The wind had softened by morning.
What had once howled through the broken arches now whispered, brushing ash from Kael's shoulders as if the world itself was trying to unburden him. He stood alone on the edge of the shattered ridge, eyes fixed on the distant horizon where grey gave way to the faintest stroke of gold.
He had not slept. Not truly.Just drifted between memories and silence.
The names carved into the stone behind him still lingered in his mind—not just Elijah's, but others. Faded echoes he didn't yet recognize. A part of him feared what remembering them might cost.
Yet he also knew this:The only way out was through.
Kael descended into the hollow with slow, deliberate steps, his boots crunching through brittle ashroot and fractured slate. Each footfall stirred small plumes of dust that caught the early light, glowing for a breath before vanishing.
The world felt thinner here.
Less like he was walking forward—and more like he was walking into something.
A silence pooled around him. Not dead. Listening.
He passed weathered statues half-swallowed by vines and soot, their faces eroded into anonymity. A few still bore Pyreborn crests—remnants of the old world. One had a hand outstretched toward the mountain, as if reaching for something lost in the fog.
Midway down the slope, the ground trembled faintly.
Kael paused. Instinct sharpened.
It wasn't seismic. It was… internal.A flicker in the System—like a heartbeat he hadn't noticed before.
[Tether Resonance: Dormant. Tracing source…]
He braced himself, expecting the same voice, the same neutral cadence. But what came next wasn't words—it was feeling.
A pulse of warmth in his chest.Followed by a sudden cold in his palms.
He knelt, pressing his fingers to the earth. Beneath the surface, something stirred—a memory shard, maybe. Or a relic. Or both.
The terrain didn't answer. But somewhere deeper in the Hollow, something did.A presence. Distant. Watching.
Kael rose. Eyes narrowing.
He wasn't alone in this place.
Further in, the fog thickened—twisting between ruins like ghosts reluctant to leave. And in that mist, Kael saw it.
A single mirror shard.
Propped against a scorched tree, its surface was blackened with soot… except for the center, where light bled through like a wound.
He stepped closer.
In it, he saw not himself—but a younger version.Not Elijah. Not Kael as he remembered.But something in-between. A child, cloaked in ash and firelight, eyes wide with fear—and awe.
The moment broke as the shard cracked under his touch.
[System Response: Mirror memory incomplete. Emotional resonance insufficient.]
[Log Created: "Shards of Hollow Light"]
Kael let out a breath, not realizing he'd been holding it.
He glanced back the way he came.
Still alone.
But something about the air felt changed now.Not heavier. Not lighter.
Just… open.
He turned again toward the Hollow's heart.
Unseen eyes still followed.
And somewhere beyond the veil of fog, a boy with silver eyes watched from the ruins, curiosity flickering like a small flame behind a cracked stone wall.
But Kael didn't see him.
Not yet.