chapter 19

The Sound Beneath Silence

Lyra arrived at the watchtower just as the sun kissed the treetops.

In her arms — the child with violet eyes and the sealed mouth.

Still asleep. Still glowing faintly.

Calem froze when he saw her.

> "Lyra… what did you bring back?"

She ignored him, heading straight up the stone spiral to the rooftop — where Astrael stood, staring at the fractured Moon.

He turned, sensing her before she spoke.

But when his gaze fell upon the child…

He staggered back.

The same violet eyes.

The same silver shimmer.

The same silence.

> "You saw him too," Lyra whispered.

> "I… I dreamed him. No, remembered him."

> "His name?" she asked.

> "I don't know."

> "He knows you."

---

The moment Lyra placed the child before him, the air grew heavy.

The tower groaned.

A tremor passed beneath their feet.

And in that silence—

the child opened his eyes.

For the first time, he truly looked at Astrael.

And Astrael… felt something awaken inside him.

Like a door opening in his mind.

A door with no key.

Only memory.

Suddenly—

The stitches vanished.

The light that sealed the boy's mouth unraveled like smoke.

The child blinked.

And then—

> "Astrael," he spoke.

---

The voice was too old for his body.

Too calm. Too deep.

Lyra gasped.

> "How is he speaking? He—"

> "I remember now," the boy said, staring into Astrael.

"Because you touched the Moonfire. You woke me."

Astrael knelt before him.

> "Who are you?"

The child tilted his head.

> "I am your Echo."

---

Malrik, who had rushed in breathless, nearly collapsed hearing that.

> "No," he whispered. "No, that's not possible."

> "He was a myth," Calem stammered behind him.

But the child didn't blink.

> "I am the part of him that was cut away to protect this realm.

Before time turned. Before the Moons fractured."

Astrael's mind raced.

> "You're… me?"

> "Not anymore. But once, yes. We were one."

The tower shook again. This time stronger.

From the sky — a piece of the Second Moon fell like stardust, disappearing before it hit earth.

---

The Moon Priestess appeared at the doorway.

Her cloak moved like shadowlight.

Her eyes locked with the child's.

> "You should not have awakened."

> "And yet here I am," the boy replied.

> "He's unstable," she said to Lyra. "He's still bound to a timeline that no longer exists."

Lyra stepped in front of the boy.

> "He's alive. And he remembers. That matters."

> "It terrifies me that he remembers," the Priestess snapped.

"Because if he speaks too much…"

She turned to Astrael.

> "…you'll become what the Moon tried to bury."

---

Astrael felt it now.

The pull.

The connection.

As if this child carried all the pain he never understood.

Every shadow in his memory.

Every silence in his dreams.

> "What happens now?" he asked quietly.

The child looked up at the cracked Moon.

> "We wait.

For the ones who fractured us to return."

> "And when they do?"

The boy smiled.

> "We break them."

---

Far away, beyond the black cliffs of Nocturne,

Vaelira stood at the edge of the Lunar Gate.

She felt it.

> "He speaks again," she whispered.

Behind her, armies of silver-eyed creatures stirred.

> "Prepare the Gate," she ordered.

"Because when they come for him…"

She smiled darkly.

> "We'll be waiting."

---

To be continued…

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