Chapter 53 - The Companion Who Should Not ExistNobody moved.
Ethan slowly turned.
Captain Rowan stood beside his horse.
Mira clutched her necklace.
Elara held the ancient book against her chest.
All three looked alive.
All three looked frightened.
"Which one of you is dead?" Ethan asked.
Rowan frowned.
"That isn't funny."
"I'm not joking."
He showed them the letter.
Mira read it twice.
Elara went pale.
"That handwriting..."
"It's mine," Ethan said.
Rowan drew his sword.
"Then someone is trying to frighten us."
But Mira noticed something.
"Look at the horses."
Four horses stood in the village square.
Three cast shadows.
The fourth did not.
Elara's horse.
Ethan stared at it.
The animal shifted nervously.
Yet beneath the moonlight, there was nothing on the ground.
Elara stepped backward.
"That's impossible."
Rowan approached her.
"Who are you?"
Elara's expression twisted.
"I don't know."
Ethan remembered the archives.
The photographs.
The stories she had told him.
Every answer had been suspiciously perfect.
"You knew too much," he whispered.
Elara pressed her hands against her temples.
Images flickered around her.
For an instant, she appeared older.
Then younger.
Then she vanished completely.
A heartbeat later, she returned.
Mira screamed.
Elara fell to her knees.
"I remember."
Ethan knelt beside her.
"What?"
"I died."
Silence.
Elara lifted her eyes.
"During the fifth reset. The palace burned. I stayed behind to save the royal archives."
"Then how are you here?" Rowan demanded.
Tears streamed down her face.
"Ethan brought me back."
The boy froze.
"What?"
Elara looked at him with heartbreaking recognition.
"You were older then. You told me you couldn't lose another friend."
A faint silver light began glowing beneath her skin.
"You copied my memories into the fracture."
Ethan struggled to understand.
"So you're not real?"
Elara shook her head.
"I feel real."
Mira took her hand.
"Then you are real to me."
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then a deep bell sounded from the distant mountains.
Elara's body flickered again.
"The Citadel is waking."
Ethan helped her stand.
"We're going together."
The letter in his hand changed.
May you like
New words appeared.
FOUR MAY ENTER. ONLY THREE MAY LEAVE.
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