WHISPERS OF THE FORBIDDEN CREATURES: Echoes and Embers

Chapter 39: Echoes and Embers

The wind rolled gently through the meadow, bending tall grasses and whispering lullabies in a language older than time. Lila sat beneath a sprawling willow tree, her gaze fixed on the horizon where the ruins of Arcanwyn stood like broken teeth on a sleeping giant.

She didn't remember the name of the place.She didn't remember her name either.

But something inside her stirred every time Niall spoke. Every time he looked at her with that quiet ache in his eyes. Like he was trying to hold onto the sun before it slipped away.

"You keep bringing me here," she said one afternoon, running her fingers through the soft wildflowers around her. "Why?"

"Because it mattered," Niall replied, sitting beside her. "This place. You. Us."

Her brow furrowed. "Did I do something important?"

He hesitated. Then, softly: "You saved us."

Silence stretched between them like a canyon. She picked a daisy and tucked it behind her ear, the motion familiar but distant, like muscle memory haunted by ghosts.

And then—faintly—a flicker.

A girl standing in moonlight. A book glowing in her hands. A boy with storm-gray eyes reaching out to her. A dark crown falling. A name: Lila.

She gasped.

It was gone again in a blink, like smoke in the breeze.

But it was a start.

That night, she dreamed of flames. Not destruction but rebirth. From the ashes of what she had forgotten, something new began to grow.

Her soul had fractured to save a world.

But maybe, just maybe… it could be rebuilt.

One piece at a time.