Kael sat in silence. The room he entered after the Archivist vanished… wasn't made of walls. It was made of voices. Everywhere he turned, he heard them.
"I shouldn't have died."
"I wanted more time."
"I just… wanted to be seen."
He held his chest. Three threads burned softly inside him. Not painful. Not heavy. Just… alive.
Suddenly, a ripple passed through his vision. The world blurred like someone tugged at reality. He looked up. And saw her. Auri. Not ghost-like. Not in pain. Just… smiling.
"Hey," she said gently.
Kael blinked.
"You're here?"
"Not really," Auri replied.
"But I felt you were about to break again."
Kael clenched his fists.
"I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm just trying not to collapse."
Auri sat beside him or rather, the memory of her did.
"Then collapse. But don't collapse alone."
Behind her, two more forms appeared.
Rilan.
Noen.
Kael stood up. Emotion in his eyes.
"You're echoes… how are you still... talking to me?"
Noen grinned.
"Because you let us in."
"We don't live outside you now.
We live through you."
Suddenly, Kael's shadow twitched. A faint hum echoed in the room. The threads inside him pulsed faster, stronger.
"What's happening?" Kael asked.
Auri tilted her head.
"Someone is remembering you."
A door appeared. It wasn't part of the Archive. It looked ancient, metallic…
but it breathed. The girl the guide appeared once more. Her voice sounded… distant.
"A gate has opened that shouldn't have."
Kael stepped closer.
"Why?"
She looked at the three echoes around him.
"Because they're not just echoes anymore."
"They've become your identity."
"And now, something on the outside has noticed."
Kael stared at the door. From behind it, a whisper emerged.
"Threadkeeper..."
"Do you still know your real name?"
Kael froze. He'd forgotten. The Archive had rewritten so much.
His past.
His pain.
Even... his origin.
The door clicked. Not unlocked. But curious. Auri looked at him.
"If you open that... your past might find you."
"Even the part you buried."
Kael closed his eyes. His breath slow.
"Then let it come."
"Let the truth walk in."
Kael stepped toward the ancient door.
Its surface shimmered like water remembering fire. The closer he got,the more his chest tightened. His echoes stood behind him. Watching. Waiting.
"Do you think… I was someone before all this?" Kael whispered.
Rilan nodded.
"You weren't just someone…"
"You were everything before you chose to forget."
Kael touched the door. A cold pulse surged through his fingers,up his arm, and slammed straight into his mind.
FLASH.
A child screaming. Not in fear but in rage. A house burning. Hands dragging him away. A voice yelling:
"Don't let him see his mother like this!"
Kael fell to his knees.
"I… I know that scream…"
Noen stepped beside him.
"It was yours."
The door creaked open. A golden hallway stretched out,but it was blurred like memory dipped in fog. Kael stepped in. With each footstep,his past became heavier.
He saw flickers:A boy tied to a chair. Hands shaking. A man towering over him.
"You will never speak her name again. She was a curse."
Another flash:The same boy,reading stories alone. Crying silently…but never letting the tear fall.
Kael gasped. His heart raced.
"Why did I forget all this?"
A voice echoed around him. But it wasn't Auri. Not Rilan. Not Noen.It was his.
"Because you had to become something else to survive."
He saw it now. A name, carved into a tree.
"Kaien."
His real name. Not Kael. Not Threadkeeper. Just... Kaien.
He whispered it aloud.
"Kaien…"
The fog trembled. The echoes around him flinched. Even the Archive pulsed. The girl the guide appeared,but her form was fractured. Like someone had stitched her into this place.
"You weren't supposed to remember that name yet," she said softly.
Kael stood.
"But I did."
"And I won't let it go again."
Suddenly, a crack tore across the sky above the memory hall.From it…fell a piece of Kael's original soul. Burning. Twisting. Screaming. A shadow formed behind him. A version of himself but younger, wilder. Eyes filled with grief. Hands stained in blood.
"If you're Kaien… then what am I?"
"The part you locked away?"
Kael stared into his own broken reflection.
"No…"
"You're the part I abandoned."
Kael stared at the shadow. The younger version of himself Kaien. His eyes weren't empty like the others. They burned. Like someone who had lost everything and wasn't ready to forgive.
"Why did you leave me behind?" Kaien hissed.
Kael's throat tightened.
"I didn't leave you… I forgot."
Kaien stepped forward.
"No. You chose to forget."
"You let me rot in that memory... so you could feel 'clean.'"
The room darkened. The walls turned to mirrors each one reflecting different versions of Kael:The boy who screamed in fire. The teen who stopped crying. The warrior who saved others but never healed himself
Each mirror whispered:"Who are you saving, really?"
Kael clenched his fists.
"I didn't know I was erasing you…"
"I just I couldn't live with what we saw."
Kaien's eyes flickered.
"And yet you want to carry others?"
"When you haven't even forgiven yourself?"
Suddenly Kaien attacked. His hands transformed into ink-blades. Not like Inkveil These were raw, jagged, unstable. He swung. Kael dodged barely a line of blood split across his shoulder. Kael didn't retaliate.
"I don't want to fight you…"
Kaien screamed:
"Then feel what I've felt!!"
Another attack. And another. Kael blocked with a thread-formed shield but each hit weakened it. Then Kaien struck straight through Kael's chest. But instead of pain…Kael grabbed his hand. And pulled him close.
"I'm not running from you anymore."
"Hurt me if you have to.
But I'll never erase you again."
Kaien froze. Tears welled in his eyes.
"Why now…? After all this time…?"
Kael whispered:
"Because now I know what it means to be forgotten."
"And I refuse to do that to myself."
The room shook. The mirrors shattered. And from the fragments, a glowing thread floated upward. It was dark crimson the color of regret,stitched with forgiveness. Kael reached out. Kaien stepped back, nodding.
"Take it."
"But don't carry me as a burden."
"Carry me… as your fire."
Kael gripped the thread. It didn't burn. It roared. Suddenly, the other three threads inside him responded and a new symbol etched itself on his arm:
🔥 "Σ: Echo Flame Variant — Kaien Unlocked."
The girl appeared again stunned.
"You… absorbed a broken self?"
"You rewrote your origin?"
Kael stood, steady.
"No more forgetting."
"No more hiding."
"The past walks with me now."