The glass floor trembled violently beneath their feet.
Black-and-gold cracks spread across the surface of the First Oath Node, running like living lightning. The floating arches above wavered, and the thousands of whispering voices that had filled the air grew louder, more chaotic, almost painful to hear.
Lyra instinctively raised her hand to her head.
The whispers infiltrated everywhere.
In her ears.
In her chest.
In her soul.
As if this place didn't want to merely show their memories but force them to feel every emotion they had tried to forget.
Kael, beside her, still held her hand tightly. His jaw was clenched, eyes fixed on the fragments of light ahead, where the image of the past Lyra and Eryan dissolved slowly into the air.
But that was no longer what troubled him.
Something else had opened.
Something darker.
Something more intimate.
And for the first time since entering the Node, Kael felt real apprehension creeping beneath his skin.
Not for himself.
For her.
Because he already knew what the Node was about to show.
Him.
His losses.
His silences.
His broken lives.
His slow deaths.
His anger.
All those times he had tried to find her… and failed.
All those lives where he had touched her with the tips of his fingers… only to have her torn away again.
And he didn't want her to see it.
Not because he was ashamed of loving her.
But because he didn't want her to see how much that pain had destroyed him.
— Kael… Lyra whispered, her voice weaker than before.
He immediately turned to her.
— What?
She swallowed hard.
— I… I think something is changing.
He felt it too.
The Node was vibrating differently now.
As if it had stopped examining their past… and had begun digging into what they hid most deeply.
Eryan lifted his eyes slowly toward the white sky above them.
— It reacted to your emotions, he said.
Kael gave him a dark look.
— Thanks, I noticed.
But even his coldness lacked some strength this time.
Because he already felt the danger.
And this danger wasn't a creature or an outside enemy.
It was emotional truth.
Naked truth.
The kind you can't fight with a blade or magic.
Lyra tightened her hand slightly.
— Look.
Her voice trembled slightly.
Before the scene even spoke, she knew.
She knew what was coming next.
The Node gathered its light again.
But this time, it wasn't an old scene showing her.
It was him.
Kael.
Or rather…
A version of him.
Younger.
Colder.
His shoulders harder.
His heart already tired.
Lyra's breath caught.
The memory formed completely.
And suddenly, they were no longer mere spectators.
They were pulled inside.
The world shifted.
The white sky disappeared.
The glass floor too.
Instead, cold rain fell over an ancient city.
Black stone towers rose in the night, and blue lanterns burned along the empty streets. The wind blew fiercely, carrying the smell of ash and rain.
Lyra blinked.
She could feel the cold on her skin.
The metallic taste of the air.
The weight of sadness suspended in this night.
— Where are we? she whispered.
Eryan looked around.
— A past life. One of his.
Kael remained still.
He knew this place.
Not through clear memory.
Through pain.
And that was enough.
Further ahead, under the rain, the past version of Kael walked down a narrow street, coat soaked, hair plastered to his forehead. He looked older than in this life, but his gaze…
His gaze was exactly the same when he searched for Lyra.
Intense.
Desperate.
Determined.
As if he had nothing left in the world except a single promise he refused to break.
Lyra's chest tightened.
— He… he's looking for me.
No one answered.
Because it was obvious.
The scene continued.
The past Kael suddenly stopped in front of a burning house.
Lyra put her hand to her mouth.
The roof had already collapsed.
People screamed in the distance.
The rain did nothing to stop it.
And yet, without a moment's hesitation, the past Kael ran into the flames.
The real Kael briefly closed his eyes.
He remembered.
Not perfectly.
But enough.
Lyra could no longer look away.
Seconds later, the past Kael emerged from the flames.
Injured.
Arm covered in burns.
Face blackened with soot.
And in his arms…
A young unconscious woman.
Her.
Not exactly Lyra as she was now, but another version of her soul.
Her hair shorter.
Her clothes torn.
Face pale, too still.
The past Kael fell to his knees in the rain, holding her as if his own heart were leaving his body.
— No… whispered Lyra, already with tears in her eyes.
Even before the scene spoke, she knew.
She knew what was going to happen.
The past Kael shook the young woman gently.
— Open your eyes, he breathed.
