Chapter 29: The Name Within
He looked at her like she was a stranger.
"Who are you?" the man asked again, voice smooth, calm wrong.
Lyra didn't answer right away. Her heart thundered against her ribs, drowning out the pulse of the cursed chamber.
Kael no, Taren tilted his head. "Why are you staring at me like that?"
Lyra took a step back. "Because that's not your name."
He blinked. "Then tell me. What is it?"
She stared at him, searching his face. Everything was right his features, his voice but none of it felt real. His gaze was flat, reflective, like glass over water.
Kael was gone.
No.
Buried.
She drew a blade from her side silver laced with bone. The weapon hummed softly in the thick air.
He didn't flinch.
Lyra's voice cracked. "You took the shard into you. That's how it works. The Saint doesn't need to possess you it just needs you to choose wrong."
"I didn't choose anything."
"You reached for it," she said. "That was the choice."
He watched her calmly. "You're afraid."
"Of losing you," she said.
"No," he said, stepping forward. "You're afraid of what I'll remember."
Behind them, the water bubbled.
The mirror shards began to fall one by one melting into the pool like mercury.
Something beneath the surface stirred.
A heartbeat.
But not human.
Kael no, Taren reached into his coat. He pulled out the locket. The one Lyra had returned to him.
He opened it.
Stared at Seren's face.
Then, quietly: "She called me Kael."
Lyra's breath caught. "Because you are Kael."
He looked up, brow furrowed. "Then why do I remember watching her die from above the well?"
Silence.
Lyra's blade dipped an inch.
He took another step. "I remember the rope snapping. Her hand slipping. I remember thinking, 'It's better this way.'"
Lyra's lips parted, but no words came.
Kael smiled faintly. "You don't want me to remember. Because if I do if I see everything then I'll know what you did."
The chamber trembled.
The pool of black water rose higher, the edges licking over the stone. Whispers spilled from it now hundreds of voices overlapping.
Some were Kael's.
Some were hers.
Some were dead.
Lyra made her choice.
She threw a rune-stone at the center of the pool. It lit up, glowing pale blue.
The voices screamed.
The chamber cracked.
Kael stumbled backward, clutching his skull. "What did you "
"I'm waking you up," Lyra shouted over the roar.
"No? "
His scream turned inhuman.
The light exploded, engulfing them both.
Memories lashed out in pulses visions strobing through the air like flickers from a broken film reel.
Kael at six, laughing with a girl in a silver cloak.
Kael older, hands bound, dragged through Whisperwood.
Kael screaming as the water rose over his face.
And Lyra kneeling by the well, whispering his name like a sin.
"Sleep, Kael. Sleep and forget. I'll fix it."
The light faded.
Kael dropped to his knees, gasping.
His eyes were different now. One burned gold. The other bled smoke.
"Lyra?" he rasped.
She dropped beside him. "Kael?"
He grabbed her wrist hard.
And whispered "It's still inside me."
Kael leans in close, trembling.
"I remember everything. And I don't know which parts are me."
And then, through his teeth:
"If I change again kill me."