Sakamoto's Age: Still 4.5
Season: Early winter frost — nights colder than memory
Setting: Still in Velduin outskirts, pre-departure
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There are two kinds of sleep in Lucala.
One is rest.
The other is a door.
That night… I walked through a door.
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The Dreamwalk
The sky was black. Not dark — black. Like it had bled ink into itself.
Niris stood on a stone bridge that floated over nothing. Her cloak whipped in silent wind. She looked younger. Alive. Less haunted.
> "This is your memory," I said.
> "No," she replied. "This is yours. But I borrowed it."
> "I don't remember it."
> "Because you died before you could."
She held her sword — herself. And plunged it into the bridge.
It cracked beneath us.
And visions spilled upward:
A battlefield.
A boy screaming.
A tower of white flames.
And then… a girl.
Ireina.
Not glowing. Not graceful.
Broken. Crying.
> "You promised me!" she yelled.
And the vision shattered.
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Waking Up Shaking
I woke up sweating.
Niris was silent. Not asleep. Just… withdrawn.
Ireina sat by the fire. Still. Watching it burn.
> "You remembered something," she said without looking at me.
> "How'd you know?"
> "Because I'm trying to forget the same thing."
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Aelira's Recklessness
While we tried to breathe, Aelira went into the southern woods alone.
She tried to channel Wildweave — not through a spell… but directly through her body.
It worked.
Too well.
The trees grew weapons. The ground pulled at her feet. Her heart thudded with primal rhythm.
And her core?
Burned white.
Kael found her before she lost control.
> "You think strength makes you useful?" he asked, dragging her back.
> "I think I don't want to be replaced."
> "You think this is a game of favorites?"
> "It always is."
Kael didn't answer.
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Quiet Before the Snap
The party gathered again that night. No fighting. No jokes.
Just silence.
Cold.
And three people who didn't know how to say they were scared.
Ireina finally broke it.
> "You're changing faster than I expected," she said.
> "That good or bad?" I asked.
> "Both."
> "You knew me before, didn't you?"
> "...Yes."
> "Who was I?"
She didn't answer.
But her fingers curled into a fist.
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Final Scene: The Scroll Calls
That night, as Sakamoto drifted into half-sleep, the scroll beside him pulsed once.
Faintly.
Then again.
And on the third pulse — it spoke.
> "Wake up, Vessel."
His eyes shot open.
And in the darkness of the hut… something ancient had arrived.