Rael's heart tightened.
He recognized the place without ever having seen it before. The air felt familiar. Safe. A word surfaced in his mind, unbidden.
Elyndra.
His breath caught. "This city…"
"Was the heart of the First Era," the Keeper said. "The city you protected. The city she loved."
Rael turned sharply. "Her."
The world shifted.
The avenue blurred, reshaping itself into a high balcony overlooking the city. Sunlight poured across polished stone. And there—leaning against the railing, arms crossed, expression half-amused, half-exasperated—stood a woman.
Rael froze.
She was real.
Not a shadow. Not a fragment. She moved with effortless grace, dark hair pulled loosely behind her, eyes sharp with intelligence and warmth. She was smiling at him—or rather, at the version of him that existed in this memory.
"You're late," she said.
Her voice hit him like a blade.
It slid past every defense he had, straight into his chest.
"I—" Rael tried to speak, but his throat closed. His vision blurred.
The memory-Rael stepped forward, wearing dark armor etched with Chaos runes—armor Rael had never worn in this life but felt intimately connected to. "I was dealing with the Council," the memory-Rael replied. "They're afraid again."
The woman snorted softly. "They're always afraid. That's what councils do best."
She turned to face him fully, and Rael's heart shattered.
Her eyes.
He knew them.
He had dreamed of them without realizing it. Seen them in flashes of warmth during his darkest moments. Felt their absence like a phantom limb.
"Who… is she?" Rael asked, voice breaking.
The Keeper did not answer immediately.
Instead, they watched the scene with quiet sorrow.
"She was your anchor," the Keeper said at last. "The only thing that kept Chaos from consuming you."
The woman stepped closer to the memory-Rael and placed a hand against his chest, right over his heart. "You can't keep carrying the weight of the world alone," she said softly. "One day it will break you."
Memory-Rael smiled faintly. "That's why I have you."
Rael staggered back as if struck.
"No," he whispered. "Don't say that."
The Keeper's voice lowered. "This is the memory you buried deepest."
The world lurched again.
The warmth vanished.
Smoke filled the air.
The balcony was gone—replaced by ruins. The city screamed.
Rael spun around as chaos erupted everywhere. Buildings collapsed in waves of fire and energy. The sky burned crimson, torn open by violent rifts that bled darkness into the world.
People ran. Fell. Disappeared.
Rael felt pressure crush his chest.
"This isn't right," he said desperately. "I wouldn't— I wouldn't let this happen."
"You didn't," the Keeper replied, pain lacing their voice. "At first."
Rael saw himself again—memory-Rael—standing at the center of the destruction, Chaos pouring from him in uncontrollable surges. His armor was cracked. His expression was twisted with panic, not rage.
And the woman—her—was there too.
She stood several steps away, blood on her lips, eyes wide with shock as the world collapsed around them.
"Rael!" she shouted.
Hearing his name from her lips broke something inside him.
Memory-Rael rushed toward her, reaching out.
Too late.
A裂—an unseen fracture in reality—opened between them. A surge of unstable energy erupted outward, violent and absolute.
The woman was thrown back.
Rael screamed.
"No—!"
He lunged forward instinctively, even though he knew he couldn't change it.
Memory-Rael caught her as she fell, dropping to his knees amid the ruins. Chaos energy spiraled wildly around them, cracking the ground, distorting the air.
She coughed, blood staining her hand as she touched his face.
"Hey," she whispered weakly. "You're still here. That's… good."
Memory-Rael shook his head frantically. "No. No, don't talk. I can fix this. I can—"
She smiled at him. A small, tired smile.
"You always think that," she said. "That everything can be fixed if you just push harder."
Tears streamed down memory-Rael's face.
Rael—watching—felt them as if they were his own.
"I'm sorry," memory-Rael choked. "I should have listened. I should have—"
She pressed a trembling finger to his lips. "Listen to me."
The world seemed to quiet around them.
"You didn't break the world," she said softly. "You tried to protect it. And you protected me… long enough."
Her breathing grew shallow.
Rael's heart felt like it was being torn apart.
"Please," memory-Rael whispered. "Don't leave me."
She looked at him with infinite sadness and love.
"You were never meant to be alone," she said. "Promise me… you won't become what they fear."
Memory-Rael couldn't speak. He could only nod, desperately.
She exhaled one last breath.
And went still.
Rael screamed.
The sound tore through the memory, through the Veil itself. Chaos exploded outward in a cataclysmic wave, flattening what remained of the city. The rifts in the sky widened, swallowing light and hope alike.
Rael fell to his knees in the present, clutching his chest.
"No… no, no…"
The Keeper stood beside him, tears glimmering in their eyes. "This was the moment you broke."
Rael shook violently. "I loved her," he whispered. "That's why it hurts so much."
"Yes," the Keeper said. "And that love terrified the world."
Rael looked up sharply. "What do you mean?"
"The Council feared what you would become without her," the Keeper said. "So when the city fell, they blamed you. They named you Harbinger. Destroyer. Monster."
Rael's fists clenched.
"And you believed them," the Keeper continued. "Because it was easier than facing your grief."
Rael's breathing steadied, something dark and heavy settling into his core.
"So I sealed the memory," he said slowly. "I erased her to survive."
The Keeper nodded. "You erased her… and with her, the best part of yourself."
Rael stood.
His eyes burned—not with rage, but with clarity.
"I remember now," he said. "Not her name. Not yet. But I remember why I fell."
The Veil trembled.
Far away, something answered.
The Keeper stepped back, voice urgent. "This memory has awakened something. The Rift will respond."
Rael lifted his head, Chaos energy coiling tightly around him—not wild, not broken, but controlled.
"I won't run from it anymore," he said. "I won't bury it again."
The Keeper watched him with a mix of hope and fear.
"Then prepare yourself," they said. "Because the world will not forgive you for remembering."
The sky above the Veil裂—cracked—bleeding light into darkness.
And Rael stepped forward, carrying his pain with him.
Not as a curse.
But as a weapon.