Merlin stood over the basin.
The stone hummed.
Not with magic. With memory. A low pulse, like something buried under years of sand, breathing up through the cracks.
He didn't speak.
The prompt hovered where only he could see.
[SELECT MEMORY TYPE]
[OFFERED MEMORY]
[STOLEN MEMORY]
He didn't flinch.
Didn't pause.
He chose.
[STOLEN MEMORY SELECTED]
[Searching…]
The basin filled.
Not with liquid. With light.
Not gold. Not divine.
Soot-black. Starless. The kind of dark that didn't hide anything, only made you see too much.
The others still stood behind him. Watching him watch nothing.
They couldn't see what he saw.
But the spider could.
It reared back slightly. Not afraid. But… amused.
[Memory Source: EXILED ENTITY: ???]
[Timestamp: Lost]
[Classification: Forbidden]
[Warning: Memory is unfiltered.]
[Proceed?]
He didn't say yes.
But the basin accepted anyway.
—
His breath vanished.
Not like suffocation.
Like deletion.
