THE WEIGHT OF TRUTH

Chapter 17

The memory still burned behind Aya's eyes.

The golden city, the spiraling towers, the people, her people, all swallowed by the encroaching darkness. And at the heart of it all stood a woman bathed in light, a woman Aya somehow knew she had been before.

The realization rattled inside her.

She wasn't just connected to the Forgotten.

She had been part of them.

And she had been the one to seal them away.

She barely registered Idris's steady grip on her arms, keeping her from collapsing. His voice was urgent but distant. "Aya, what happened? What did you see?"

Kael stepped closer, his scholarly curiosity momentarily tempered by concern. "You were gone for a moment, but your expression changed… as if you were watching something no one else could see."

Aya drew in a shaky breath, her mind racing. "It wasn't just a vision," she murmured, feeling the weight of her words. "It was a memory. A memory from a time long before this, before the seals, before everything."

Varos's glowing gaze never wavered. "And now you understand."

Aya clenched her fists. "No," she admitted, shaking her head. "I don't. Not yet."

The echoes of the past still felt fragmented, like scattered pieces of a puzzle she wasn't ready to put together.

But one thing was clear:

The Forgotten weren't just some nameless threat.

They had been people, a civilization that had existed, that had thrived. And Aya, her past self, had been there at the moment of their fall.

And worse still

She had sealed them away herself.

But why?

And if she had locked them away… why did they still call to her?

The Third Seal Stirs

A deep rumbling snapped Aya out of her thoughts.

She turned sharply toward the cracked stone at the center of the chamber. The golden light within it flickered violently, surging in and out of existence as if it were struggling against something unseen.

The entire chamber trembled.

Varos stiffened. "The Third Seal is beginning to fail."

Idris swore under his breath. "Tell me that doesn't mean what I think it means."

Varos did not answer.

The answer was already clear.

Aya took a slow step forward, her fingers tingling with a strange energy. "If the seal is breaking… then something is trying to get out."

Eshra, who had remained silent up until now, finally spoke. "We should leave," she said, her voice sharp with urgency. "If the last seal fails, we don't know what will happen."

But Aya wasn't so sure.

The memories, the whispers, the fragments of the past, they all led to this.

The Forgotten wanted her to remember.

And now, more than ever, she needed to understand why.

A Choice That Must Be Made

The chamber's torches flickered wildly, their flames fighting against an unseen force. The weight in the air grew heavier, thick with something ancient.

Then, suddenly

A new voice whispered through the chamber.

Not Varos.

Not the Forgotten.

Something else.

Something deeper.

"You are not ready."

Aya's blood turned to ice.

The voice wasn't threatening. It wasn't warning her, either.

It was stating a fact.

Aya's fingers curled into fists. "Then make me ready."

For a moment, silence stretched across the chamber.

Then

The seal shattered.

A wave of golden light erupted outward, blinding them all. Aya threw up her arms, shielding herself as the force nearly knocked her off her feet.

When the glow finally dimmed, she forced herself to look.

The cracked stone at the center of the chamber was gone.

In its place stood a figure cloaked in shadows and light.

Tall. Unmoving. Watching.

Aya's breath caught in her throat.

She knew this presence.

It had been there, in her vision, standing at the center of the golden city's destruction.

The First Forgotten.

And it was looking directly at her.

The First Forgotten

The silence stretched too long.

Aya could feel Idris shifting beside her, readying his blade. Eshra muttered a quiet curse under her breath. Even Kael, so often lost in thought, had gone utterly still.

Varos, however, did not move.

Because he knew what had just awoken.

The figure stood motionless, its form wavering between shadow and substance, as though it did not fully belong in this world. And yet, its presence was undeniable.

Then, finally, it spoke.

"You have done well to come this far."

Aya swallowed. "Who are you?"

The figure's gaze did not waver. "I am the First."

Aya's pulse pounded. The First Forgotten. The one erased before all others.

But why?

Why had this one been locked away deeper than the rest?

Aya took another step forward. "Why did I seal you away?"

The First tilted its head. "You do not yet understand."

Aya's patience was wearing thin. "Then tell me."

The First was silent for a long moment. Then it said,

"Because you feared the truth."

Aya stiffened.

The truth.

Something about the words sent a shiver down her spine.

Varos finally broke his silence. "Do not listen," he warned, his voice firm. "The Forgotten were sealed for a reason. You must not waver."

But Aya was no longer sure.

The Forgotten had been people once. A civilization. Something beautiful and ancient.

Could they have deserved this?

The First's eyes burned with something that felt older than time itself. "The seals were not meant to imprison monsters," it said. "They were meant to imprison the truth."

Aya's breath came uneven.

The truth.

The real reason the Forgotten had been erased.

And deep down, she knew

She had been the one to bury it.

A Future That Cannot Be Stopped

The weight of it all crashed down on her.

The seals weren't just barriers.

They were lies.

And now, Aya had to make a choice.

Did she break the final seal and uncover what she had once tried to forget?

Or did she walk away, leaving the Forgotten buried forever?

Idris's voice was soft but steady. "Aya… what do we do?"

Aya's heartbeat pounded in her ears.

There was no turning back.

No running from the past.

She exhaled slowly, turning to face the First Forgotten once more.

And then

She made her choice.

What's Next?

What did Aya's past self truly fear?

Were the Forgotten imprisoned for a reason, or was history rewritten?👇