His eyes opened.
Slowly.
The silence didn't break, it merely shifted.
The mirrored ocean beneath his feet faded into mist... and the world changed.
Before him now: An endless field of green, stretching past the horizon like a dream that refused to end.
Soft, swaying blades of grass brushed his legs as the wind whispered again, gentler now. Knowing.
The sky above was deep, veiled in stars, and there in its center sat the moon.
Watching.
Alone.
Yet shining.
The field was painted with white lilies.
Thousands of them.
But none had yet bloomed.
They waited.
Like him.
He stood there in the quiet, letting it hold him, not just as stillness, but as warmth, as memory, as the echo of every step that had brought him here. His gaze drifted upward, the moonlight bathing his skin, soft and silver like a memory you never want to forget. And then.
He saw someone.
A figure in the distance.
Small.
Still.
Facing the sky.
A boy.
Something in Sylvren's chest stirred, aching, pulling.
He stepped forward. One step. Then another.
As he approached, the moonlight shone directly onto the boy's frame, outlining him like a ghost wrapped in light.
And when he was close enough to breathe the same air.
The boy turned. And Sylvren froze.
It was him. A younger self, his reflection not in water, but in flesh. The boy was small, fragile, with eyes full of mistakes, burden, and bruises the world couldn't see. But also... with love. With depth.
The child smiled.
"You finally changed, didn't you?"
Sylvren's lips parted, but no sound came.
He stood there, trembling with silence.
The boy continued,
"I know it hurts. So much."
Still, nothing. Only breath and that terrible, beautiful ache blooming in his chest.
The boy turned away again, staring up at the stars, his voice soft like a story told long ago.
"That's the world. It isn't wrong. It isn't evil. It just is.
Sometimes it hurts to stay in it too long. But that's what makes it worthwhile."
Sylvren looked down.
His fists clenched, trembling with quiet guilt.
The boy turned again. This time, his eyes met Sylvren's and held.
There was no anger. Only truth.
"But hey... that's the reason why your soul is strong.
And yet... so beautiful."
Sylvren's eyes widened.
His fingers loosened.
The boy stepped forward, no longer just a memory, but something more.
A part of him he had buried.
A version of himself that never stopped hoping.
"Every mistake you made, every road you took, every regret you carried... It's what makes you matter."
Sylvren gasped softly, his breath caught between sorrow and revelation.
His knees nearly buckled, his soul trembling. Tears welled up in his eyes and slipped down silently.
And then,
The boy said:
"You thought your pain made you broken, but it made you real, it made you human. And it made you yours."
The world stopped.
And Sylvren...
He cried.
Not because he was weak.
But because, for the first time.
He understood.
The boy smiled.
And Sylvren whispered,
"Thank you."
The boy's body began to fade, starlight breaking through his skin.
He stepped back, his voice soft like the last page of a letter never sent.
"Farewell. Take care of yourself."
And then he was gone.
Sylvren stood alone, tears slipping through his fingers, falling into the earth.
And one by one, around him.
The lilies began to bloom.
Petals opening gently, stretching toward the sky like silent prayers.
White and pure and full of peace. The field sang in stillness.
And the moon bathed him in light, not to be seen, but simply to say,
"You made it through. You remember now."
Sylvren smiled softly, eyes shining with a calm that could only be born from chaos.
And he stood.
Not as someone who forgot.
But as someone who forgave.
He had finally made peace with the quiet that remained.