Dawn came soft and golden, like a breath held too long.Mist floated through the forest, wrapping the trees in quiet silver.Kael and Lira walked side by side, not speaking for a while.
The river they followed curved gently into a valley — one Kael didn't remember seeing on any map.But as they entered, the air changed.
It smelled sweet, like rain on flowers and something else — something old.The light shimmered strangely, as though the world itself was remembering.
Lira stopped first. "Kael… look."
Before them stretched a garden unlike anything they had ever seen.
It wasn't made of ordinary plants.Each flower glowed faintly — some golden, some blue, some red like fire.Their petals shimmered as if time itself flowed through them.
And in the center of the garden stood a giant tree with silver bark and transparent leaves.Inside each leaf, tiny scenes moved — like memories trapped in glass.
Kael whispered, "What is this place?"
Lira knelt near one of the glowing flowers. "It feels… alive. Like it's breathing our thoughts."
When she touched one, it shivered softly, and a voice filled the air:
"Every wish the world ever forgot blooms here. Some were never spoken. Some were never meant to be."
The voice was neither male nor female — it was calm, ageless, like the whisper of wind across an open field.
Kael turned slowly. "Who's there?"
The garden stirred, petals rising like dust in sunlight.Then a figure appeared beneath the silver tree — a man made of light, his face hidden behind a veil of starlight.
"I am the Keeper," he said softly. "Guardian of time's roots. You have walked far, fire-bearer."
Kael frowned. "Fire-bearer…?"
The Keeper nodded. "Yes. The one who carries the memory of stars. You have touched the ocean's heart, spoken to silence, and awakened what once slept beneath the world. Now, you stand at the end of the road of forgetting."
Kael felt the words burn inside him. "Then what am I supposed to do here?"
The Keeper's voice grew softer. "Remember what you lost."
Lira stepped forward. "He's remembered so much already. His pain, his past, his promise…"
The Keeper turned to her. "And yet, he has not remembered the most important thing."
He raised a hand. The garden brightened — and suddenly, petals began to fall like snow.Each petal turned into a vision as it touched the ground.
Kael saw flashes — moments from lives he never lived, faces he never met, yet all of them somehow his.
A young boy standing in a storm, holding a dying flame.A soldier crying as he threw away his sword.A woman reaching out for him across centuries.
Kael fell to his knees, clutching his chest. "It hurts—why does it always hurt to remember?"
The Keeper whispered,
"Because love and pain are two roots of the same tree."
Lira knelt beside him, holding his face. "Kael… don't listen to the pain. Remember what you want to keep."
Her words grounded him. Slowly, he took a deep breath.The burning inside him quieted, like a wild storm finally resting.
Then something amazing happened.
The silver tree began to glow brighter — and from its branches, one golden flower drifted down.It floated gently toward Kael and stopped before his chest.
The Keeper spoke softly, "This is your truth."
Kael reached out — and as his hand touched the flower, it dissolved into light and sank into his heart.
He saw everything — every lifetime his soul had touched.He saw Lira in all of them — sometimes as a friend, sometimes as a stranger, sometimes as the one who saved him.
In every world, she had been there.Every time he fell, she helped him rise.Every time he forgot, she remembered for him.
Tears streamed down his face as the realization bloomed inside him.He whispered,
"You were never a part of my story, Lira… you were the story."
Lira's eyes filled with tears too, but she smiled. "Then maybe it's time to write the next chapter together."
The Keeper smiled faintly, the stars in his form dimming like an old lantern."Then go. The world above still breathes. It waits for you both to bring balance once more."
The petals around them began to rise again, swirling in a golden wind.The air shimmered — and suddenly, the valley began to fade.
Kael held Lira's hand tightly as the light swallowed them.
When it cleared, they stood once again on the cliff where their journey had begun.The world stretched out below — green, glowing faintly, alive again.
The sky shimmered with tiny sparks, as though countless stars had fallen just to watch them.
Kael whispered, "Do you think we did it? That the world will heal now?"
Lira squeezed his hand. "Maybe. But healing takes time… and love takes patience."
He smiled, turning toward the horizon. "Then let's give it both."
The wind blew gently, carrying the scent of the garden — faint, sweet, eternal.And somewhere far behind them, beneath the soil of a world reborn, a single golden flower began to bloom.
It whispered softly into the wind:
"Time never forgets those who love deeply. It only waits for them to return."