The ground didn't welcome footsteps in Sorrowgrave. It remembered them.
Every step Kael took sank a little too deep, as if the earth still grieved for those who once walked upon it.
He followed the girl through the crumbled stone arches,each one etched with names burned black not written in honor, but cursed into silence.
"Where are we going?" Kael asked,
his voice barely louder than the wind.
The girl didn't turn.
"To the Ash Gate."
Kael looked around. No road. No gate.
Just shattered columns, floating parchment, and the taste of dust in his mouth.
"I don't see any"
Before he could finish,the ground ahead of her opened,pages tearing upward from the earth like torn skin.
From beneath, a spiral staircase of charred bone and inked stone revealed itself. It bled silence not from emptiness, but from the weight of too many voices that could no longer scream. The girl stepped onto the first stair.
"This is where you learn what it costs to remember."
Kael hesitated.
A memory not his flickered behind his eyes again: A boy, no older than ten,
clutching his sister's corpse…surrounded by cheering crowds who never knew her name.
Kael clutched his chest. His breath caught.
"These aren't my memories."
The girl looked over her shoulder,
her eyes soft with sorrow.
"That's what makes you a Threadkeeper."
"You're not meant to carry your story…"
"You're meant to carry theirs."
Kael stepped forward. The moment his foot touched the stair a pulse. The staircase lit up like dying embers,each step burning with a fragment of a forgotten soul. He didn't know who they were.
But they knew him.
"Threadkeeper…"
"Don't forget me…"
"Write me right…"
The voices whispered as he descended.
The girl spoke again.
"The lower you go, the heavier they get."
"This place is built from the weight of unfinished endings."
Kael looked at her.
"And if I can't carry it?"
She didn't answer immediately.
Then, softly:
"Then you'll become one of them."
They reached a stone platform surrounded by floating, burning pages.
In the center a pedestal,and on it: a book with no title.
"What is this?" Kael asked.
The girl touched its cover.
"Your first Echo Trial."
Kael stared at the book. It looked ancient not in years, but in memories.
The pages curled like old skin, the cover pulsed faintly like it was...breathing.
"Echo Trial?" he asked.
The girl nodded.
"Inside this book is the final thought of a soul that was never heard."
"You don't read it. You live it."
Before he could question, the book opened on its own. No hands. No wind.
Just grief. The pages flipped wildly until they stopped on one. Ink began to rise from the page not written, but bleeding up, like it was being forced out by pain.
A single line appeared:
"He cried when no one watched."
The moment Kael read it,the world twisted. The platform vanished. The girl disappeared. Even his body... felt thinner, smaller. He was no longer himself.
He sat in a cold, wet room. Stone walls. A tiny window. Chains on his wrist. He looked into a mirror on the opposite wall. A boy stared back. Not Kael. But someone else.
Name: Rilan
Age: 13
Last emotion before death: Helplessness.
Kael now Rilan was trapped in the memory of someone who died alone. Outside the door,a voice yelled.
"You think crying will bring your father back?!"
Rilan flinched.
"You think being weak will change the story?!"
Kael felt the tears fall not his, but Rilan's. They burned. Not because of sadness. But because no one ever let him cry.
Then something inside the memory snapped. A black mist oozed from the walls. A shadow formed. It wasn't human. It wasn't a demon. It was a rejection.
"You were never worth being remembered."
Kael's breath stopped. The shadow charged. But then his real self cracked through. Eyes glowing. Ink bleeding from his skin. Kael reached out his hand, and with a shout.
"No soul dies unseen!"
A burst of ink exploded from his chest,
wrapping around the shadow, pulling it back into the page. The book closed.
Kael gasped, back on the platform.
Sweat. Trembling. His heartbeat like war drums. The girl looked at him calm, knowing.
"You passed."
Kael couldn't speak. She pointed at the pedestal. Another page floated there now. New ink. New name.
"Rilan Echo Preserved."
The page hovered, then folded itself into a thread. It glowed faint blue sorrow and silence. It floated to Kael's chest,and once again, it sank inside.
This time, Kael didn't scream. He simply closed his eyes…and whispered:
"You're safe now, Rilan."
The girl nodded in approval.
"Each time you do this, your soul will grow heavier."
"But that weight… is your strength."
Kael stood slowly.
"And what if I fail?" he asked.
"Then the Echo becomes you."
She turned and pointed to a massive broken gate ahead,its edges scorched by ancient fire. On the walls, carvings of faceless beings. And above them a name etched in burning red:
"The Laughing Archivist."
Kael stepped forward. The gate did not open with magic or keys. It opened because he had remembered someone. The stone parted like it feared him. Inside was darkness. But not empty darkness. Darkness that whispered. Kael stepped in.
"I'm not afraid of forgotten stories anymore."
"I am one."