They walked in silence.
The woods of Ashwood were quieter now—but not with peace. With expectation. As if the trees themselves listened, straining toward a breath yet to be drawn.
Tellen no longer took notes.
Even he felt it.
The path narrowed into old stone stairs, crumbling with time, half-swallowed by vines. Moss dripped from every surface, and ahead, silhouetted against the moon's rise, stood a chapel lost to memory.
It was not large, but it was wrong.
Its windows were stained with ash, not color. Its doors had no handles. No birds roosted in its eaves. The bell in its tower swayed gently, but no wind blew.
A statue knelt outside—head bowed, hands cupped upward, as though offering something unseen.
The name on the plinth was worn smooth.
But Arjuna knew the armor.
Knew the stance.
This was his brother.
The Flame's Hand.
"Do you remember him?" Tellen asked softly.
Arjuna touched the pommel of his sword.
"No. But my bones do."
He stepped forward and pushed the chapel doors.
They opened.
Not outward. Not inward.
But sideways—like sliding stone.
Revealing darkness that wasn't just shadow.
It was silence made flesh.
They entered.
Inside, a hundred candles burned with blue fire.
None had wax. The flames floated atop pools of black liquid. Blood? Ink? Memory?
Names were carved into the walls—one atop another. Some had been scratched out. Others rewritten.
Arjuna read one aloud.
"Kaelgorath."
A whisper in the dark responded: He waits beneath the moon.
Another name.
"Elriand."
He betrayed and was betrayed.
Another.
"Nyssara."
She remembers everything.
Arjuna clenched his jaw.
"What is this place?" he murmured.
Tellen knelt beside one pool. "It's a memory reliquary. The old knights built these when they began to forget. They sealed what mattered here."
He stood, his voice low.
"And your brother was the first to do it."
At the far end of the chapel was a dais.
Upon it, a coffin of black wood.
Flames danced atop it, spelling no words. Only emotion.
Grief.
Regret.
Hope.
Arjuna approached. Tellen stayed behind.
As he neared, the coffin's surface shimmered—and a memory unfolded around him.
Rain.
Fire.
A battlefield. And two figures, locked in a final embrace.
Arjuna, bloodied. His sword broken.
The other knight—his brother—kneeling before him, his armor cracked, his heart bare.
"You were always the better sword," the brother said. "But I was the better fool."
Lightning flashed.
"Promise me," the Flame's Hand whispered. "When it ends… remember me as I was. Not as I became."
And Arjuna, weeping, had said, "I will."
The brother smiled. Then stood. Then turned toward the oncoming horde alone.
The memory shattered.
Arjuna stumbled back.
The coffin's lid opened.
And inside—
No body.
Only a sword.
Crimson-edged. Wrapped in firecloth.
And a sealed letter.
He picked it up.
There was no name. Only a single phrase burned into the wax:
"For the one who forgot."
Arjuna broke the seal.
Inside, written in a sharp, trembling hand:
_"Brother,
I do not know if you live. But if you read this, then the curse did not take you whole.
I sealed my name here so that it might outlast time.
I was Elion.
And I loved you more than I hated the gods.
If you still walk, if your blade still burns—then know this:
The Black Vow was never only hers.It was yours.
You swore it to protect love from death.And so did I."_
The page ended there.
But Arjuna did not move.
Tellen approached quietly. "You remember him?"
Arjuna closed his eyes.
"I remember… the feeling. Of someone I would die for. And who died for me."
He lifted the sword.
It sang as it left the coffin, firelight flaring along its length.
And on its fuller, in ancient script, a name reappeared:
ELION.
Outside, the wind howled.
The bell tolled once.
Twice.
And then—a voice.
Low. Raspy. Echoing from beneath the chapel floor.
"You broke the seal," it said.
A crack split the dais.
Stone crumbled.
And from below, a figure rose.
Not whole. Not living.
But clothed in firelight and bone.
"Who dares take the Flame's Hand?" it growled.
Arjuna raised the sword.
"I am his brother."
The figure's eyes burned red.
"Then prove it."