"Fate is not a path. It is a debt—paid in names forgotten."
The Rift was breaking.
Time twisted in all directions—memories bleeding into the present, futures collapsing into the now. Aarav stood beside Selene, breathless, the afterglow of her touch still searing through his chest. But the warmth was fading quickly, replaced by something colder, darker…
A voice—neither male nor female—echoed again from all corners of the collapsing void.
"One of you has rewritten fate."
"One must now be erased."
🕳 The Rift Opens Wider
All around them, the sky shattered into reflections—fragments of lives that might've been.
One showed Aarav at his school desk, never meeting Selene.Another showed Selene standing on the moon, watching Earth from afar—alone, always.Yet another showed Aarav, crowned in starlight, his eyes devoid of emotion, a tyrant who ruled the celestial cities.
And behind all of them, in the largest reflection—a shadowy figure stood watching them.
Not Zahir.
Something far worse.
A cosmic silhouette wrapped in ink-black wings and stardust chains.
Selene gasped. "The Archivist…"
📜 The Archivist of Fates
Aarav turned to her. "Who?"
Selene trembled. "The keeper of unwritten destinies. The one even the Sovereigns feared. It doesn't write stories. It erases them. It watches time to ensure nothing unnatural survives."
A pause. "And we… we just broke its oldest law."
The Archivist raised one long hand.
A spiral of clocks began forming in the sky, each ticking in reverse, undoing something with every second.
"Choose," the voice rang. "Who remains?"
🌙 The Sacrifice Dilemma
Aarav instinctively stepped in front of Selene. "Take me. This was my fault."
Selene grabbed his wrist, furious. "No! You weren't the one who fell from the sky. I was! I'm the anomaly!"
"But I remembered you," Aarav said. "Across timelines, across dreams. That shouldn't have been possible unless—"
"Unless our love rewrote the code," Selene whispered.
They stood at the center of the storm, surrounded by collapsing timelines and ticking decisions. They knew what the Archivist wanted:
A sacrifice.
Only one story could survive. Aarav's life—or Selene's existence.
⏳ A Plan Among Ruin
"Wait," Aarav murmured. He took out the glowing notebook—the one that had recorded all his dreams, the one that sometimes wrote itself.
He flipped to the last page.
Blank.
But slowly, glowing words began to form.
"One name must be given to save the other."
"One must stay in the Rift forever."
"The other will forget everything."
Aarav's eyes widened. "It's offering us a choice…"
Selene stared at the page. "A cruel one."
🩸 The Blood Moon Shines Again
Above, the crimson eclipse pulsed again—stronger, faster, brighter.
The moon cracked slightly, a cosmic heartbeat echoing in the Rift.
Suddenly, Zahir's voice echoed faintly, not in power, but in fear.
"No… not it… not the Red Memory…"
The Archivist turned its head slowly toward Zahir's fading echo. A spiral of black ink consumed it like a scream swallowed by a void.
Then its focus returned to Aarav and Selene.
It extended two glowing quills toward them.
"Write the name you wish to erase."
The Pen Between Them
Selene reached out for the quill.
Aarav did too.
But just before either of them could grasp it—
The notebook burst into flames.
Their hands collided.
And suddenly—
They weren't in the Rift anymore.
They were back at the meadow.
The night of the eclipse.
The beginning of everything.
But something was wrong.
Selene looked at Aarav…
And he didn't recognize her.
To be continued…