The memory thread didn't fade—it pulsed.
Still glowing faintly, it hovered above the scorched rune, threads of light weaving into the air like a breath held too long. Elira stepped back, her hands trembling.
"It's calling something," she whispered.
Serena moved to her side, scanning the air. "Not a summoning spell. It's… a recall. A name trying to remember itself."
The rune beneath them shimmered again.
Then burned.
A voice—not loud, but deep—rolled through the chamber. Not from the air, but from the stone itself.
"Elira…"
She froze.
"That wasn't me," Serena said sharply.
"I know."
The ashes began to lift—gathering, swirling. Shapes began to form in the smoke. Not human, not beast, but ancient: serpentine glyphs and eye-shaped sigils spiraling in the air.
"It's a sentient seal," Elira said. "It's testing who broke it."
Serena drew a protective ward in the air, the sigils glowing a soft blue. "Then you'd better answer fast."
Elira stepped forward. "My name is Elira Winterose. I seek truth buried by fire. By order. By fear."
The smoke halted. The sigils pulsed once—twice—
Then unraveled.
On the ground, carved where the ashes had once lain, a single name appeared.
Kirevar.
Serena whispered, "That name is forbidden."
"I know," Elira said. "It was removed from the royal archives a century ago."
"But why here?"
Elira stared at the word. "Because whatever Kirevar was… it wasn't just erased."
She knelt, hand hovering above the carved name.
"It was sealed alive."