Kael didn't sleep well.
He never had.
Dreams came in fragments — faceless voices, hands he could almost reach, laughter that ached in his chest because he didn't know who it belonged to.
And every time, it ended the same way.
A silver-haired girl beneath a broken sky.
He always woke before seeing her face.
The morning after the encounter on the bridge, he could no longer clearly remember their conversation.
Only a feeling remained.
Important.
Urgent.
He walked through the streets of Luthien trying to grasp something that slipped through his fingers.
— Aeryn…
The name left his lips almost involuntarily.
He stopped.
Why did he know that name?
He frowned. His memory of the past few days was… blurred.
It wasn't new.
Since childhood, Kael had lived like this.
Memories that leaked away.
Faces that vanished.
Promises he knew he had made — but never remembered to whom.
People said he was absent-minded.
Some said he was cursed.
He preferred not to ask.
But something had changed.
Because unlike the other times…
He could still feel the weight of that encounter.
Even without remembering the details.
Meanwhile, at the top of the ancient celestial library, Aeryn sat among forbidden books.
Her fingers trembled slightly.
She had used Stellar Memory the night before.
Without touch.
Without intention.
That was not normal.
She closed her eyes and tried to reconstruct the moment.
The golden field.
The voice.
"Don't forget me."
Her heart tightened.
She pressed a hand to her chest.
And felt a void.
Something was missing.
Something small.
But important.
She rushed to the ancient mirror leaning against the wall.
— Show me — she whispered, activating her magic.
The reflective surface rippled like water.
Images emerged.
The bridge.
Kael.
The look in his eyes.
The moment he said his own name.
She watched herself in that memory.
Cold.
Composed.
But there was something in her eyes.
Recognition.
The mirror rippled again.
And the image changed.
The same bridge.
The same sky.
But different clothes.
Her hair shorter.
Kael smiling in the same way.
— You always run first — he said, laughing.
Aeryn's blood ran cold.
She staggered back.
— That's not possible…
The mirror showed another scene.
He was holding her hand.
She was crying.
The moon whole in the sky.
And then—
A flash.
The image shattered.
Like glass.
The mirror cracked in the real world.
Aeryn fell to her knees.
She wasn't seeing a distant past.
She was seeing cycles.
Repeated meetings.
Promises remade.
And something worse.
In every memory… Kael seemed to forget first.
But in the final fragment—
It was her who let go of his hand.
At that exact moment, in the central market, Kael stopped abruptly in the middle of the crowd.
A sharp pain pierced his head.
He pressed his hands to his temples.
Images flickered.
A tower.
Light exploding.
A girl screaming his name.
His name.
He fell to his knees.
People stepped back.
— Hey! Are you okay?!
He heard voices, but they sounded distant.
Because for the first time—
He remembered.
For a second.
Her crying beneath the shattered moon.
And him saying:
"Even if I forget… I will always find you."
The world snapped back into place.
The pain ceased.
He blinked.
Confused.
What had happened?
Why was he on the ground?
A guard helped him to his feet.
— Another one of those blackouts? — the man muttered.
Kael forced a smile.
— I guess so…
But something was different.
His chest hurt.
As if he had lost something.
Something precious.
Even without knowing what it was.
High above in the library, Aeryn stared at the sky.
The shattered moon shone silently.
If this was a cycle…
Then there had been a beginning.
And a mistake.
And perhaps—
A choice she had made.
She closed her eyes.
And whispered to the night:
— How many times have I let you go… Kael?
The wind blew.
As if in answer.
And for the first time since that night—
Aeryn decided not to run.