Location: Yxtrielle – Heartroot Vault
Time: [Post-Stasis Wake – Emotional Integrity: Fractured]
The stasis field hissed out its last breath.
A curtain of light faded.
And there she was.
Lira.
Warden.
Sister.
Survivor.
Traitor.
Victim.
Her silver eyes scanned the chamber, slow and cautious. Not confused—just… sad.
Not angry. Not yet.
She looked around.
Saw the broken wall.
The sleeping fragments of the Rift.
The scorch marks of battle.
And finally—him.
Ren.
Standing. Watching. Sword at his side. Slightly bleeding. Definitely confused.
She took a breath.
And spoke.
LIRA (softly):
"...Ren."
Not Kael.
Not Riftborn.
Not 'you.'
She called him by his actual name.
Like she knew the difference now.
Ren blinked.
"...You remember?"
She nodded slowly. And sank to her knees, like the weight of it all finally dropped on her.
LIRA:
"I always remembered. But I didn't want to. Because remembering made me wrong. And I couldn't be wrong—not after what I did."
Ren didn't move. Didn't interrupt.
Something in her voice—raw, cracked, utterly human—told him this wasn't a moment for blades or sarcasm.
This was a confession.
From someone who had been built to never break.
LIRA (eyes distant):
"Kael was my twin. My... my better half. We weren't born like normal people. We weren't even supposed to be people."
She looked at her hands.
Clenched. Clawed slightly.
Still trembling.
LIRA:
"Our parents were... experiments. One from Threxil. A monster. A Huskraath hybrid. The other—
A human from Ka'rath'Mar. Fragile. Brilliant. Self-destructive."
She smiled bitterly.
LIRA:
"And somehow, out of that genetic cocktail of bad ideas and arrogance, we were born. Mutants. Half-beast, half-brain."
She laughed once.
A broken laugh. Then a sob.
LIRA (wiping her face):
"They feared us. Trained us. Separated us. But we found each other. And then…"
She closed her eyes.
LIRA (voice cracking):
"...The power came."
She looked up at Ren.
LIRA:
"Yxtrielle was unstable. Dangerous. A planet without anchors. And some force—something I still can't name—chose Kael to fix it. Made him the planet's first silent king. The core responded to him like gravity to mass."
She paused.
LIRA (whispers):
"But not me."
Silence.
She didn't blink.
Didn't breathe.
LIRA:
"I wanted a world of my own. A throne. A place that would obey me the way this one obeyed him."
She swallowed hard.
LIRA:
"So I reached out. To the Tenth Planet. To Solmerea."
Ren's eyes widened.
LIRA:
"I found the Warden. Not a Warden. The Warden. The oldest Guardian-class entity in the Crimson Petal Dynasty. Bound in secrecy. Sealed under memory chains."
She looked down.
LIRA (tears finally falling):
"I thought I could use her. But she... used me. Took root in me. Bent my hunger into obedience. Twisted my want into prophecy."
She dug her nails into her palms, sobbing now.
LIRA:
"I betrayed Kael. I betrayed myself. I betrayed everything. And when the Watcher took notice, it used me, too. Not as a person. Not even as a vessel."
She looked up at Ren again, raw and wet-eyed.
LIRA:
"I became a tool. For systems I thought I could master."
Ren knelt slowly.
He didn't say anything.
Because what the fuck do you say to that?
And she leaned forward.
Pressing her forehead against the ground.
LIRA (voice shaking):
"Kael died because of me.
You almost died because of me.
The Drift twisted because of me."
A pause.
Then—
LIRA (soft):
"...I'm sorry."
A long silence.
And then she sat up, wiping her face.
Her voice steadied.
LIRA (meeting his eyes):
"But I also remember you. Not Kael. You."
LIRA:
"You're not him.
You're harder.
Sharper.
You've got his eyes, but not his mercy."
She smiled.
And this time, it wasn't broken.
It was real.
LIRA (softly, with a tired smile):
"So welcome back, Ren Ishida.
Welcome to the world Kael died for.
Welcome to Calridth Verge."
And somewhere…
beneath the chamber…
the ground trembled.
Not danger.
Not a threat.
Just the planet exhaling.
Because the last piece of its past had finally woken up.