"What is left of a soul… when even her name is gone?"
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🌌 [Scene: Ashborn Camp – Night after the Rescue]
The campfire crackled under a sky without stars. Ash drifted lazily, and yet the air felt colder than ever before.
Aedric sat alone outside Lyara's tent, hands buried in his face. His Flame Core flickered — not in rage, but in uncertainty.
She didn't remember him.
Not his face.
Not his voice.
Not even her own name.
Earlier that evening, she had stared at him with wide, confused eyes and asked:
> "Are you my captor… or my savior?"
---
🛏 Inside the Tent
Lyara sat with Korin beside her, eyes blank but searching.
> "You said my name is Lyara," she whispered, voice brittle as cracked glass.
"But it… doesn't feel like mine."
Korin remained silent. His eyes glinted with frustration — not at her, but at the curse etched into her skin.
A slow-spreading glyph of divine ink now crawled from her neck to her temple. The Mark of Forgetting. Caelen's ink.
> "It was placed by someone powerful," Korin finally said.
"Not to kill… but to unravel."
---
🔥 Aedric's Decision
Aedric entered.
His presence sent a ripple through the air — Lyara flinched.
He knelt before her, slowly. Gently.
> "I don't want you to believe me, Lyara," he said softly.
"I want you to feel it."
She stared at him, hollow.
> "Do I know you?"
He smiled, pain flickering behind his eyes.
> "You saved me, once.
When my flame was out of control.
When I believed the world deserved to burn."
She blinked.
> "Did I… stop you?"
He reached out, holding her hand.
> "No.
You burned with me."
---
🌙 The Flamewalk Ritual
Aedric made a choice.
He would enter her mind.
Not with spells. Not with divine power.
But with Flamewalk — a forbidden technique of the Emberborne.
> "You walk their inner fire," Korin warned.
"If you lose yourself inside her, you might not return."
Aedric nodded.
> "I'd rather be lost with her… than remembered without her."
He lit the ritual pyre.
Stepped inside.
And vanished into flame.
---
🧠 Scene: Lyara's Mind — The Shattered Garden
A field of red flowers.
Each petal fluttered like a heartbeat.
But entire patches were missing — torn out by divine ink.
Memories blinked like dying stars.
In the center of the garden stood a younger Lyara — maybe sixteen. Innocent, untouched by curse, barefoot.
She turned toward him.
And did not know him.
> "You're not supposed to be here."
> "Who are you?"
Aedric didn't answer directly.
He sat beside her.
> "Do you know what a flame is, Lyara?"
> "It consumes."
He shook his head.
> "No. It remembers everything it touches."
---
🧩 Memory Seeds
He began planting memory seeds — fragments of real moments they shared:
The time she slapped him for saving her life.
The night she saw his burn marks and cried.
The moment she let him see her Eye — fully open.
The first time he said her name like it was sacred.
Each seed bloomed a little memory-flower in the garden.
She clutched her head.
> "Why… does it hurt?"
> "Because you're waking up."
---
🗝 Confronting the Eraser
Suddenly, the sky inside her mind darkened.
A figure stepped forward.
Cloaked in ink. A quill instead of a face.
> "She belongs to the silence," it hissed.
"You cannot keep her name."
Aedric stood before it.
> "She gave it to me."
His hand erupted in divine flame.
> "And I will carve it back into her soul."
---
The battle was not of fists — but of words, memories, and fire.
The entity tried to erase every seed.
Aedric defended them one by one.
And then…
Lyara herself spoke.
> "My name… is Lyara Nox."
The ink hissed and evaporated.
The sky turned blue.
---
💥 Awakening
Back in the tent, Lyara gasped.
The glyph shattered from her skin.
She looked at Aedric — truly looked.
And whispered:
> "You remembered me… when I couldn't."
Tears streamed down her face.
Aedric held her.
> "I'll always remember for both of us."
---
🔐 Title Gained
> ✅ New Title: Keeper of Names
"You held onto the identity of one whose soul was fading. You are now immune to divine erasure within shared bonds."
> ✅ Bond Level: Lyara — Flameforged
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👁 Final Scene – Caelen's Smile
In his celestial chamber, Caelen watched the failed glyph burn away from his book.
He didn't frown.
He laughed.
> "He passed the test."
He turned the page.
Another name waited.
And this time… it was his own.
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