Gravemire had fallen quiet.
The streets buzzed with false peace again.
The bounty halls were ash.
The guilds in disarray.
Petal returned to HQ two days later—shoulders straight, mask polished, pink hair tied back neatly.
She said little during debrief. Just:
"They won't hunt Shadows in that city again."
Lio simply nodded.
Then handed her a small, flat envelope.
Black wax.
Coin-sealed.
But the real shock came from what was inside.
The Letter
There was no greeting.
Just a single sentence, written in elegant silver ink:
"Petaline Everen, you still wear the name they gave you… but not the one I did."
Petal froze.
Only one person had ever called her that.
Only one person had ever known her before she became a Shadow.
Flashback: Before S.I.N
She'd once been a child in a noble orphanage—trained, conditioned, and nearly sold to a fear mage.
Before she escaped…
Before Shin found her…
There was someone else.
A girl.
An older Shadow in training.
A protector.
A sister, not by blood—but by blade.
Her name was: Silenne.
She had vanished during a failed mission in Gravemire five years ago.
Everyone presumed her dead.
Petal had never spoken of her.
Until now.
She turned the letter over.
A second message, burned faintly into the back:
"I couldn't protect you back then. But you became something I never imagined.
If you want to find me… follow the coinlight trail in the Hollow Tree."
Scene: Shin's Office
That night, Petal stood before Shin, silent.
He looked at her over the rim of his tea.
His eyes met hers.
"You found someone," he said simply.
She nodded.
"You're asking for clearance?"
Petal shook her head.
"I'm asking for a partner.
I want Lio with me."
Shin's coin pulsed once.
Then he reached into a drawer, pulled out two pale-blue veil pins shaped like leaves.
"Hollow Tree's outside safe zone borders.
If she's alive… someone let her live."
He placed the pins in their hands.
"Bring back the truth. Or bury it clean."
— SYSTEM UPDATE —
[ PERSONAL MISSION TRIGGERED: "Petal's Real Name" ]
Objectives:
Locate the Hollow Tree
Trace coinlight trail to find Silenne
Confirm survival, memory, or death
Risk Level: High (Non-Sanctified Zone)
Companion Assigned: Agent Lio
Emotional Link Detected: "Repressed Familial Attachment"
Far from HQ, beneath rotting leaves and cursed branches…
A lone figure in torn black robes sat at the base of a massive tree.
Half her mask shattered.
Her coin broken.
But her eyes still burned bright.
She whispered:
"Petal… you're finally coming."
The Hollow Tree was not on any map.
It lived at the edge of every nightmare whispered by old S.I.N operatives.
A cursed zone.
A Coin-Echo Scar—a place where too many missions went wrong, where too many agents died clutching their masks.
They called it:
The Forest of Shared Lies.
Because when you entered it…
It told you stories only you could believe.
Petal and Lio Enter
Cloaked in coinlight dampeners and guided only by a flickering trail of blue flames, Petal and Lio moved silently through the fog-choked trees.
Their communicator sigils fizzled.
Coin pulses slowed.
Even Shin's voice—usually a distant comfort in emergencies—was gone.
Only their memories remained.
And the forest used them.
The Illusions Begin
It started with whispers.
First soft.
Then pointed.
"He only came with you because Shin told him to."
"She still thinks you're weak. A failed recruit."
"If you fall, the other won't even blink."
Petal's eye twitched.
Lio said nothing.
But the forest twisted more.
Lio's Illusion
He stood alone, blood on his hands, surrounded by the bodies of agents he had personally recruited…
Including Petal.
A voice behind him whispered:
"You collect them like tools.
Shin only let you lead because he knew you'd break first."
He clenched his fist, but his coin flickered.
A flash of doubt.
A moment too long.
Petal's Illusion
She saw herself as a child again.
Silenne leaving her behind.
Shin walking past her, saying,
"You're not a Shadow. You were always a burden."
She sank to her knees.
