Darkness pressed against him like a second skin.
Lucius floated in it—weightless, voiceless.
He wasn't dreaming.
He wasn't awake.
He existed somewhere in between.
And in that in-between space, memories he had never lived clawed their way into his mind.
The first thing he saw was a field of dead flowers.
Once beautiful.Now brittle.Ash crumbled with every step he took across the ground.
The sky overhead wasn't black or red—
It was gray.
Emotionless.Forgotten.
Like a place that had already decided it didn't matter anymore.
Ahead, under a rotting tree that bled sap like tears,two figures waited.
One—small, frail, wrapped in a bloodstained hoodie too large for his frame.
The boy looked like Lucius.
He was Lucius.
But younger.
Softer.
Weaker.
The version of him before the blade, before Sovarion, before memory was a weapon and guilt a shield.
And beside him—
a girl.
Arielle.
Alive.
But fading.
Her hair flickered like dying embers.
Her body—whole one second, fractured the next.
Every time Lucius blinked, she flickered again.
As if existence itself was trying—and failing—to hold her together.
He wanted to run to them.
Wanted to scream.
Wanted to stop whatever he knew was about to happen.
But he couldn't move.
Only watch.
Only break.
The boy knelt by Arielle's side.
Hands bloody.
Knees scraped raw.
He cradled something against his chest—a broken pendant Lucius recognized instantly.
The same one Arielle once wore.
The same one she had pressed into his hand the moment she faded in that other life.
The boy sobbed.
Small.Ugly.Raw.
No heroics.
No magic.
Just the truth that no sword could ever cut down:
He couldn't save her.
"I'm sorry," the boy whispered, voice breaking on every syllable.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you."
"I'm sorry I wasn't enough."
"I'm sorry I'm always the one left behind."
Arielle reached out with a hand that dissolved the closer it got to him.
Fingers turned to smoke.
Palm turned to ash.
But she touched his cheek anyway.
And Lucius heard her.
Clearer than he had heard anything in his lives as Sovarion, as Lucius Nachtveil, or as the nameless boy from another world.
"You were enough."
"You were always enough."
Lucius staggered forward—tears he hadn't known he could still cry burning down his face.
He screamed her name.
But his voice was soundless.
Just another memory, too late to change anything.
Arielle turned.
Looked directly at him.
Not the boy.
Him.
The man.
The broken king.
The blade bearer.
The one who never forgave himself even when the world begged him to.
And she smiled.
"Even if you forget me again...""Even if you fall again...""Even if the stars themselves burn out...""I will find you.""And I will forgive you."
The world shattered.
Light ripped through the sky.
And Lucius fell.
Fell through memory.Fell through guilt.Fell through the lives he'd lived and the ones he'd destroyed.
He woke with a violent gasp.
Claire caught him first.
Her arms wrapped around him tightly, trembling.
Tears streamed down her face but she said nothing.
Only held him tighter when he shook.
Zara crouched nearby.
Eyes wide.
Uncharacteristically silent.
Not a warlord now.
Just a girl watching someone she couldn't protect break in front of her.
Velda pressed stabilizing runes into the earth around them.
Her hands burned with magic she didn't even know she could cast.
Lilith shielded them all with her wings, sheltering them from the cruel wind that had kicked up in the dream's wake.
Lucius sat up slowly.
Breathing like he'd fought gods and lost.
And maybe he had.
Maybe memory was a more brutal enemy than any divine blade.
His voice cracked when he spoke.
Barely audible.
"She forgave me."
No one responded.
Because what could they say?
When all of them had been chasing a ghost he had already lost long before they were even born.
Lucius wiped his face roughly.
Grabbed the blade.
Forced himself to stand even when his legs trembled.
Because Sovarion had stood.Because Lucien had fallen.Because Lucius—
would move forward.
Even if it killed him.
The fire roared back to life.
The road ahead waited.
And somewhere in the endless distance—
so did the answers he was finally ready to find.