The night was unnaturally quiet, as if the very air was holding its breath. Shadows clung to the walls of the academy's west wing, where an old, forgotten library stood, veiled in thick layers of dust and secrecy. Linh, lantern in hand, stepped past the arched doorway, the iron hinges groaning under the weight of years. He barely flinched; this wasn't fear that drove him—it was compulsion.
He had been dreaming of this place for nights, dreams filled with flickering images—a crimson seal, a girl crying in a corridor of mirrors, and an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. Ever since his awakening two months ago, fragments of a life he didn't remember kept surfacing. They were not just memories. They were pieces of something ancient, something bound by blood and betrayal.
"You're here," said a voice from the dark.
Linh turned sharply. From behind a dusty shelf emerged Rowan, his usual smirk absent. "I told you to wait until I came back from the council."
"I couldn't." Linh's voice was barely above a whisper. "It was calling. The seal—it's beneath this floor."
Rowan's jaw clenched. "Then it's worse than I thought."
Together, they moved deeper into the archive. Books rustled underfoot, the silence interrupted only by the hiss of the flame and the creak of the floorboards. Linh's fingers brushed over a sigil etched into the stone tiles. As he pressed it, the room groaned, and a hidden staircase revealed itself, winding downward into darkness.
What awaited below was not merely ancient—It was forbidden.
The chamber was circular, lined with obsidian and lit by the cold glow of spiritfire. At its center lay an altar, and upon it, a crystal shard, pulsing faintly. Linh approached, each step heavier than the last. His heart pounded in synchrony with the shard's glow.
Rowan placed a hand on Linh's shoulder. "Are you sure you're ready to see?"
Linh nodded. "I have to know who I was."
He reached out and touched the shard.
A rush of visions flooded his mind. A girl, her name lost in the storm, screaming his name as the sky cracked open. He saw himself wielding a blade of pure light, standing between realms, facing creatures without form. He saw blood on his hands—not from enemies, but friends. He saw Rowan—different, older, with silver in his hair—fighting at his side.
Then he saw her.
She was cloaked in red, her eyes shimmering like dying stars. "You sealed me," she said. "You chose them over me."
Linh stumbled back, gasping. The shard clattered to the floor, rolling to Rowan's feet.
"What did you see?" Rowan asked.
Linh looked at him, haunted. "Everything. I betrayed her. I sealed her away... to protect the realm. She was one of us. She was my sister."
Rowan's expression darkened. "Then it's begun. The memory seal is broken. We have little time."
"For what?"
Rowan turned to the stairwell. "For the past to hunt us down."
Far above, unnoticed by both, a pair of crimson eyes opened within the stone walls, and a whisper followed them back into the world: "You remember. Then you will pay."
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