"He gave you a name. But even that wasn't yours."
She looked up…
…and saw herself staring back.
Breaking the Illusion
They were seconds from falling deeper, their bonds fraying under weightless guilt—
Until Petal screamed:
"LIO!"
The forest trembled.
Somewhere in the fog, Lio whispered:
"I never doubted you."
And suddenly—
Their coins flared together.
Twin pulses of reversed fear.
Inversion Pulse: Dual Resonance.
The illusions shattered, recoiling in ghostlight shock.
The fog parted.
And the forest whispered back:
"Two mirrors… unbroken."
— SYSTEM NOTIFICATION —
[ COIN RESONANCE SURGE ]
Illusion Pulse Broken
Shared Memory Fracture Rejected
Passive Buff Gained:
"Anchor Bond" – As long as Lio and Petal are within 100 meters of each other, all illusion and fear-based effects are reduced by 70%
Ahead, beneath the twisting black roots of the Hollow Tree…
A figure stirred.
A broken coin.
A hand rising weakly.
And a voice, cracked but alive:
"You still wear my name, don't you?"
Petal's breath caught.
"Silenne...?"
Silenne lay cradled at the roots of the Hollow Tree.
Her mask was shattered.
Her coin—cracked in three places—flickered faintly like a dying star.
She was alive, but barely.
And not all of her was still Silenne.
Petal dropped to her knees beside her.
"You should be dead."
"I was," Silenne whispered. "But the Tree… it doesn't let its chosen die.
Not if they still have something to teach."
Her voice trembled—part human, part resonant.
Lio stood back, blade ready.
"That coin is wrong. It's leaking inverted memories."
Silenne reached for Petal's cheek, barely touching it.
"I called you Petaline before you even had a name.
Let me hear it one last time… as me."
The Forbidden Ritual: Coin Restoration
Petal pulled a small scroll from her coat.
She had memorized it.
Shin's one warning:
"If you use this, you risk fusing your coin with theirs. You may lose yourself. Or worse—share their burdens forever."
But she looked at Silenne.
Her mentor. Her first protector. Her only "sister."
And she said:
"If I was worth saving… then so are you."
She placed her coin beside the broken one.
A circle of shadowglass and silver ash surrounded them both.
Lio called out:
"Petal! The tree's pulsing. The forest's waking up."
But she had already begun.
— RITUAL: COIN RESTORATION —
Requirements:
Name of Bond (spoken aloud)
Shared Memory (unfiltered)
One willing risk
One dying soul
Petal whispered:
"Petaline Everen. You gave me that name."
She pressed her coin to Silenne's broken one.
A wave of light surged between them.
And memory spilled into the clearing—
Petal crying under rain as a girl.
Silenne holding her hand.
Silenne's scream as she was dragged away in Gravemire.
Petal's silence. Her years of never asking.
Her whisper in training: "I'll find her someday."
And now… she had.
But at a price.
Her coin cracked once.
And Silenne's flared.
Their edges merged.
Symbols overlapped.
Pain laced through Petal's chest as her mask vibrated.
Lio stepped forward.
"PETAL—"
"I know!" she shouted. "I know what I'm doing!"
Then silence.
The tree stopped pulsing.
The light faded.
Silenne gasped.
Her coin—reborn.
Black and silver. Half hers. Half Petal's.
"You… idiot," she said weakly.
"Now we're stuck together."
Petal smiled—crying.
"I know."
— SYSTEM UPDATE —
[ RITUAL COMPLETE ]
Silenne's Coin Restored
Bond Type: "Merged Echo"
Petal's Coin Stability: 87%
Shared Memory Surge: 3% Drift Risk
Passive Gained:
"Echo Thread" – Petal and Silenne may access each other's memories, reflexes, and emotional readings in combat
Lio knelt beside them both, holding up a comm-sigil.
"Shin's going to kill me."
Petal smirked.
"Tell him I leveled up."