Echoes of the Forgotten

As though she were unconstrained by gravity or the same hopelessness that overcame him, Kaia moved next to him with strangely light steps. As though she knew this location better than he did, she maintained her composure and her steady look. The way she moved, too fluid, too effortless, as though she were a part of the vacuum itself, spooked Icarus observed her out of the corner of his eye.

With an itchy voice from the silence between them, he questioned, "Where are we going?" 

Kaia's expression was unreadable as she turned her head slightly. "Everything is remembered here. It clings on memories that ought to have vanished and moments that ought to have been deleted. We'll track one down." 

Icarus scowled. "Memories?"

With an itchy voice from the silence between them, he questioned, "Where are we going?" 

Kaia's expression was unreadable as she turned her head slightly. "Everything is remembered here. It clings on memories that ought to have vanished and moments that ought to have been deleted. We'll track one down." 

Icarus scowled. "Memories?"

Kaia gave a nod. "Time fragments. Places, people, and whole histories that ought to be extinct but nevertheless linger here. They are neither dead nor alive. They just... remain." 

The area around them abruptly changed before Icarus could ask her any more questions. Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of them as the darkness shook like turbulent water. It wasn't quite human. Its shape was chaotic; it kept disintegrating and reassembling as if it were defying the laws of reality.

Icarus tensed as the thing made a low, garbled noise. It had a hauntingly familiar quality that pulled at the torn edges of his shattered memory. 

The figure's voice was then overlaid with innumerable echoes as it talked. "Icarus… you abandoned us." 

With his heart pounding in his ears, Icarus stepped back. "Who are you?" 

The thing trembled, as if the question hurt it. Its features shifted between several faces and ages, its flashing form contorted. 

"What's left is us. Lost in the abyss, forgotten."

Tilting her head, Kaia observed the creature with eerie patience. Murmuring, "You know them," she said. "Or you did." 

Icarus's mind was a tornado of jumbled memories as he tightened his hands. "I don't remember." 

Something broken, something incomplete, the entity made a sound that may have been a sob or a laugh. 

"Of course you don't… they took that from you." 

Icarus felt a shiver run down his back. "Who?"

More furiously, as if it were unravelling, the entity's form faltered. "Those who were afraid of you. The truth was hidden by them. the people who degraded you. 

Icarus gasped for air. The gods. His family. They were the ones who had duped him, taken away his authority, and cast him into this pit. However, why? How could he have earned such a fate? 

Demanding, "Tell me," he moved forward. "Tell me what they did to me!" 

The distorted voice grew fainter as the thing shuddered. "I cannot… not yet… but you must remember… before it's too late."

The emptiness shuddered, and then the thing screamed, distorted. Its shape broke, plunging into the abyss and forming a waterfall of light and shadow. Instinctively, Icarus stretched out, but nothing remained to grasp. 

Quiet. 

Kaia turned to face him, the broken remains of the entity's existence reflected in her eyes. "Do you believe me now?" 

Icarus's jaw tightened. "I don't know what to believe." 

After examining him for a while, Kaia nodded. "Then we keep moving."

The stillness between them stretched into something heavy and unexpected as they continued to push into the emptiness. Icarus's mind was a whirlpool of questions, with fragments of recollections biting at the limits of his awareness. He had the unshakeable impression that he had just come across a fragment of himself, one that had been torn away and allowed to decay here.

Then the emptiness changed once more. 

The world cracked this time, not just rippled. Icarus noticed something beyond the never-ending black for the first time as a ragged streak of light broke through the blackness. In front of him, a landscape seemed as though it had been painted by an invisible hand. The city was in ruins, its structures collapsing, its streets resonating with echoes—people who never were, vanishing and resurfacing like mirages. Some looped through repeating movements, while others were stuck in mid-action, resembling fragmented records of a bygone era. 

Kaia took a step forward, her face growing serious. Muttering, "This is one of them," she said. "A timeline that has been forgotten. An erasing of reality."

Icarus's stomach twisted as he followed her gaze. "What keeps it here? Shouldn't it be gone if it was erased?" 

Kaia gave a headshake. "Really, nothing goes away. What is thrown aside is gathered by the emptiness. There are many items here that were intended to be forgotten. 

Icarus took a deep breath and moved deeper into the destroyed city. Voices from the past were crying out to him from the voids in time, whispering now. A few were begging. There were others yelling. 

Then, he saw something that made his breath catch.

In the middle of the destroyed city, a huge building loomed—a temple, with architecture so recognizable that it made him shudder. 

This was a location he knew. 

He leaned out and touched the weathered stone, his hands shaking. His head was filled with pictures. This was not the first time he had stood here. This was where he had reigned. 

In a whisper, "This… this was mine," he said. "This was my domain." 

Kaia kept a close eye on him. "Yes. They also took it away from you. 

Icarus' heart thumping, he turned. "Tell me. How did they harm me? 

When Kaia's eyes locked with his, he noticed something in them that worried him for the first time: sympathy.