WHISPERS OF THE FORBIDDEN CREATURES: The Fire That Remembers

Chapter 40: The Fire That Remembers

The flames weren't real. Not anymore.

But Lila could feel them. Licking at her thoughts, curling into the hollows of her chest, seeping into the cracks of her fractured soul. Every night, she dreamed of fire. And every morning, she woke up with soot in her heart and ash in her lungs.

The meadow had become her haven. A quiet limbo nestled between who she was and who she might become. She still didn't remember everything. But she was starting to feel. The dreams were changing, not just flickers of a past she couldn't grasp, but full moments, visions laced with emotion.

Tonight, the fire danced not in destruction, but in a circle of runes. Voices chanted in a tongue she didn't know but somehow understood. Her hands hovered over a stone altar, a blade in one, and a shimmering vial in the other. She was making a choice. A vow. A sacrifice.

She woke with a jolt.

Niall was there. Always. Camped beside her beneath the stars, his hair tangled with sleep and his expression lined with unspoken worry. He hadn't pushed. Not once. He simply stayed—a lighthouse for a shipwrecked soul.

"Another vision?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

Lila nodded. "It felt... like a memory. Like I was standing in my own skin, but everything was different."

He reached out, fingers brushing hers. "You're remembering."

"But why this way? Why does it all come with pain?"

He looked away, voice hushed. "Maybe because you bound yourself to something ancient. Something older than memory. And breaking that bond didn't erase the power. It just scattered it."

They sat in silence. The moon was high, and the stars blinked like watchers.

"Niall," she whispered. "What if I did something terrible to protect the world? What if that's what I'm remembering?"

He turned to her fully. "Then you were brave. Whatever it was, you did it for us. And you don't have to carry it alone."

She wanted to believe him. But belief was heavy when truth was missing.

The next day, they traveled west..past the weeping trees, through the veil of silver mist, and into the forgotten woodlands once whispered about in ancient prophecy. Lila could feel the land responding to her presence. The trees leaned in. The wind curled around her like it recognized her scent.

They came to a ruin shaped like a ribcage. White stone, cracked and moss-covered, encased a circular dais inscribed with runes identical to those in her dreams.

The moment her foot touched the dais, the world rippled.

Color drained from the trees. Wind died. The birds ceased.

And then, a voice. Her voice.

"You must choose again, Lila of the Veil. The bond is broken, but the echoes remain. Restore what was lost, or let it all burn."

Niall stepped forward, alarmed. "Lila? Are you okay?"

She was glowing.

Her hair floated like it was underwater, her eyes gone completely white. But she didn't feel fear. She felt home.

"I remember," she breathed.

And then the world shattered.