Smoke still clung to Duskfall's streets. Though the Scourge's attack had been pushed back, the city was restless—eyes watching shadows, ears tuned for whispers.
Lira stood before the Archive Tree at dawn, its branches humming softly, as if dreaming.
Beside her, the Memoryborn was silent.
"He escaped," she said.
"Yes," the Memoryborn replied. "But he left a trace."
Undercity - Broken Sanctuary
The Veilbearer knelt before the cracked sigil, now blackened by rejection. Around him, what remained of the Scourge argued.
"You promised us purity!" one shouted.
"You failed us!" another accused.
The Veilbearer stood, slowly removing his mask.
Underneath was not a monster.
But a boy.
Barely twenty.
His eyes shimmered with hurt more than hate.
"I was born in a ruin," he said. "And I was told to forget. I swore I would remember… but only the pain."
He raised the sigil shard.
"Now I forge my own truth."
He pressed it to his chest.
The shard fused.
And the boy screamed.
Lantern Spire - Codex Watch
The Ember Codex pulsed erratically. Pages flipped backward. Images of Helios' reign—temples burning, skies broken—appeared, then shattered into fragments.
Maelis turned to Helios.
"It's reacting to your past."
Helios nodded. "Someone's using it."
Renn tapped the Codex reader. "Coordinates triangulate below the eastern aqueduct. Deep Undercity."
Lira arrived, already armored. "Then that's where we go."
The Memoryborn stared at the Codex's glow.
"It remembers something I never did."
Lira met its gaze. "Then maybe it's time we face what was left behind."
Undercity - Echo Vault
The vault had been buried for centuries—sealed after Helios' fall. But now, it thrummed with raw memory.
They entered carefully. The Codex guided them.
In the center stood the Veilbearer—no longer robed.
Now armored in crystallized pain. Eyes glowing with stolen resonance.
"I see clearly now," he said. "You tried to bury your sins. But I unearthed them. You are not saviors. You are editors."
Helios stepped forward. "You think memory makes you right?"
"No," the Veilbearer replied. "It makes me complete."
He lifted his hand.
A wave of dark resonance pulsed outward.
Renn collapsed. Maelis screamed.
The Codex trembled.
Only the Memoryborn stood still.
"You use memory as a weapon," it said. "But you forget that pain alone is not truth."
"I remember enough!" the boy shouted.
Lira stepped in front of the Memoryborn.
"Then let's finish this."
Memory Duel - The Vault's Heart
The Codex unbound itself, threads stretching between the Veilbearer and the Memoryborn.
Visions collided—Helios' old rule vs. the boy's shattered childhood.
Every hurt.
Every loss.
Every betrayal.
But also—
Every act of kindness.
Every choice to stay.
Every hand that reached out.
Lira wept, feeling it all.
The Memoryborn whispered, "You were never alone. You were just unheard."
The Veilbearer faltered. His armor cracked.
He dropped to his knees.
"I didn't want to destroy. I just… didn't want to be forgotten."
Helios stepped forward.
"Then let's remember you rightly."
He extended his hand.
The boy took it.
And the Codex sang.
Duskfall - Above Again
The city awoke not to sirens—but to silence.
The kind after healing.
The kind where breath returns.
Lira looked out from the Lantern Spire. "He's in the Garden now?"
"Yes," Helios said. "Helping plant names he once tried to erase."
"And the shard?"
The Memoryborn opened its hand.
Inside was the fragment—no longer dark, but translucent.
"A wound remembered," it said, "does not become a weapon."