Chapter 4: The Memory That Wasn't Hers
The stairs wound higher than logic allowed. They climbed in silence, each step heavier than the last—not from fatigue, but from the weight of what they'd just survived.
Lina's grip on the shard had tightened. It no longer glowed steadily; it flickered, as if doubting itself. Much like her.
Kai watched her from behind. She hadn't spoken since the creature fell.
"You okay?" he finally asked.
She hesitated. "No. But I'm still here."
She didn't tell him about what she saw in the mirror after the creature vanished. That one version—the one with the scar across her throat—had mouthed something just before the glass cracked.
"He lied to you."
But who? And when?
The spiral opened into a vast, open chamber.
Unlike the cold stone below, this place pulsed with warmth—golden light streamed through stained glass windows that shouldn't exist in a place like this. Each pane showed a different world, a different Lina, frozen in a moment of decision: choosing to stay, to leave, to fight, to love, to let go.
Kai approached one window, tracing the image with his fingers. "That's you… holding a child."
Lina didn't look. "It's not me. Not this me."
"But it could be."
The room shifted.
A soft hum filled the space, like the echo of a lullaby long forgotten. And then—from the center of the chamber—light rose, forming a circle of runes mid-air. The shard in Lina's hand reacted, slipping from her fingers and floating into the circle.
"Lina—" Kai stepped forward.
But the light pulsed once—and Lina vanished.
---
She was standing in a forest of silver trees.
No tower. No Kai.
Just silence.
"Not again," she muttered. But this wasn't a world-hop. It felt... internal.
Ahead, a girl stood barefoot on the glassy surface of a still lake. She wore a white dress, hair falling over her eyes.
Lina's breath caught. She knew this place. Or thought she did.
The girl turned.
She had Lina's face—but younger. Softer. Innocent.
"You left me here," the girl said.
"No—I didn't even know—"
"You forgot. Again."
Lina stepped forward. "Who are you?"
The girl tilted her head. "I'm your first self. The one who made the deal."
The lake rippled.
Lina's pulse pounded. "What deal?"
But the girl was already fading.
"You'll remember… when the last gate opens."
The vision shattered.
---
Lina fell forward—onto cold stone. Back in the golden chamber.
Kai caught her.
"You disappeared for a second," he said.
Lina didn't answer. She was shaking.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I saw her. The first me."
He frowned. "And?"
"She said I made a deal." She looked up, eyes distant. "But I don't remember it."
Kai stepped closer. "Do you think it's connected to all this?"
She looked at him. "Everything is."
She didn't speak the rest of her thoughts aloud.
Inside, her mind spun.
That girl… she looked like me. Felt like me. But she wasn't just a memory—she was a warning.
What deal did I make? And why can't I remember it?
Her fingers curled, aching to touch something real. The shard had vanished into the air. Her one anchor—gone.
If I really opened the first gate… then maybe I'm the reason all of this started. The collapsing worlds. The echoing fragments. The lost selves.
Lina stared at the new door now standing before them, its surface etched with a symbol she had only seen in dreams.
She didn't move because of curiosity.
She moved because there was no other choice.
If I don't face this… I'll never get the answers. Even if they destroy me.
Before Kai could speak again, the chamber trembled. Dust fell from the ceiling.
Then—a chime, clear and soft.
The door creaked open, spilling cold air.
They stepped through—
Unaware that far above them, in a realm outside of time, a hand moved across a map covered in Lina's faces.
One was missing.
The one who had just remembered the beginning.
The hand lingered for a moment, hovering over the empty space where Lina's face had once been marked. A soft breath escaped from the figure in the shadows as they traced the absence with a single finger, eyes flicking with the weight of unspoken knowledge.
The map flickered for a heartbeat, and a new symbol appeared in the space where the missing face should have been. It pulsed softly, then faded into the map's surface as if it had never been there at all. The figure withdrew their hand, their face hidden by the folds of a dark cloak.
In the realm beyond, the first gate groaned, the fabric of space shuddering as it closed. But this time, it wasn't the door that shut; it was something deeper. A seal, a binding, a pact long broken.
The figure turned, vanishing into the endless corridors of a forgotten world. A world where time twisted and the truth lay scattered like shards of glass.
---
Lina and Kai stood on the threshold of the new door. The cold air that slipped through sent a shiver down Lina's spine, but it wasn't the chill that worried her. It was the feeling that there was something beyond the door—something waiting for her.
"I don't know what we're walking into," Kai said, his voice low and cautious.
"I don't either," Lina replied, her eyes fixed on the door's intricate design. The symbol—it was familiar, but she couldn't place it. "But I can't stop now."
The door creaked open fully, revealing a corridor of blackened stone that stretched into the unknown. At the far end, a faint light flickered, dancing in rhythm with Lina's heartbeat.
"This place feels wrong," Kai murmured, glancing around. The shadows here were different, as though they were alive, watching, waiting.
Lina stepped forward, her boots echoing softly on the stone floor. She didn't look back, but she could feel Kai's presence behind her—steady, protective.
"You're not alone," he said, reading her unspoken thoughts.
But it wasn't just Kai she was worried about.
Lina's fingers brushed the air, feeling the faintest pull toward something that wasn't here—something that reached into her very soul.
"It's not just this place," she whispered to herself. "It's me."
The light at the end of the corridor flickered again, brighter this time, almost painfully so. It tugged at something inside her—a forgotten memory that she couldn't quite grasp.
"I have to go," Lina said, turning toward the light.
"You don't have to do this alone." Kai stepped forward, reaching out to her.
But Lina's eyes were fixed ahead, her resolve hardening like steel.
"I don't think I can stop it, Kai," she said, her voice trembling but determined. "The beginning… the deal I made… I think it's time to face it."
As they moved closer, the shadows seemed to shift, coiling tighter around them. But Lina didn't flinch. She couldn't afford to anymore.
The light pulsed once more, and then Lina stepped through the threshold, into the unknown, where the answer to her past—and her future—awaited.
But it wasn't just the deal she had made that waited for her. It was everything she had forgotten.
And everything she was about to lose.
---
Above them, in the silent void, the hand traced over the last of the missing faces on the map. It hovered there for a long, unsettling moment, as though contemplating the path that had led to this moment.
The map trembled, its surface rippling like water disturbed by an unseen force. The missing face slowly reappeared, flickering into view—clearer, sharper, more defined than before.
And this time, it smiled.
"She's come full circle," the figure whispered to no one in particular.
The sound of the first gate closing echoed across the expanse of forgotten realms.
And everything began to change.