Lyra Vale had spent her whole life surrounded by other people's memories, yet nothing prepared her for the one that changed everything.
It happened on a quiet morning, when the sun was just beginning to rise over the crystal roofs of Elaria. The city was still half-asleep, wrapped in a soft golden glow, and the world felt gentle in a way Lyra wished her heart could feel too.
She sat alone in the Memory Hall, brushing her fingers over a small crystal orb. Normally, the orbs showed echoes of forgotten moments—faces, laughter, heartbreak, dances under the moon. But this one was different.
The moment she touched it, the world around her trembled.
A rush of cold air swept through the hall.
The lights flickered.
Her heartbeat stumbled.
And then… she saw him.
Not clearly—just a flash.
Broad shoulders.
Dark, unruly hair.
Eyes like a storm right before it breaks.
He was standing in a burning field, reaching out for someone—for her—even though he didn't know she existed. His lips moved, forming a name she had never heard spoken aloud.
"Lyra…"
Her name.
Whispered with a desperation that didn't belong in a stranger's memory.
Lyra jerked back, breath shaking. The orb slipped from her hands and almost fell, but she caught it at the last second, holding it to her chest.
"What was that?" she whispered to herself. "Why did he say my name?"
Memories were never supposed to show the future.
Never supposed to show someone calling her.
Never supposed to feel so… real.
Her hands trembled as she stood, heart pounding too loudly in the silent hall. She walked outside, needing air—something steady, something normal.
But the world outside didn't feel normal today.
Birds took flight suddenly.
The wind picked up, warm and restless.
And the sky—normally calm—shimmered with faint threads of silver, as if fate itself had brushed its fingers across the clouds.
Lyra pressed a hand to her chest as the strange pulling sensation returned—the one she'd felt her whole life but never understood.
It was stronger now.
Clearer.
Almost like a soft whisper tugging her forward.
And without thinking, she followed it.
Through the glowing streets.
Past the floating lanterns.
Beyond the shimmering gates of the city.
Into the Glowing Forest.
The air changed the moment she stepped inside. The leaves glowed with soft blue light, and tiny star-moths drifted between branches like floating sparks. Lyra had been here many times before, but today… it felt different.
Like someone was waiting for her.
Her footsteps slowed.
Her breath caught.
And then she saw him.
Standing alone in a circle of glowing trees.
The same man from the memory.
He turned sharply as if he had felt her heart calling him. And when their eyes met—storm-gray clashing with warm brown—Lyra felt something inside her collapse and bloom at the same time.
It wasn't fear.
It wasn't curiosity.
It was recognition.
As if this moment… this exact moment… was written long before either of them were born.
For a long heartbeat, they just stared at each other—two strangers who felt anything but.
Then the man took a single step toward her, eyes softening in a way that made her breath catch.
"Lyra," he said quietly.
He knew her.
He knew her.
But she had never met him before.
Her voice was barely a whisper.
"H-how do you know my name?"
He looked at her the way a starving man looks at food.
Like he had been waiting for her all his life.
Like she was both a miracle and a warning.
"My name is Kael," he said softly. "And you… you're the reason my destiny won't let me sleep."
Lyra's heart trembled.
Because somewhere deep inside, she felt it too—
This wasn't a beginning.
It was a return.
The start of something fate had tried to hide… but could no longer keep apart.