They stayed at the edge of the clearing long after the world reset itself.
No wind. No birdcall. Just the firelight… and Alari's breathing.
She sat with her knees to her chest, wrapped in Kael's cloak.But this time, she wasn't trembling from fear.
She was trembling from the weight of something sacred.
🧒 Alari Speaks
"Lioren."
Her voice was small, barely louder than the fire.
"I didn't know it. I didn't ask for it.But it's… in me."
Seren sat beside her, silently offering presence over protection.
"He didn't sound like a monster," Alari continued."He sounded like someone who got left behind."
She looked up.
"Have you ever loved someone so much…that when they stopped looking at you, it broke something in you forever?"
Kael lowered his head.
"Yes."
🕯️ A Name Once Lost
"Lioren. Hope After Dawn," Alari whispered again.
"I think he wanted to become something else. Something beautiful.But when he reached for it… no one reached back."
"And then… the forgetting began."
Vaelrix spoke from the shadows, voice raw:
"We call him Veil now.We call him Enemy.But if that's what he became because he was unseen…What does that say about the light?"
No one answered.
Not because there wasn't one.But because the truth deserved silence.
đź’ Alari's Choice
She looked at them all—Kael, Seren, Vaelrix.
Eyes wide.Not afraid anymore.
"I don't want to be a vessel.I don't want to be a weapon."
"But I'll carry Lioren's name…If it helps someone remember what was lost."
Kael smiled softly.
"That's all the Light ever asked."
The fire crackled.And for the first time since this began…
Alari smiled back.
Not as a voice.Not as a vessel.
But as herself.