Chapter 13: Memories Like Echoes.

Chapter 13:

Memories Like Echoes

The faceless figures loomed before him, their hollow gazes piercing through the fragile remains of his certainty. Their presence was not hostile, nor was it welcoming. They simply were—like echoes of something forgotten, waiting for him to remember.

Errin stepped forward, drawn to the empty throne at the center of the great hall. His heart pounded in his chest, each beat stirring something deep within.

Memories, like shattered glass, pieced themselves together.

A war among the stars. A realm beyond the valley. A name spoken in reverence, in fear.

His name.

But just as he reached for it, the vision shifted.

The palace faded. The faceless figures dissolved like mist.

And suddenly, he was standing in a sunlit field, the scent of wildflowers thick in the air.

The valley.

But not as he had known it.

This was before.

Before he had arrived as an outsider. Before he had forgotten.

Figures moved around him—people he recognized. The storyteller, younger, laughing as she carried a basket of fruit. The villagers, faces familiar yet different, untouched by time.

And among them, a woman.

She turned, meeting his gaze.

His breath caught.

He knew her.

She knew him.

A name formed on his lips. The name he had forgotten.

But before he could speak it—

The world broke.

Pain tore through him as memories surged like a flood, too much, too fast. Visions of lifetimes collapsed upon him—cities of gold, battles fought beneath burning skies, a love lost to time itself.

His knees buckled. His vision blurred.

And as the valley faded once more, one truth remained, echoing through his mind like a whisper from the past:

He had never been just an outsider.