The winds howled through the ravine as Kael stood over the fallen soldier. His relic blade, Eclipsion, pulsed faintly in his hand, its intricate runes flickering like a heartbeat. The blade's hunger had been sated, for now.
He turned his gaze to Lyra, who leaned against a jagged rock, clutching her side. Blood seeped between her fingers, staining her tattered cloak. Her sharp eyes, filled with equal parts defiance and pain, locked onto his.
"You shouldn't have saved me," she spat, her voice strained.
Kael knelt beside her, his expression unreadable. "You're the one they were after. If I let you die, I'd never get answers."
"Answers?" She laughed bitterly. "You're just like them. Another Memory Keeper chasing ghosts."
Kael ignored her retort and placed a hand on her wound. The faint hum of a healing salve stored in his gloves activated, sealing the worst of her injury. Lyra winced but didn't pull away.
As he worked, a wave of dizziness swept over him. His vision blurred, and the world seemed to tilt. The blade at his side glowed brighter, and a searing pain lanced through his skull.
A memory fragment.
Kael staggered back, clutching his head as images flooded his mind.
---
The room was bathed in flickering light, a clash of steel and fire echoing in the distance. A woman with auburn hair, her face partially obscured by shadows, reached out to him.
"Kael," she whispered, her voice breaking. "Promise me you'll—"
The memory shattered, leaving Kael gasping for breath.
---
"Hey!" Lyra's voice pulled him back to the present. She was on her feet now, her hand pressed against the rock for balance. "What's wrong with you?"
Kael blinked, his breaths shallow. "The blade… It took something. A fragment of a memory."
"From me?"
He shook his head. "No. From them." He gestured toward the soldier's lifeless body.
Lyra's gaze hardened. "You Memory Keepers always meddle with things you don't understand. You think you can piece the world back together, but you're just breaking it further."
"And what about you?" Kael countered, his voice low. "Your powers, your fragmented mind—don't pretend you're not part of this mess."
Silence hung between them, thick with unspoken truths.
Finally, Lyra broke eye contact and turned toward the path leading out of the ravine. "I don't owe you anything, but if you're going to follow me, try not to die. I don't need another corpse haunting me."
Kael sheathed his blade and stepped forward. "I don't need to follow you," he said calmly. "You'll lead me where I need to go."
Lyra didn't reply, but her pace quickened. Kael followed, his mind churning with questions about the fragment, the woman in the memory, and the growing shadow of the Void.
Somewhere in the distance, a low rumble echoed through the land, as if the world itself was warning them.