Beyond the broken hills and the rivers that flowed upward into the sky, they found it—half-buried in clouds and riddled with paradox: a city with no foundation, no past, yet remembered by every dreamer who had ever longed for more.
The girl pointed as they approached. "I've seen this place before… in my sleep. But it's not supposed to be real."
Orion narrowed his eyes. The towers looked carved from moonlight and regret. Streets spiraled like thought-patterns, always leading inward. Names flickered above archways in shifting languages—none legible, all familiar.
"It's being built by memory," Lyra whispered. "Not by hands."
Kael kept one hand on his weapon. "Then whose memory?"
As they stepped into the city's bounds, time slowed. Not the ticking of the world—but their own. Emotions stretched longer than moments. Orion blinked—and in that blink lived a whole lifetime of regret.
A woman, her face long forgotten. A promise made beneath a dying star.
The street beneath him pulsed.
Lyra collapsed to her knees. "It's turning us into echoes."
"No," the girl said. "It's showing us what we're hiding."
From the heart of the city, music began to rise.
Not a tune. Not a song. But a resonance—like longing given form.
They followed it.
Each step deeper unraveled them slightly more. Kael grew quiet, eyes distant. Orion clutched the book tighter, its pages now darkening as new memories tried to write themselves inside.
At the center stood a fountain with no water. Just mist.
And in the mist—a figure.
She looked like Lyra.
But older.
Wounded.
And carrying a child of starlight in her arms.
Orion stepped forward. "What is this place?"
The echo smiled. "A possibility. One that was. One that might be again. But you must choose."
Kael drew his blade. "This again."
But the girl shook her head. "No. Not a threat. A reminder."
The figure in the mist stepped aside, and from the mist rose a gate—spiraling upward into pure light.
"The next realm awaits," said the echo.
"But beware," she added, locking eyes with Orion. "Beyond this, memory dies. Only truth remains."
The city began to crumble.
They had seconds.
Orion turned to the others. "Together."
They stepped through.
And behind them, the City That Dreams sighed—and returned to sleep.