The Forgotten Street

———————-

North Portland — 1:13 A.M.

———————-

The city was wrong.

Kael knew it the moment they crossed the Burnside overpass.

The skyline was intact, the traffic lights still blinking through the fog, and the noise of distant trains drifted faintly on the air.

But something was off.

Zeke called it a spatial fracture—a minor, unstable zone where spirit energy leaked into the material world. Most only lasted a few minutes. This one had been holding for hours.

"I've seen anomalies before," Selene said, checking the calibration on her bolt-rig. "But this one feels personal."

Kael nodded. The hair on his arms hadn't stopped standing on end since they entered the radius. His flame mark pulsed low and steady.

Rin crouched by the curb, fingertips grazing the concrete. "The echo here is thick. Like the street is trying to remember a version of itself that no longer exists."

Zeke adjusted the lens on his shoulder-mounted sensor array. "No known grid records this place. Look."

He pointed down the block.

The road extended normally for about two hundred feet… and then disappeared into darkness.

Not night.

Just absence.

Kael stepped forward.

There was a street sign twisted sideways at the intersection.

It read: "Galesh Hollow."

A name Kael had never heard.

But his bones remembered it.

———————-

Five Minutes Later – Threshold of the Hollow

———————-

The team gathered before the black fog that marked the edge of the anomaly.

Zeke scanned it with his spirit scope. "No signal, no time readings. Like this street isn't just unrecorded—it never should have existed."

Kael reached out with his hand. The fog brushed his fingertips.

It felt warm. Familiar.

Like the breath of something ancient.

"Ready?" he asked.

The others nodded.

Together, the Four stepped into the dark.

———————-

Inside Galesh Hollow

———————-

The world shifted.

The temperature dropped ten degrees instantly. Color faded from the buildings. Everything looked… drained. Like reality here had been photocopied too many times.

The street was silent.

But in that silence, Kael heard whispers.

They weren't words. Not exactly.

They were memories.

He looked down.

The sidewalk had no cracks. No gum. No litter. Just a faint spiraling etching between the bricks—so faint only someone like him could see it.

"This was a sanctum," he said aloud. "One of mine."

Rin glanced at him. "You're remembering?"

"Not fully. But I know I used this place for… storing things. Power. Secrets. Maybe even—"

He stopped.

Ahead of them, something stood in the center of the street.

A door.

Just a freestanding, double-panel iron door.

No frame. No walls. No hinges.

Just the door.

Zeke exhaled. "What the hell is that?"

Selene aimed her crossbow. "Trap?"

"Definitely."

Kael walked toward it.

"Wait—" Rin began.

He reached out and touched the handle.

And the door opened.

———————-

Memory Within Flame

———————-

He was somewhere else.

Not standing. Floating.

Surrounded by white.

Torches burned upside down. An altar stood before him—black stone marked with the same spiral that burned on his chest.

A voice echoed.

"You built this place to remember what you chose to forget."

Kael turned.

A version of himself stood there. Slightly older. Eyes sharper. Aura heavier. He wore robes of flame-stitched gold and bore two sabers across his back.

Azuran. The Sovereign.

The past version of him stepped closer.

"You sealed the Hollow after the Great Fracture. Because the memories inside it were too dangerous."

"Dangerous to who?" Kael asked.

"To you."

Azuran raised a hand.

From the altar, a flicker of spirit energy rose. A figure. Human. Bound in chains of flame.

A girl.

Her face was obscured.

"She died because of you."

Kael's throat tightened. "Who is she?"

Azuran turned away.

"If you open the door… the past will bleed into the present. The chain begins again."

"I need to know."

"Then burn what you find."

Kael blinked.

And woke up.

———————-

Back in the Hollow

———————-

Kael gasped.

The others were standing over him.

"You were out for two minutes," Zeke said. "You touched the handle and collapsed."

Rin helped him to his feet. "What did you see?"

Kael didn't answer.

He walked to the door—and opened it fully.

Light burst out.

But not white.

Orange. Flickering. Violent.

And from within the light, something stepped out.

It wore a white mask.

Its body was covered in paper talismans, each burning slowly but never consumed. It moved like a puppet dragged by a hurricane, limbs twitching in rhythmic bursts.

Kael recognized the pattern of its movement.

Sword Form – Seventh Flame Spiral.

It was one of his.

But corrupted. Twisted. Made hollow.

"Is that—?" Zeke began.

Kael stepped forward.

"It's a Wraith Echo. A failed memory given form. It shouldn't exist."

The thing tilted its head.

Then charged.

———————-

Battle in the Forgotten Street

———————-

Kael met it halfway.

Ashwake clashed against twin spirit-knives conjured from raw flame. Sparks flew. The ground cracked. Buildings shook.

Selene fired a bolt—blessed silver wrapped in wardthread.

It bounced off.

"Spirit shield's too dense!" she shouted.

Zeke launched a magnetic disruption field.

The Wraith blinked through it, unbothered.

"Kael!" Rin called. "You can't brute force this. It's not alive—it's remembrance!"

Kael ducked under a flaming sweep, rolled, and leapt backward.

He focused.

"Fire that remembers… but forgets what it meant to be."

"Rin!" he shouted. "Help me anchor!"

Rin nodded.

She unsheathed her blades and stepped into his stance—perfect mirror.

Together, they performed the Dual Veil Form.

Kael ignited the air in a spiral.

Rin followed the curve, slicing through the echo's centerline.

Kael shouted:

"Celestial Cut – Second Memory!"

They struck as one.

The Wraith's mask cracked.

It screamed—not in rage, but in sorrow.

And then it dissolved into threads of flame, which scattered like petals in the wind.

————————-

Aftermath – Galesh Hollow Crumbles

————————-

The door remained.

But the street around it was fading—dissolving like mist in sunlight.

"We need to go," Selene said.

Zeke nodded, already pulling up an exit thread in his display.

Kael stared at the door.

Rin stepped beside him. "Did you learn what you needed?"

He didn't answer.

But inside his palm, the spiral mark pulsed twice.

———————-

Later That Night – Rooftop of the Clinic

———————-

Kael sat alone, blade across his lap, watching the city lights.

Rin joined him without speaking.

After a while, she asked, "What was her name?"

Kael didn't answer.

Because he didn't know.

But he remembered her eyes.

And he remembered that he had let her die.

———————-

Elsewhere – EchoCorp Memory Vaults

———————-

Dr. Halden watched the anomaly footage on repeat.

"Galesh Hollow," he murmured. "Wasn't supposed to be accessible."

A second voice replied, filtered through a modulation field:

"It was one of his first sanctums. He's syncing faster than we calculated."

Halden stood.

"I want full surveillance rerouted to the Sovereign's path. No more indirect contact."

"And if he discovers the fifth?"

The voice chuckled.

"Then we'll find out if betrayal still cuts deeper than flame."