The space between Lira and Helios was thin as breath, yet heavy with history.
A thousand unsaid things floated in the air: wars lost, friends buried, cities rebuilt.
Lira floated just beyond the threshold of the cocoon, the Ember Codex clasped in her arms. Her companions waited aboard the Mothlight, engines on standby.
Helios, stripped of divinity but cloaked in introspection, broke the silence.
"You are Selene's daughter."
"I am," Lira answered calmly. "And Altharion's student."
He gave a faint smile. "Then you are both flame and memory."
Lira nodded. "And you are the echo of ruin. But echoes can still change their shape."
Inside the Cocoon - A Place of Thought
Helios invited her inside. There were no walls—only glimmers of former selves. He walked among them barefoot, his steps weightless.
"After I fell," he said, "I dreamed of silence. But memory speaks, even in the void."
"You remember Duskfall?" she asked.
"Every brick," he replied. "And every scream."
She studied him. "You know why I'm here."
"To judge me?" he asked.
"No," Lira said, "to listen. And decide."
The Mothlight - Observation Deck
Renn and Maelis monitored the memory-weave. The Seraphim automaton stood still, occasionally pulsing with harmonic energy.
Renn frowned. "The Codex's energy is stable, but something's shifting. Lira's presence is… merging with the cocoon's field."
Maelis sang a short tune. "That's not danger. That's dialogue."
Renn grinned nervously. "Still feels like standing on the edge of a myth."
Cocoon Heart - Shared Vision
Helios held out his hand.
"Let me show you what I've become."
Lira hesitated, then reached out.
Their thoughts merged.
She saw him as a boy—learning from the Triune, dreaming of peace.
She saw his fall—his obsession with control, the fear that memory would betray him.
And she saw the Fracture from his eyes: not a weapon, but a cage of his own making.
Then she showed him Duskfall.
Rebuilt homes. Children laughing. The Seraphim humming lullabies.
And herself—speaking not as ruler, but as reminder.
When they separated, tears clung to both faces.
"I see now," Helios whispered. "I was not the villain. But I became the shadow of one."
"You were human," Lira said. "Still are."
Mothlight - Emergency Pulse
The Seraphim automaton glowed brightly. Renn jumped.
"It's reacting—resonance spike!"
Maelis checked the feed. "Something's coming through the fracture. Not Helios. Not Lira."
Renn paled. "Then what?"
The automaton spoke.
"REMNANT ENTITY DETECTED. MEMORYLESS. HOSTILE."
Cocoon - Alarm Echoes
Lira and Helios both turned as a ripple tore through the reality of the cocoon.
A figure emerged—faceless, hollow, made of unthreaded memory. A being born from everything Helios had once erased.
"Fractureborn," he said grimly. "The cost of my forgetting."
Lira opened the Codex.
Its light flared. The Fractureborn recoiled, screeching in a voice that was absence.
Helios stepped beside her. "Then let me fight it."
Lira looked at him.
"Not alone," she said.
Together, they lifted the Codex.