The fortress groaned under the eternal weight of light Gold spilled across the stone sharp and merciless never softening never fading Mira pressed her back against the wall her eyes fixed on the horizon She whispered almost to herself.
Mira: I wonder if there's a place where the sun doesn't burn.
Elandra laid out herbs across a cracked table her movements quiet and deliberate.
Elandra: There isn't Not anymore Ryo's gaze reaches everywhere.
The air shifted Heavy almost electric Mira's breath caught as a figure stepped from the shadows His stance was familiar his sword broken but present his eyes burning with that same unyielding fire.
Kael.
Mira stumbled forward disbelief choking her throat.
Mira: Kael? That's not possible…
Elandra froze her hands trembling as the herbs scattered.
Elandra: No This… this can't be.
Kael stood silently for a moment then spoke his voice low but steady.
Kael: I shouldn't be here And yet I am.
Mira reached for him but as her hand brushed his arm she felt it not flesh not warmth but something like the echo of a memory given form A chill ran through her
Mira: You're… different You don't feel alive.
Kael's eyes darkened.
Kael: That's because I'm not When Ryo erased me he didn't just kill me He removed me from existence No afterlife no return I should have vanished forever.
He lifted his broken sword the edge glimmering faintly in the golden haze.
Kael: But this world the Crown Cosmology is under his hand Every stone every breath every thought is bound to him And somehow within that binding fragments of me remained Not because I resisted… but because he allowed it.
Elandra's voice was sharp almost desperate.
Elandra: Allowed? You mean Ryo chose to bring you back?
Kael shook his head.
Kael: Not consciously He doesn't need to think for the world to bend His will shapes reality even in silence And within that silence my echo formed I am not Kael as you knew me I am Kael as this Crown remembers me.
Mira's chest tightened Then… you're a shadow.
Kael's lips curved in a grim smile.
Kael: A shadow that still remembers the fire of defiance.
The room fell into silence Only the endless hum of light filled the cracks between their words.
Then from the far side of the fortress footsteps echoed A cloaked man stepped forward his hood casting deep shadows over his face Varis.
Varis: So it's true Even erasure bends to him You're not alive Kael you're his reflection A puppet carved from his dominion.
Kael turned sharply his eyes narrowing.
Kael: If I were a puppet would I feel this anger? Would I stand before you with my will intact?
Varis smirked. Maybe that's the cruelest part Your will isn't yours It's his refracted back into the world.
Mira stepped between them her voice breaking.
Mira: Stop All of you Whether Kael is real or not he's here And if he carries even a fragment of what he was then we need him.
Elandra looked at Kael with a mix of fear and wonder.
Elandra: You shouldn't exist And yet… maybe you're proof that even perfection leaves traces Shadows Flaws.
Kael lowered his gaze gripping the broken sword until his knuckles turned white.
Kael: If I am an echo then let me be one that defies him I don't care if my existence is borrowed I'll use it to fight.
Varis studied him for a long moment then nodded.
Varis: Then perhaps you are exactly what we need A flaw born from the flawless The proof that even Ryo's dominion isn't without cracks.
The fortress seemed to shiver as if the walls themselves were listening Outside the eternal light pulsed once faintly almost imperceptibly as though the Crown itself had heard their words
Mira's heart raced For the first time the silence that surrounded them wasn't just oppressive It was expectant.
And Kael echo or not stood at its center