The spiral ended without ceremony.
It opened onto a stone landing facing a wide door of dark iron etched with a single glyph—an anchor twisted into a loop, broken once across its curve. The symbol pulsed faintly with a pale green light, casting strange shadows along the floor.
Lira stepped forward and stopped. Her posture changed.
Rigid.
"This is it," she said. "The archive chamber."
Kael stared at the glyph. It stirred something beneath his ribs, a pressure like a thought half-formed.
"What's behind it?"
Lira didn't answer.
He approached the door. The glyph flickered more intensely.
"I don't think this door is sealed for everyone," he murmured.
Before Lira could stop him, he placed his palm against the metal.
The anchor flared. The light pulsed through the seams in the iron. And the door opened.
Lira took a step back.
Inside, the chamber was small and circular. The walls were made of the same crystal-veined stone, but smoother—deliberate. At its center hovered a glass prism, suspended within a ring of fine silver chains that didn't touch the ground. It spun slowly, quietly, and the air around it shimmered with the presence of memory.
Kael stepped inside. Lira stayed at the threshold.
"What is this?" he asked.
Lira's voice was low. "A personal shard. Preserved intentionally. Hidden from the network. It's not meant for public recall."
"But I opened it."
"That's what scares me."
Kael reached out and let his fingers graze the surface of the prism.
The room vanished.
He stood now in a quiet field of blue grass under a twilight sky. A small fire crackled beside him. A tent, half-assembled, flapped gently in the wind.
Lira sat near the fire. Not just familiar—but unmistakably her. Her braid was shorter. She wore no glyphs, no tools, just simple clothes and bare feet.
She looked up at him and smiled.
"I thought you'd never stop pacing."
Kael's heart stopped.
He—Rin—sat beside her. Same face. Same eyes. But looser. Smiling. He picked up her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist.
"No matter how far we go," Rin said softly, "this part is mine."
The memory flickered.
Kael pulled his hand away.
The shard dimmed.
He turned slowly to Lira, who stood frozen at the door.
"You knew."
She said nothing.
"You've been hiding this from me. From the start."
Her lips parted. Her eyes shimmered with something heavy, but she didn't cry.
Kael stepped forward, voice cracking.
"We were more than friends. More than anything you've said."
Lira looked at the floor.
"Yes."