Chapter 21: The Lie That Lives
Light crashes.
Not gentle sunlight—but fractured, spinning shards of a broken sky.
Kael falls through, clutching the scroll, as the Archive vanishes behind him. Naia tumbles after, shouting his name, but her voice is lost in the noise.
When they land, it isn't with a thud.
It's with silence. An absence of truth. Of sound. Of self.
They lie sprawled on cold, black stone.
And above them stretches a city they don't recognize.
But Kael knows it.
It's the world they left behind.
Just rewritten.
Naia groans and pushes herself up. "Where… where are we?"
Kael stands slowly, brushing dust from his coat. His eyes scan the skyline—towers grown like bone through steel, skyships stitched together with soul-wires, and streets below too clean, too… controlled.
"Not where, Naia," he murmurs. "When."
She blinks. "What?"
"This isn't our world," Kael says, voice grim. "It's Reven's version of it."
They move through the city, unnoticed.
People pass them by in perfect lines, faces void of expression. Everyone walks the same pace. Smiles the same amount. No one talks about the past. No one asks why.
Children chant songs about safety and silence.
Posters on every wall read:
❝ PEACE IS REMEMBERING NOTHING. ❞❝ QUESTIONS ARE VIRUSES. ❞❝ THE LOCKS PROTECT YOU. ❞
Naia grabs Kael's arm. "This isn't real. This can't be real."
Kael nods. "It's real enough."
They reach the city's core: a great cathedral built from mirrors. At its highest point, a twisting spire glows red—the mark of Reven.
And standing guard at the cathedral gates?
Thalia.
But not the Thalia Kael knew.
This version wears Reven's brand like a crown. Her eyes burn brighter now. Her armor pulses with stolen memories.
"Back so soon, Vaeren?" she calls, voice echoing across the plaza. "Did the Archivist tell you the truth? Or just another story to bind you?"
Kael steps forward, shielding Naia behind him.
"I remember everything now," he says.
Thalia smiles—no warmth in it.
"Good," she replies. "Because this time, I want you to understand what you're destroying."
She raises her hand.
Behind her, the Fourth Lock rises.
But it's not chained, not hidden.
It is embedded into the people.
Their minds. Their obedience. Their rewritten memories.
The Fourth Lock is the world itself.
Kael's heart sinks.
"How do I open something that doesn't even know it's a prison?"
Thalia steps aside, arms open.
"Easy," she says. "You kill the lie. You rip the truth through their veins. And they'll hate you for it."
Naia gasps. "Kael, you can't—"
Kael doesn't move.
He looks down at the scroll from the Archivist. It shivers in his hand.
One line is now visible:
"To unmake the Lock, speak what must never be said."
Kael looks around at the silent citizens.
Looks at Thalia.
And whispers:
"The Lock never protected you. It was a cage to make you forget you were once free."
The city screams.
Not the people.
The city itself.
Buildings crack. Lights explode. Posters catch fire as words burn out of existence. Citizens stagger, grabbing their heads—confusion flooding into their vacant eyes.
Thalia lunges forward, blade drawn. "You're killing them!"
"No," Kael whispers.
"I'm giving them back what was stolen."
The scroll ignites in his hand, blinding white.
And from it, the Fourth Lock begins to crack.
Not with sound.
But with questions.
"What is my real name?""Why do I remember snow, when I was born in a desert?""Who was my brother? I had a brother…"
People sob. Scream. Laugh hysterically.
Reality shudders.
The Fourth Lock breaks.
And behind it…
A Door appears.
Not of wood.
Not of steel.
But of memory, formed from everything the world was afraid to remember.
Thalia falls to her knees.
Kael steps past her, hand trembling.
Naia joins him.
Together, they approach the Door.
And then, for the first time, Kael hears something that doesn't sound like memory.
It sounds like footsteps.
From inside the Door.
Chapter 21 End