Dawn crept slowly across the lake, turning the water into a mirror of pale gold. The storm had passed, but the scent of rain still lingered, clean, heavy, and sweet.
Leira woke first. The light touched Kael's face as he slept beside her, softening the harsh lines that battle and grief had carved into him. For a brief moment, she just watched him, the rise and fall of his chest, the quiet peace that only came when he wasn't trying to protect the world.
It felt wrong to disturb it. But they had to move.
She rose quietly, her boots sinking slightly into damp moss. The cave mouth framed the world outside like a painting: mist curling over the lake, trees bending under the morning breeze. For the first time in days, she felt a flicker of calm.
Kael stirred behind her. "You're awake early," he said, voice still rough with sleep.
Leira glanced back with a faint smile. "Didn't want to waste the quiet. It feels… rare."
He stood, fastening his cloak, and joined her at the entrance. "You'll miss it soon enough. The Grove doesn't know quiet. It only knows whispers."
His tone was calm, but something in his eyes made her stomach tighten.
They walked together along the water's edge, the lake stretching behind them like a fading dream. The forest thickened the farther they went, the air growing heavier, almost damp with magic.
Leira brushed her fingers against a low-hanging branch, and flinched. The bark was warm.
"Kael," she murmured, "why does everything feel like it's breathing?"
"Because it is," he said simply. "The Grove feeds on memory. It pulls life from what it hears. You'll see soon enough."
That wasn't comforting.
As they moved deeper, the light dimmed. The trees grew close together, their branches twisting above them until the sun disappeared completely. Every sound, the rustle of leaves, the drip of water, seemed too deliberate, like something listening back.
Leira felt it before she heard it: a soft pressure at the edge of her thoughts. Then came the voices.
At first, they were faint, a murmur, like wind between reeds. But then one broke through, soft and familiar.
"Leira…"
Her steps faltered. The voice was a woman's, melodic, patient, but it didn't sound like Ari. It sounded older, distant, and yet unbearably close.
Kael noticed her hesitation. "What is it?"
"Someone said my name."
He slowed beside her, eyes scanning the shadows. "Ignore it. They'll twist whatever they find in your mind. Don't listen long enough to let them in."
"But I..."
"I don't doubt that you heard your name," he said evenly. "But they're not who they sound like."
Before she could reply, another voice joined, softer, a laugh this time. A man's. The sound hit her like a pulse of light through her chest. She knew that laugh.
It was the same one that once made her heart race, though she couldn't remember why.
Leira turned sharply toward the sound, her breath catching. "Kael, did you hear that?"
He shook his head. "No. What did it say?"
She hesitated. "It didn't say anything. It laughed."
Something flickered in his expression, concern, maybe fear. "It's begun, Leira. You have to block them out."
Leira frowned. "The test?"
Kael nodded. "The Grove chooses how to reach you. For me, it whispered regrets. For you… it'll use love. Loss. Anything you've buried."
His voice trembled slightly on that last word, though he tried to hide it.
The whispers grew louder now, layering over one another until the air seemed full of breath and memory. Some murmured words she couldn't make out. Others hummed songs she almost recognized.
And then…
"I'll find you," one voice said. It was Kael's, but not the Kael beside her. This voice was younger, desperate, full of pain. "I'll find you, no matter what it takes."
Her blood ran cold. She turned toward him instinctively, but Kael's lips didn't move. His expression told her he'd heard nothing.
"Kael…" she whispered. "I heard you."
He frowned. "Heard me say what?"
She pressed a hand to her chest, trying to steady her breathing. "You said you were going to find me. I don't know when you said it but I heard you say it."
He stepped closer, his hand hovering near hers but not quite touching. "Don't believe everything the Grove shows you. It's feeding on the pieces of you that still remember. It'll twist them until you can't tell what's real."
But even as he said it, his gaze flickered to the trees. Leira didn't notice the way his shoulders tensed, the way his eyes tracked something unseen. He was hearing whispers too, faint, broken words he'd spent centuries trying to forget.
They called his name "Kaelion", the full name he hadn't been called since the night she died.
He closed his eyes briefly, steadying his breath, and pushed it away. His memories were walls, strong and unyielding. He had to be the anchor, or she'd be lost.
"Keep walking," he said, voice firm again. "Don't stop no matter what you hear."
Leira obeyed, though her hands were trembling.
Every few steps, another voice rose from the dark, fragments of her past bleeding through like cracks in glass. Laughter. A whisper of someone calling her by a different name. A man's hand brushing her hair back. The faint smell of smoke.
Cassian.
The name came to her unbidden, soft and sharp all at once. She froze mid-step.
Kael turned instantly. "Leira?"
Her lips parted, confusion flickering across her face. "I… someone said a name. Cassian. Who is that?"
Kael's jaw tightened, something flickering behind his eyes. "You remember that name?"
"No. I just heard it."
The Grove seemed to sigh around them, trees creaking like they were listening. Kael's hand brushed the hilt of his sword, though he knew blades wouldn't help here.
"Someone from before," he said slowly. "After the Veil… after me. Your first life after the Veil fell.
Leira blinked, her breath quickening. "My first life? How many were there? And why do I feel like I broke something by hearing it?"
"Because that's what the Grove wants," Kael said, stepping closer. "It wants you to doubt what's real. To drown you in pieces you're not ready to hold."
Leira nodded, but her eyes were distant, unfocused. "He sounded… sad."
Kael's voice gentled. "Most memories do."
The path narrowed suddenly. The trees leaned in, their roots twisting across the ground like serpents. The air grew thicker, pressing against their skin.
Leira's pulse quickened. She could hear her own heartbeat now, or maybe the Grove's.
"Kael?" she whispered. "Something's wrong."
Before he could respond, the ground beneath them began to rumble. A gust of cold wind swept through the clearing, carrying whispers so loud they became almost screams.
Kael reached for her, but his hand passed through smoke.
Leira stumbled back, eyes wide. The world tilted. The trees around her blurred, and light cracked through the air like lightning made of glass.
"Kael!" she shouted, but his voice was already fading, swallowed by the storm of sound.
The Grove had chosen.
It wrapped around her like mist, tendrils of light pulling her from the earth. The whispers grew sharp, turning into words, names, hundreds of them, but one rose above the rest.
It wasn't Leira.
It was something older, deeper, her true name.
She didn't recognize it. But when the voices spoke it, the air trembled, and her mark burned against her wrist.
Then everything went white.
Kael's shout echoed once through the clearing, fierce and helpless.
And Leira was gone.