Chapter 26: The First Echo
Rain lashes the rooftops of Valemire.
Once a city of scholars, now a silent maze of ash-colored towers.The people walk like sleepwalkers—eyes unfocused, minds scattered, remembering too much.
Kael arrives under a grey cloak.
Naia follows close behind, her knives hidden, her heartbeat not.
They reach the center square—and find the monolith.
Fifteen feet tall.
Shimmering obsidian.
And covered in writing.
Not etched.
Bleeding.
Kael steps closer. The words twist.
Naia clutches his shoulder. "Don't look too long—"
But it's too late.
The letters coil like snakes, whispering:
"You were not always Kael."
"You were not always kind."
"You are wearing a name stolen from a boy who drowned screaming."
Kael gasps and staggers back. Blood drips from his nose.
Naia grabs him. "It's feeding off you."
He shakes his head, jaw tight. "It's remembering me… wrong."
She frowns. "Or it's remembering you truthfully."
From the shadow of the spire, something steps out.
Not a man. Not a beast.
A figure made of Kael's regrets.
It wears his childhood smile—but its eyes are hollow pits, bleeding sand.
It walks like it's drowning.
And it speaks like a mirror cracked from the inside.
"You never paid the price.So I was born to balance the debt."
Naia draws her blades. "Is that the Shepherd?"
Kael shakes his head.
"No. This is the First Echo."
The Echo spreads its arms.
Children in the street collapse.
Their minds flood with images they were never meant to see.
—A girl burning in a sealed archive.—A city eaten by a song.—A boy with Kael's voice, begging someone not to forget him.
Naia shouts, "We have to stop it!"
But Kael hesitates.
"What if it's right?" he whispers.
"What if I am wearing someone else's name?"
The Echo lunges.
Naia moves.
Steel meets shadow.
But it's not a creature—it's concept.It doesn't bleed. It bleeds others.Naia's blade slashes empty air—but a child nearby screams, falling into seizure.
Kael steps in, heart hammering.
He touches the Echo.
And suddenly—
He is in a cell.
No light. No name.
Just screaming.
He sees a child—himself?—hooked to wires, memory drained like water.
He sees a white coat. A voice.
"This one remembers too much. Wipe him again."
Back in the square, Kael stumbles.
Naia grabs him. "What happened?!"
Kael's eyes are wild.
"I think I just saw… the boy I replaced."
Naia's breath catches.
"You mean—"
Kael turns to the Echo.
"I wasn't always Kael Evenhart."
He steps toward the Echo.
And embraces it.
It howls like wind through broken minds.
Naia screams his name.
But Kael is still standing.
Because he remembers.
The cell.The boy.The erasure.The choice.
He turns to Naia.
Voice cracked, but whole.
"I didn't steal Kael's name."
"I was given it—by the boy who couldn't survive."
The Echo twitches.
And smiles.
Then fades into rain.
The monolith crumbles.
The bleeding words vanish.
And silence returns.
Naia clutches his hand. "What just happened?"
Kael looks at the sky.
The clouds spiral above—like a Door half-closed.
He whispers:
"We're not being hunted by our pasts."
"We're being judged by them."
Chapter 26 End