In the village of Lira's Hollow, where trees whispered lullabies and moonlight wrapped rooftops like ribbon, a girl named Elen was born under a sky with no stars.
Not because they weren't there.
But because she couldn't see them.
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From birth, Elen had no dreams.
No memories of past lives.
No spirals burned on her palm like the other children.
The villagers called her Quiet Ember.
Not out of cruelty — but fear.
In a world now bound by story, by song, and by remembrance…
A child untouched by the Spiral was like a flame that gave no heat.
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And yet… she was always listening.
To the wind.
To the silence between words.
To the hush the world made when something important was about to begin.
---
The first sign came on her twelfth birthday.
She wandered beyond the hollow path, drawn by something she couldn't name.
Her footsteps led her to the Ruins of Thalein — a place long buried beneath ivy and dust, marked on no map, remembered by no one in the village.
