WHISPERS OF THE FORBIDDEN CREATURES: Echoes of the Broken Veil

Chapter 41: Echoes of the Broken Veil

The shattering wasn't loud. It was quiet. Like the sound of a final breath, a glass heart cracking in silence. But the world changed.

Lila stood frozen in the middle of the dais, her body suspended in a pool of pulsing light. The broken sky above her rippled like water, revealing glimpses of something ancient pressing through. Not just memories but realities. Threads of time, tangled and split, all converging in this single moment.

Niall had stumbled backward, shielding his eyes from the brilliance pouring from Lila's body. "Lila! Talk to me!"

She didn't answer. She couldn't.

Because she wasn't entirely here anymore.

In her mind, she stood in two places at once. One foot planted in the ruined clearing of the present, the other in a time long past. The runes beneath her feet glowed in the same sequence they had in her dream—and now she knew what they meant.

The language was old, not just ancient but primordial, born from the First Flame that lit the world. Her blood remembered it.

"Averan'khal," she whispered aloud, her voice echoing like a bell through both the vision and the woods around her.

The light pulsed in response.

Before her stood an altar again, just as it had in the vision. This time, however, it wasn't a dream. It was now.

A blade appeared on the altar, its handle wrapped in leather and bone, the edge shimmering with runes carved into the very metal. Beside it, the vial—the same shimmering elixir. Memories surged like a tidal wave, crashing through her:

She had stood here before.

She had made the choice.

She had given everything.

Lila dropped to her knees. Tears spilled from her eyes but turned to steam before they could touch the stone. The power coursing through her was fire..pure, ancient fire. It didn't burn her. It recognized her.

"I was the Keeper," she murmured. "I took the Veil upon myself. Bound it to my soul."

Niall was at the edge of the dais now, hesitating to cross it. The rippling air around it seemed to repel him. "Lila, what do you mean? What Veil? What are you talking about?"

Her eyes locked on his, glowing like twin stars.

"There was a time before the Divide," she said slowly, struggling against the pull of the vision. "Before the Creatures were locked away. Before the world split in two. There was no boundary between this world and theirs. And I... I was chosen to hold the barrier. The Veil."

"You?" Niall whispered. "But you're just—"

"A girl?" She almost laughed, though her voice trembled. "I was. Once. But the Veil takes everything. It took my past, my name, my memories. It made me its vessel."

He stepped onto the dais, the magic parting like mist to let him through. He knelt beside her.

"So why now? Why are you remembering all of this?"

Lila looked down at her hands. Flames curled around her fingers like ribbons. "Because the Veil is failing. Whatever I did back then, it was temporary. And now it's unraveling. The Forbidden Creatures are stirring. The balance is breaking."

The altar pulsed again.

"You must choose again," the voice from before whispered—her own voice from a forgotten past.

Niall clenched his fists. "There has to be another way. You don't have to carry this alone."

"I know," she said gently. "That's why you're here."

The moment she said it, the dais flared with light, expanding outward into a ring of fire. Symbols lifted from the ground and hovered around them, spinning faster and faster.

A silhouette stepped from the edge of the clearing. Tall, robed, and faceless.

"She has remembered," the figure said, voice layered with echoes. "The Balance teeters. The choice must be made."

Lila stood. The blade rose into the air and flew into her hand. The vial followed, nestling against her heart.

"If I do this," she said, "what happens to me?"

The figure tilted its head. "That depends on the strength of your soul. To become the Veil again requires complete surrender. Or..."

Lila waited.

"...you may pass the burden to another."

She looked at Niall.

His eyes widened. "No. Don't even think it."

But her heart ached. Because she had thought it. Even for a moment.

The fire calmed.

"You came all this way with me," she said softly. "You never asked for anything. Never demanded answers. You just... stayed."

He stepped closer. "Because I believe in you. And because somewhere deep down, I knew. Maybe not the details, but I knew you were meant for something greater. But that doesn't mean you have to lose yourself."

The runes dimmed.

She clutched the blade. Lifted it.

The choice. It was hers again. To take the power and the burden. To lock the Forbidden Creatures behind a living wall.

Or to find another way.

Lila closed her eyes. Felt the echoes.

Her past self's courage.

Her present self's fear.

Her future self's hope.

"No more sacrifices," she said. "Not alone."

She took the vial, poured it over the blade. The metal hissed, then glowed.

And then, she struck the stone beneath her with the tip of the sword.

Light exploded, but it wasn't destructive. It was healing.

The dais cracked. The altar crumbled. But from its ruin grew a tree silver-barked, flame-leafed, pulsing with magic.

Lila dropped the blade.

The figure watched.

"You have rewritten the path."

Niall caught her as she swayed. "You did it."

She smiled, eyes dimming to their normal color.

"No. We did."

The world didn't end. Not yet. But it had changed. And this time, the fire remembered love more than sacrifice.

And Lila remembered who she truly was.