Even roots have secrets.
Beneath the Deepwood, where memory sinks into soil and regret flowers in silence, there lies a gate that was never meant to open.
Some flames were extinguished for a reason.
But Kael has never been good at leaving the past buried.
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Location: The Deepwood – Grove CoreSub-layer: Unknown
The grove was quiet now, but not with peace.
The ancient tree Serin had unveiled loomed like a sentinel, its bark groaning with the tension of something recently disturbed — something old and buried that had tasted the open air again after eons of silence.
Kael, Serin, and Lysara stood before the warped Ember Sigil etched deep into the trunk, where fire met shadow in a spiral that felt wrong. The mark pulsed — dimly, irregularly — as if confused by its own existence.
"I've seen a hundred sigils," Lysara murmured, tracing the grooves from a safe distance. "This one doesn't match any of them. Not even corrupted fragments."
Kael said nothing. He stepped forward and placed his palm against the bark.
The sigil flared.A jolt of pressure — not heat, but cold knowledge — rushed through his body. For a second, he couldn't feel his limbs. Only the pull of something deeper… beneath the Deepwood… beneath the memory of the realms.
[Ascendant Fragment Resonance: Incomplete → Reactive]
Kael staggered back.
"This isn't just a realm gate," he whispered. "It's a seal."
Serin narrowed her eyes. "And seals are made to keep something in."
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The Realm That Shouldn't Exist
Known in forbidden whispers as Origin Cradle, this realm exists beneath even the oldest known layers of memory.
Sealed during the dawn of the Aeonfall, it houses raw, unprocessed memory — not shaped by belief or time, but pure echo.
Its existence was removed from the Obelisks. From all Archives. A wound in the structure of the multiverse.
Some say the first Fragment wasn't born… it was broken off from what lay inside.
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The sigil responded again, this time to Kael's latent aura.
The bark split open — not with force, but with silence — revealing a spiral stair of blackened roots leading into a pulsing darkness.
Lysara reached for her staff. "We really doing this?"
Kael looked down the stairwell.
"We're already too close to turn back."
Serin nodded, voice unusually soft. "I've guarded this glade for years. And even I never saw what was beneath it."
Together, they descended into the dark.
The silence was heavier the deeper they went. No roots moved. No air stirred. Even their thoughts felt distant, muffled as if submerged in still water.
At the base of the stair was a mirror-like lake, its surface unmoving — not water, but liquid memory. It shimmered in colors Kael didn't have names for.
Floating above it was a throne — forged from woven flame and bone, shifting shape with every blink.
And in the center… a boy.
He looked no older than sixteen. Pale skin. Silver lashes. And eyes closed in what could've been sleep — or stasis.
Chains of shimmering thread bound him to the throne, each link humming with restrained memory.
Lysara's voice broke in a whisper: "Who… is that?"
Serin took a step back. "That's… not possible."
Etched into the throne's base:
Aeon NullBearer of the First Flame Fragment.The one before the Ascendants.
"But he's supposed to be dead," Lysara said. "Devoured by the Fold. Lost during the first collapse."
Kael stepped forward slowly, brows furrowed.
"He's not dead."
He paused.
"…Or worse. He's remembering."
The boy's eyes opened.
And in them, Kael saw something impossible. Not a reflection — not a future —
But a version of himself that had never existed.
"You are not ready," the boy said."But you've come anyway."
"Then you'll see what even gods chose to forget."
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Suddenly — the chamber fractured.
Light, impossibly white, surged through Kael's vision. His body fell away.
And he stood… elsewhere.
A world of ruins suspended in a skyless void. No stars. No ground. Just crumbled cities and decaying echoes.
"This isn't the past," Kael whispered.
The boy appeared beside him, now unbound, older — and burning with quiet, devastating fire.
"This is what remains when you fail."
"This is what your flame will become, if left untamed."
Kael clenched his fists, defiant.
"Then teach me."
The boy lifted his hand.
Trial Initiated: Forgotten Flame — Phase One
Meanwhile, back in the sealed chamber, Kael's body floated above the lake — burning now with white-gold fire.
Lysara rushed forward. "What's happening to him?"
Serin didn't answer. She was watching the throne — which was no longer whole.
Chains cracked.
And far above, beyond Deepwood, the Watchers stirred.
[End Of Chapter 36]
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Chapter 37: Trial of the Forgotten Flame — Burn Me True
In a world built from broken futures, Kael must face more than just regret. He must confront the version of himself that never stopped burning — and decide whether memory is salvation… or just another form of destruction.
Some truths can only be earned through fire.And some flames… are meant to be forgotten.