The City of Stillborn Souls
No trains led there.
No roads, no gates, no landmarks.
Just a direction.
A pull.
Like a second heartbeat ticking behind mine, dragging me forward into a part of the world that didn't want to be found—
but needed to be remembered.
Maren and I walked together now.
Not ghost and host.
Not hunter and spirit.
Just two broken things moving toward the place where forgotten lives ended before they began.
She didn't speak.
Not at first.
But I could feel it — the pressure inside her.
Like memory was boiling over and she couldn't hold it back forever.
📍 [Entering: Locus Fringe – Border of the Unmade District]
Region Status: Unstable
Gravity: Bleeds sideways
Time: Loops on memory triggers
Visibility: 9%
Sanity Loss: Passive (-1/min)
You are entering the City of Stillborn Souls.
We passed structures that never finished building themselves.
Half-born towers bent backward.
Windows painted shut.
Doors that opened into brick.
And graffiti—
Scrawled in a thousand forgotten tongues, all repeating the same phrase:
"We were never meant to wake."
I stepped through what looked like a shattered church.
But the pews weren't wood.
They were cribs.
Lined up like coffins.
All empty.
All humming slightly, as if the infants that were never placed there were still trying to breathe.
Maren walked between them, brushing her fingers across the broken rails. Her voice came soft, ragged.
"This place… it remembers us."
"Not you and me, exactly. But people like us."
"Those who were meant to become something—but were buried instead."
At the center of the city stood a monument:
Not stone.
Not marble.
But bone.
Hundreds — thousands — of crossed femurs, tibias, and skulls lashed together in the shape of a throne.
Sitting on it…
Her.
The Reflection.
My other self.
She looked down at me not like a rival.
But like a twin who had seen too much.
⚠️ [Domain Authority Triggered – "The Forgotten Throne"]
This place bends to her memory, not yours.
You are now within her grave-right.
All Soul Traits: Reduced 50%
All Lies: Revealed
She spoke without rising.
"I remember what you felt when you first touched Maren's grave."
"I remember the dirt in your lungs. The fear in your ribs. The lie you told yourself: 'This doesn't matter.'"
"But it did."
"It always did."
And then she stood.
And behind her, dozens more appeared.
Not enemies.
Not allies.
Reflections.
Each one wearing a version of me.
Younger.
Older.
Broken.
Laughing.
Dead.
Some with Maren at their side.
Some without.
One with blood on its hands.
One carrying a child.
All of them... possible versions.
All of them still buried in the city's memory.
The throne behind her cracked.
And she extended her hand.
"Come closer."
"It's time to remember what they buried in both of us."
✅ [Main Quest Updated: "Grave of the Forgotten Choice"]
Quest Type: Dual-Soul Integration
Requirement: Touch the throne and absorb your forgotten past
Reward: Unlock Core Trait – Graveborn Ascension
Side Effect: May collapse current identity.
➤ Maren's bond will be tested. If you are not who she remembers… will she still follow you?
Maren grabbed my arm.
Tight.
She looked terrified.
"If you remember everything…" she said.
"You might not be you anymore."
I looked at the throne.
At myself.
And I reached out—
To take it all back.