"Before the world bled, there were three.
Bound by choice.
Broken by fear."
— First Verse, Lost Echo
---
The Fold didn't pull him in this time.
Vayren walked in willingly.
Not physically—his body still knelt by the lake.
But his mind…
his soul…
his name slipped beneath the surface.
And there, in the hollow where memory and regret become one—
He saw them.
---
Three figures.
Standing beneath a tree that grew from light.
One held a staff.
One carried a spear.
One kept a book sealed with seven runes.
Serenya.
Kaien.
Vayren.
Before the relics.
Before the war.
Before the lies.
---
Scene: The Forgotten Days
They were laughing.
Not warriors.
Not myth.
Just friends.
Bound by the same Mark.
Not as weapons.
But as guardians of something older than magic.
The Original Echo.
A power so vast, it could rewrite fate.
They swore to protect it.
Together.
But only two kept the oath.
---
> "The gods are moving," Serenya said in the vision. "They want the Fold. They want to trap destiny in a cage."
Kaien paced, agitated.
> "We should burn the Fold before they ever touch it."
> "And what?" Vayren asked. "Leave the world unguarded?"
> "We are the guard," Kaien snapped. "So we either protect it with chains—
Or we become the threat they're afraid of."
---
Scene: The Moment It Broke
Vayren blinked.
And suddenly—
He stood on the battlefield.
The sky split in half.
The Fold trembled in the air, half-sealed.
And Serenya stood between them—
Blood on her robes.
Kaien at her back.
Vayren in front of her.
Both holding blades.
---
> "You lied to us," she said. "You weren't trying to protect the Echo."
> "You were trying to own it."
Vayren's hands trembled on the hilt.
> "I never wanted to be this."
> "Then why is your Mark still glowing?"
She took a step forward.
> "Why does it only glow when I'm afraid of you?"
---
And then—
The memory shattered.
Not because it ended.
Because he rejected it.
---
Scene: Return to Reality
Vayren gasped awake.
Water poured from his lungs, though he hadn't been drowning.
Lyra was already there.
> "What did you see?"
He looked at her.
Eyes full of grief.
> "We weren't chosen by fate."
> "We were chosen because we were stupid enough to believe it."
---
Scene: Serenya Wakes
Far beneath the surface, inside a temple carved from forgotten light, Serenya opened her eyes.
Not in dream.
Not in Fold.
In truth.
She stepped into a hall of mirrors, each one showing what could have been.
Vayren with her.
Kaien at peace.
The three of them alive.
She touched the glass.
It shattered.
---
> "If they won't remember the truth," she whispered,
"Then I'll show the world how it ends."