CHAPTER FIFTEEN:How We Died The First Time

Elianah

The memory didn't come gently.

It ripped through her like lightning — a sudden, blinding vision that made her knees buckle.

Stone walls. A circle of nine.

A crown of fire in her hands.

And in the center of the room… a boy she once loved who now bled from the chest, whispering her name.

Kael's name.

Her own name.

And then—his final breath.

---

Kael

He caught Elianah before she hit the ground, but his head throbbed too. The vision… it was crawling up from the depths of his soul.

A war.

Not for land, but for memory.

They had once stood in defiance of something monstrous — not the Shadow, but what came before it. A god, forgotten by name, born from silence itself.

And they had made a vow.

> If one of us falls, the rest must remember.

If we forget, we will lose ourselves forever.

But they had forgotten. And the price had been his brother.

---

Thorne

"I remember the betrayal," he said, voice low.

"We were surrounded. But it wasn't the enemy who struck him down…"

He turned toward Kael.

> "It was you."

Kael stepped back like he'd been slapped.

"No. That's not possible."

But Lyra closed her eyes.

And added, "It wasn't out of hatred. It was mercy."

---

Lyra

"The Ninth—his name was Caelen. He was Kael's twin in one life, his shield in another… and the only one who volunteered to hold the dark god's soul inside him. He begged Kael to end him before he lost control."

"But Kael couldn't do it. Until it was too late."

> "You killed him to save us all… and then we made you forget."

---

Kael

He staggered back as memories crashed like waves.

The way Caelen had smiled, even as darkness bled from his mouth. The way he said,

> "Don't let me become the thing we swore to fight."

The sword.

The scream.

The silence.

And afterward — the grief that made them all choose amnesia over pain.

---

Now

Elianah reached out and took Kael's hand.

"He's still your brother. And he's still inside whatever the Shadow has twisted."

Kael nodded, voice low.

"Then I'll do it right this time."

> "I'll save him… or I'll fall with him."

---

Far Away… Caelen

His head jerked as if someone had spoken his name.

A flicker of warmth… a whisper of a memory…

Kael.

But the Shadow gripped tighter.

> "Don't listen. They let you die. Now let me teach you how to make the world remember your pain."

And Caelen smiled — the kind of smile that burned.

> "Then let them come."

> "And let them suffer."