The ash had settled, but silence did not mean stillness.
Kael stood on the threshold of a forgotten valley, its edge veiled in a pale, iridescent mist. The earth was cracked with veins of violet mineral, glowing faintly in the underlight—like a heartbeat caught in stone. The path before him wasn't marked on any system directive, nor did it appear in any of the fragmented memories that haunted his dreams. And yet, he felt pulled.
Not by fear.
By familiarity.
The System pinged once.
> **[Notice: Proximity Alert – Fragmented Echo Signature Detected]**
> **Location: Unknown. Classification: Soul Pattern ≈ Unlinked Flameborne]**
His breath caught.
Someone else was here. Or had been.
And something in the air whispered of grief too deep to die.
---
He moved with quiet caution, boots crunching over crystalized soot. The terrain shimmered oddly with each step—as though his presence was disturbing the illusion of stillness itself. Every so often, he thought he heard footsteps not his own. Every so often, he thought he heard breathing. But when he turned, the air was empty, and the silence deeper.
A flicker in the mist.
A glint—metal?
Kael dropped low, gaze narrowing. In a crevice just ahead, half-buried beneath fossilized roots, a shard of obsidian glinted. It was smooth, curved—etched faintly with the mark of a torch circled in thorns.
His hand reached for it instinctively.
The moment his fingers brushed it, the world trembled.
---
> **[System Alert: Dormant Heart Signature Detected – [Unregistered Code: "R-41-VEN"]]**
Kael's mind reeled. The System had never shown code like that before—fragmented, hesitant, almost... uncertain.
But deeper than that, something inside him ached. His chest felt hollow, his hands trembling slightly—not with fear, but with **recognition**. Like reaching for a name you don't yet remember but once screamed into the void. Something about that code clawed at the underside of his soul.
> _Riven._
The name dropped into him like a stone in water. No explanation. No memory.
But it felt right.
He dropped the shard. Stepped back.
---
Night began to bleed across the sky in burnt shades of violet and iron.
As he looked out over the valley's basin, Kael saw broken statues crumbling among the ash dunes—shaped not like kings or warriors, but like people mid-embrace, or crumpled in prayer. Half-frozen in their last emotion.
He realized they weren't statues.
They were echoes.
Sleeping Hearts, long-forgotten.
And one of them, buried far beyond reach, might carry the flicker of a bond older than names.
---
Kael didn't move closer. Not yet.
Instead, he sat at the edge of the basin, letting the wind carve its quiet paths around him. He didn't need answers yet. Only presence.
The System flickered softly. No commands. No pressure.
Just one line on the interface, pulsing faintly:
> **[Whispers linger where names have not yet returned.]**
He stared into the basin and whispered to the wind.
> _"I'll come back for you."_
Whether he meant the statues… or the name in his bones… he couldn't yet say.
But something in the wind shifted—almost like a laugh.