The light fractured, scattering like tiny shards around Lalin. The warmth that had comforted her now transformed into a strange, vibrating pressure at the base of her skull.
Her surroundings blurred and shifted. Walls dissolved into streams of symbols she didn't understand — equations, star maps, and unfamiliar glyphs — as if the universe itself were inscribing a secret meant only for her.
"You… can see it," the figure said softly. "Not everyone survives remembering. Your mind… your heart… they are stronger than most."
Lalin trembled, her hands clutching at her head as flashes of memories collided with reality. She saw him — the one she thought she had lost — his smile fractured by betrayal, the warmth of their last embrace before the pain.
"Why… did I forget?" she whispered, tears blurring the shifting lights.
The figure leaned closer, a hint of sadness in their eyes.
"Because the truth would have destroyed you… until now. Your consciousness needed time to grow, to withstand it. And now, the past and present are converging. You must choose: embrace it… or let it remain a ghost."
Images surged: the corridors of her childhood, the sound of her name whispered by someone she loved and feared, the pulse of betrayal, the lingering scent of someone's final promise. It was all there — a tapestry of love, loss, and the hidden architecture of reality itself.
Lalin's chest heaved. "I… I don't know if I can…"
"You can," the figure assured her, voice firm yet gentle. "Because you already are. The heart remembers what the mind tries to hide. And the one you lost… is still here, waiting for you to truly see."
Her tears mingled with the light, and in the reflection, she saw him — a fragment of a memory, yet undeniably real. The bridge between their past and now trembled, waiting for her step.