Chapter 18 – Fragments of the Past

Jin stood in the dense shadows of the forest, the familiar scent of wet earth and decaying leaves hanging thick in the air. His gaze remained fixed on the small group of strangers, their faces etched with caution and disbelief. It had been years since he had seen another soul. The isolation had become his constant companion, a silence that had crept into his bones and suffused his very being.

He didn't remember the last time he had been around others, not truly. The faces of those he had once known—his family, his people—were little more than fragmented images in his mind. They had faded over time, like the fleeting echoes of a life he had never fully understood. He had come to believe that the forest was all there was, that he was no longer part of the world beyond its shadowed depths. And yet, here they were. Strangers, speaking in a language he almost didn't recognize.

Aria, her name came to him like a whisper from a faraway place, a name he'd heard in passing years ago. Her bow, poised and ready, her eyes filled with wariness, it all felt so… alien. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to be seen, to be looked at as something other than a shadow, a myth. These people were afraid of him. But that fear—he knew it wasn't just the forest that caused it. It was him. Something in him, something about him, had changed.

He could feel the shift in himself, the weight of what had been buried deep inside him for so long. The power that had been dormant, forgotten, now stirred beneath his skin. It thrummed with a strange, ancient energy that he couldn't yet fully comprehend. It wanted to break free, but Jin held it in check, afraid of what would happen if he let it loose. It wasn't just his power that had been forgotten—he had forgotten who he truly was.

I am Jin. The name felt foreign on his lips. It wasn't a name that belonged to the boy who had run into the forest all those years ago. No, this was the name of someone who had become the forest, someone who had merged with its darkness, its pulse. A name that carried with it the weight of a past he couldn't fully recall, but one that was slowly—painfully—coming back to him.

"For the ones who have lost their way."

Those words lingered in his mind. Who had he been before? What had his purpose been? He had once known the answers to these questions, but now they felt elusive, slipping through his fingers like sand. Meeting these people had stirred something in him. Something that had been dormant for so long. He hadn't realized how desperately he had longed for human contact, for recognition. But now, in their fearful eyes, he saw nothing but wariness and hesitation. It made him wonder—was he still human? Could he be?

He watched them, their uncertainty palpable, their fear of him like a thick fog in the air. His gaze flickered to Aelius, the strong one of the group, his hand never far from his weapon. Jin could see the way his muscles tensed, ready to strike if need be. It made him feel something sharp in his chest—a strange pang of something. It wasn't fear, nor anger, but a strange kind of loneliness. They didn't know him, and perhaps they never would. He wasn't sure if he wanted them to. But the ache in his heart was undeniable.

For a long moment, Jin remained silent, as if waiting for something—anything—to give him a sense of direction, of purpose. His body felt heavy, like it was tied to the earth beneath him, as if the forest itself was holding him in place. He was no longer sure of where he belonged. The forest was his prison, but these people—these strangers—were just as alien to him as the forgotten memories that haunted his every step.

The tension between them thickened, and Jin's thoughts began to spiral. Was this what it was like to be part of the world again? To be seen and feared, not as a shadow, but as something real? Something human?

He wasn't sure he was ready for it.

Yet there was something else beneath it all—a feeling that he couldn't ignore. Despite the fear, despite the distance between them, these people had ventured deep into his world. They had found him, and in their presence, he felt a stir of something he had long since buried. Hope. But hope for what? To return to the world he had once known? Or to forge a new path with them, one that was still shrouded in mystery?

Jin didn't know. But as their eyes met—Aria's gaze filled with a strange mixture of suspicion and curiosity, Aelius's narrowed with a warrior's caution—he realized that this encounter, this strange meeting in the depths of the Dark Forest, was not by accident. It couldn't have been. It was as though something beyond his control had led them here.

And for the first time in years, Jin felt like he was no longer alone.

But what did it mean? What would he become if he allowed himself to embrace it?