The city was alive beneath his skin now.
Not just light or shadow — something far older, deeper.
It was breathing.
Watching.
Waiting.
The woman's grip was cold but steady.
"Hold on," she said.
"Because once you see beneath the surface, there's no going back."
He wanted to ask her name, but the city answered first.
A whisper slid through the air — a language made of echoes, cracks, and breaths.
It filled the alleyways like smoke, weaving through the twisting streets until it reached him.
"Remember."
His mind splintered.
Images poured in.
A shattered glass chandelier, glittering under moonlight.
A wooden door, half-rotted, creaking open to reveal a forgotten room.
A woman's laugh — soft and sharp, like broken glass on skin.
And then — a boy. A boy with eyes too old for his face.
"Who are you?" The woman's voice cut through the haze.
He blinked, struggling to hold the flood.
"I'm... someone."
He wasn't lying — but the truth was more tangled.
The shadows behind them began to stir.
Fragments of lost memories took shape — figures with hollow faces and reaching hands.
They moved like smoke, twisting and twisting until they became something solid.
A mass of faces, all whispering his name.
"Remember," they chanted.
He felt the seed pulse stronger.
Roots spread from his chest, weaving into the city's veins.
The woman pointed at the shadows.
"Those are the forgotten.
Pieces of yourself you cast away.
They want to consume you — to drag you into oblivion."
"But why me?" he asked, voice raw.
"Because you're the fracture.
The crack in the city's perfect mask.
The place where memory leaks.
Where things meant to be lost slip through."
The shadows lunged.
He stumbled back — but the roots inside him flared.
Light burst from his palms, slicing through the faces.
One by one, they shattered — releasing bursts of cold wind and whispered regrets.
He gasped, heart hammering.
"This power… where does it come from?"
The woman smiled, her mirror armor shimmering.
"From the roots of the city — and the ashes of your past."
Suddenly, the ground trembled.
A deep rumble echoed below.
The woman's eyes darkened.
"They are coming."
The sky cracked open — a jagged tear splitting the city's breath.
From it spilled creatures — neither shadow nor light, but something worse.
Their eyes burned with hunger.
Their voices were silence.
He clenched his fists, feeling the seed's power pulse like a living thing.
The woman drew a blade from the shards on her armor — a mirror's edge that caught the broken city light.
"Stand with me."
He nodded, fear and fire blazing inside.
The forgotten city was no longer just a place to escape.
It was a battlefield.
And he was its reluctant soldier.
End of Chapter 6.