Current Age: Sakamoto – 4.5 years old
Season: Late autumn
Location: Village of Velduin, near the northern cliffs of Lucala
The leaves were dying.
Not just falling — curling, like they were afraid of what came next.
That's when I first knew:
Something beyond the woods had awakened.
---
The Arrival
Three days after Ravian's letter…
Three days after Aelira's surge…
The sky cracked open.
It wasn't thunder.
It wasn't magic.
It was something ancient falling fast.
I saw it — a streak of violet light, cutting the clouds like a blade across parchment.
It landed beyond the Northern Cliffs — a dead zone where no one traveled. Not even monsters.
The guild didn't send a scout.
They sent us.
---
Briefing
> "We're sending you north," the minotaur clerk grunted. "You're the only team dumb enough to say yes."
> "And desperate enough to try," Ravian added.
> "Any info on what fell?" I asked.
> "Just a reading. Old mana. Not demonic. Not divine. Something... forgotten."
> "Perfect," Aelira sighed. "If we die, I'm blaming Sir Cluckles."
---
The Journey Begins
We left that night.
Velduin behind us.
Aelira rode her summoned root boar (yes, she figured out how to summon a plant-mount).
Ravian walked beside me, cloak drawn, hand near his dagger.
I held Niris strapped across my back, humming with tension.
> "Something sleeps up there," she whispered. "And it remembers me."
> "Everything remembers you," I muttered.
> "Not like this."
---
The Cliffs
We reached them by sunrise.
Jagged black stone.
Freezing wind.
Old banners torn by time.
And at the base?
A crater.
Still glowing faintly violet.
Inside the crater was a pod.
Metal. Covered in seals and runes I didn't recognize.
The surface cracked.
Inside… a girl.
Floating.
Eyes closed.
Hair white as snow.
And then—
She opened her eyes.
Violet. Piercing.
She looked at me.
And said:
> "Sakamoto… Echoborne…"
> "How do you know my name?!"
She collapsed.
---
Back at the Hut
We carried her back to Kael and Elira.
Elira ran tests. Probed her aura. Weaved magic diagnostics.
> "She's human… mostly," Elira murmured. "But her soul is layered. Like it's lived more than once."
> "Like me?" I asked.
> "No," Niris said. "Not like you. She didn't reincarnate."
> "She was sealed."
---
Her Name
When she woke, she stared at us like we were strangers in her childhood home.
> "My name is Ireina."
"I don't know how long I slept."
"But I dreamed of a blade… that would wake the world."
She looked at me again.
> "And it's you."
---
Final Scene: South
Back in Arcthen's ruined halls, the masked figure stirred again.
One of the Shadowsworn returned.
> "The star has fallen. She's near him."
> "Then we move."
He raised a relic: a blade of bone, wrapped in red cloth.
> "Echoborne. Wildweaver. Embersight."
> "Three sparks. One curse."
> "Time to test what the new age is made of."