They camped in the ruins of the ravine, firelight flickering against shattered stone and fallen Sentinels. Kade couldn't sleep. Not with Caela sitting silently, gazing at the flame she had conjured—one that burned with neither heat nor fuel.
Just memory.
Aurelle leaned against a broken pillar, arms crossed. "She hasn't spoken since she blasted those Sentinels out of existence."
Lira, sharpening her blade nearby, glanced at them. "Would you talk if you remembered a thousand deaths?"
Caela finally spoke.
"Try ten thousand."
The fire dimmed at her words.
Kade sat beside her. "Caela... why were you in that crystal?"
She didn't look at him. "You sealed me there. After I tore a timeline in half. After I begged you to kill me."
Kade stiffened. "I—I don't remember doing that."
"No. You wouldn't. The you from that cycle wiped your own memory. To forget me." Her voice cracked. "It was the only way you could keep going."
He was quiet for a long time.
Then: "But I found you again."
She looked at him finally—eyes glowing with a flame deeper than fire. "You always find me. In every cycle. Every world. And it always ends the same. With me remembering everything... and you remembering nothing."
Aurelle stepped forward. "She's fractured, Kade. Like you. But not broken the same way. Her mind is anchored to every timeline. That's what it means to be a Prime."
Lira sheathed her blade. "That's why the Chrono-Sentinels wanted her dead. She's a living contradiction."
"I'm more than that," Caela said softly. "I'm a threat. My mind holds ruptures. If I lose control... time collapses."
Kade frowned. "So we keep you anchored. Together."
Caela shook her head. "You don't understand. I'm already unraveling."
She raised her hand.
The fire split into seven flames, each dancing to its own rhythm—then twisted, revealing images within:
—Kade dying with silver wings in a burning cathedral.
—Lira stabbing Aurelle through the heart in a palace of glass.
—Caela, crucified atop a mountain of corpses, laughing through tears.
—A boy with Kade's eyes and Caela's fire screaming as the world exploded around him.
"These aren't dreams," she whispered. "They're memories. From futures that shouldn't exist. But they do. Because I lived them all."
Silence fell. Even the wind seemed afraid.
Then Aurelle whispered, "The Veil is thinning."
"The what?" Kade asked.
"The Veil," Caela echoed, her voice hollow. "It separates timelines. Futures. Possibilities. When you fall through too many... it tears. And what lies beyond starts leaking in."
Lira looked around. "Then we need to reinforce it. Whatever that means."
"No," Caela said. "We need to go through it. To the breach."
Kade's eyes narrowed. "The breach?"
"There's a tear in reality. A literal wound in the Veil. Something... woke it. Something even I can't remember."
Aurelle turned pale. "The Wounded Point. It was only a theory."
Caela nodded. "It's real. And it's calling to us."
"But why us?" Kade asked.
"Because we're anomalies, Kade. We don't belong to a single timeline anymore. We're the cracks in the loop. The echoes."
Just then—
A noise broke the silence.
A single bell toll.
Then another.
DING.
DONG.
Seven times it rang.
And then the sky split.
A rift opened above them—like a cut in the heavens—through which lightless energy poured. Shapes moved inside. Eyes. Wings. Teeth.
And a voice.
> "Come, Caela. Come, Fractured Child. The gods demand payment."
The rift pulsed—and Caela screamed, clutching her head.
Kade reached for her, but was thrown back by a shockwave.
"No!" she shouted. "Don't touch me! If you do, you'll see it! You'll remember everything!"
Kade got back up, bleeding from his nose. "Let me remember. I'm not afraid."
"You should be," she gasped. "Because if you remember... you die like them."
But he grabbed her wrist.
And in that moment—
Memories flooded him.
He stood on the edge of a shattered moon, Caela dying in his arms.
He screamed as gods tore his soul apart, again and again.
He sealed her in crystal with his own hand, whispering: "Forgive me."
Then—
Darkness.
Kade let go, collapsing.
Caela fell to her knees, sobbing. "You remember now…"
"Not all," he whispered. "But enough."
Aurelle stepped forward, shielding them from the rift's glare. "What is that thing?!"
"The bell calls," Caela murmured. "And we've been marked."
Kade looked up at the tear in the sky.
"No more running. If we've been chosen... we choose back."
He rose, blood running down his cheek, eyes glowing faintly.
"I've died a thousand times in silence. Now I'll fight with memory as my sword."
---
End of Chapter 22