His voice was broken.
— Please… open your eyes…
The silence around them became unbearable.
Then, in a faint whisper, the young woman barely parted her lips.
— You… found me…
Kael felt his chest tighten so much it almost physically hurt.
Because he remembered now.
The rain.
The fire.
That excruciating feeling of finding her too late.
The past Kael lowered his head against hers.
— I'm here.
His fingers trembled slightly as they brushed her face.
— I'm here… look at me… I'm here…
Lyra could barely breathe.
Because she heard in that voice something she already knew.
The way he spoke only to her.
As if the whole world could collapse, but he would always speak to her like that.
As if she had always been his weakness.
His peace.
His ruin.
The young woman in his arms barely smiled.
— You're… always late…
The past Kael let out a broken laugh.
A laugh that sounded more like tearing.
— Then stay this time.
His voice cracked completely.
— Stay… and I promise to arrive earlier in the next life…
Lyra felt a tear roll down her cheek.
Then another.
The young woman slowly lifted a trembling hand and touched Kael's cheek.
— Even if I forget… she whispered. Find me again…
The world seemed to freeze.
Then her hand fell.
Slowly.
Permanently.
And the past Kael remained still.
Completely still.
As if his soul had just left his body with hers.
The real Kael turned sharply away.
It was too much.
Even now.
Even after all these lives.
Even with time's distance.
It was still too much.
Lyra could no longer speak.
She watched the man she knew in this life as cold, intense, provocative, sometimes arrogant, sometimes hard…
And she now saw what he hid behind all of that.
A pain so ancient it had carved itself into his soul.
A love so loyal it survived death again and again.
A man who had searched for her…
Again.
And again.
And again.
Even when it destroyed him.
The silence lasted a long time.
Then, softly, almost timidly, Lyra let go of Eryan's hand — she hadn't even realized she had clung to it during the Node's shock — and stepped closer to Kael.
He sensed her approach immediately.
But he didn't turn.
— Don't look at me like that, he murmured.
His voice lower than ever.
More vulnerable too.
— Like what? she asked.
Kael clenched his jaw.
Then finally exhaled:
— Like you pity me.
Her heart almost broke.
Because she understood immediately.
He didn't want her to see his pain as weakness.
He didn't want to be loved out of compassion.
He wanted to be loved for who he was.
Despite all he carried.
Despite all he had become after losing her so many times.
Lyra shook her head slowly.
Then, with infinite gentleness, she placed a hand against his cheek.
Kael froze.
— I'm not looking at you with pity, Kael.
Her voice trembled.
Not with fear.
With emotion.
— I'm looking at you like someone who just realized… how much you loved me.
He opened his eyes.
And there was in his gaze something almost dangerous in its fragility.
As if one wrong word could shut it all down.
— I've never known how to do anything else, he murmured.
Lyra's chest ached so much she felt it might break.
Without thinking further, she rose slightly on her toes and pressed her forehead against his.
The touch was light.
But more intimate than any oath.
— Then don't change, she whispered.
Kael's breath faltered.
— Lyra…
— Because if you find me every life… then I will always come back to you too.
The silence that followed was almost sacred.
Even the Node seemed to slow around them.
Even the memories paused their cruelty for a second.
Kael finally tightened his arms slightly around her.
As if he needed to check that she was really there.
Really in his arms.
Really alive.
And this time, when he spoke, his voice was rough.
Almost broken.
— You can't say things like that when I'm already two seconds away from completely losing my mind.
Lyra let out a small, trembling laugh through her tears.
And despite everything…
Despite the pain.
Despite the memories.
Despite Eryan.
Despite the impossible choice still ahead.
She felt closer to him than ever.
But the Node was not finished.
Because the moment Kael tightened his arms slightly around her…
A new light exploded behind them.
Brighter.
Whiter.
Older.
And this time, it was not a memory of Kael that appeared.
It was a scene even Eryan didn't seem ready to see.
At the center of the white void…
Appeared an ancient Lyra, clothed in gold and light.
And before her…
Two kneeling men.
Kael.
And Eryan.
Both.
The silence exploded in Lyra's chest.
Because that memory…
Was about to change everything.