The journey into the Mirror Vale began not with light—but with silence. A silence so profound it echoed louder than sound.
Rei stood at the threshold of the Vale, where the world folded in on itself like an ancient book left half-open. The air shimmered, not from heat, but memory.
"No reflections," Noira noted, gazing into the ever-stretching obsidian mist.
Eirenne whispered, "Because nothing here remembers itself. Only what others see."
Karasu ruffled his feathers.
"Perfect place to find truth no one wants."
---
Location: Mirror Vale — Corridor of Fractured Echoes
Each step Rei took sparked a memory that wasn't his.
A child abandoning her spirit guide to save her brother.
A king sealing his lover in crystal to end a holy war.
A Sovereign lighting his own name on fire to erase it from time.
These were Threaded Memories—detached recollections woven from unresolved soul contracts.
Mireille consulted the Codex. "We're close. The first flame-thread is ahead. But it's guarded."
Guarded by what?
The answer came in the form of a shriek.
---
The Memory Warden — Azraek the Bound
A massive being emerged from the Vale's depths—four arms, each wrapped in chains made of language. Its face was covered in a mask carved from forgotten names.
It spoke only in broken syllables, echoing every vow that had ever failed.
"Prom…ised…Burn…False…Heir…"
Eirenne charged without hesitation, halberd glowing.
Mireille unleashed spectral binds to slow its limbs.
Noira blinked between shadows, striking the chains where they knotted.
And Rei…
Rei did not attack.
He listened.
He opened the Codex and repeated the oldest Sovereign vow:
"Let flame remember, where truth cannot."
The Warden halted.
Chains unraveled.
It fell to its knees—and vanished.
> [System Update: First Flame-Thread Unsealed. Access Granted to Sovereign Thread: Lysandrel. Trait Gained — Vowkeeper's Tongue. All verbal contracts now manifest physical resonance.]
---
The Thread of Lysandrel
Within the chamber that followed, a glowing thread pulsed with silver fire.
Rei approached and touched it.
Visions surged:
A world where words held more weight than weapons.
A Sovereign who silenced wars not through force, but through oaths.
The Codex glowed brighter.
Rei whispered, "I won't use it to bind. I'll use it to remember."
The thread wrapped itself around his wrist—burning, branding, bonding.
And the first step in the Ritual of Threaded Names was complete.
---
Final Scene — Elsewhere, Beneath the Corpse of a Forgotten Star
The corrupted Sovereign from before knelt in a throne of teeth and smoke.
"Lysandrel's Thread awakens."
It drew a sigil in the ash.
"Then I'll awaken the Thread of Silence. Let's see if the world can sing with its tongue severed."
The balance shifted again.
And Rei's flames, once warm, now flickered with warning.