Chapter 10 - THE FOREST OF STOLEN MEMORIES
The Forest of Hollow Stars looked beautiful from a distance.
Its trees glowed with silver leaves, and fragments of celestial light floated between the branches like fireflies.
But the moment Elara stepped beneath the canopy, she heard someone crying.
A child.
She turned toward the sound.
“Hello?”
Theron seized her arm.
“Don’t follow voices here.”
Elara frowned.
“Someone needs help.”
“Not every voice belongs to someone living.”
They continued along the narrow path.
The forest grew strangely familiar.
Elara recognized a stone well from the palace gardens.
Then a wooden bench from the servants’ courtyard.
Finally, she saw the kitchen where she had worked as a child.
Her heart began racing.
“Theron…”
The scholar lowered his staff.
“We’ve entered the memory veil.”
A young girl appeared beside the kitchen door.
She wore a patched servant’s dress.
Her dark hair was tied with a piece of string.
Elara recognized herself at the age of nine.
The child was crying.
An older woman stood above her.
The palace steward.
“You worthless creature!”
The steward threw a broken plate at the child’s feet.
Elara watched as her younger self knelt to collect the pieces.
Then another girl entered.
Mira.
She was carrying a small loaf of bread.
“Leave her alone,” Mira said.
The steward struck Mira.
Elara stepped forward instinctively.
“STOP!”
The memory shattered.
She stood beneath the silver trees again.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Theron approached gently.
“The forest reveals memories we have never truly escaped.”
Elara wiped her face.
“Why?”
“Because the Third Flame judges what we do with pain.”
They reached a clearing.
At its center stood an enormous stag made of starlight.
Silver antlers rose into the darkness.
Its eyes contained entire constellations.
“I am Vaelor, Keeper of Memory.”
Elara bowed.
“I seek the Third Flame.”
Vaelor looked toward Theron.
“Then begin with the memory he fears most.”
The ground beneath them turned white.
Suddenly, they stood inside a nursery eighteen years earlier.
A young Princess Lyanna held a newborn child.
Outside, soldiers were screaming.
The palace was burning.
Theron appeared in the doorway.
Younger.
Terrified.
Lyanna rushed toward him.
“Take her!”
The scholar accepted the infant.
“Where will you go?”
Lyanna looked toward the approaching guards.
“I’ll give them what they want.”
She kissed the baby’s forehead.
“My little Elara.”
Then she handed Theron a white ribbon.
“Tell her I loved her.”
The vision shifted.
Theron was running through the servants’ passage with the baby in his arms.
A royal guard intercepted him.
“Stop!”
Theron hesitated.
Then pointed toward the eastern corridor.
“Princess Lyanna escaped that way!”
The guard rushed off.
Elara watched in disbelief.
Theron had saved her.
But he had also directed the soldiers toward her mother.
The vision ended.
Elara stepped backward.
“You told them where she was.”
Theron’s face collapsed.
“I believed she would escape through the northern passage.”
“But you didn’t know.”
“No.”
Elara felt betrayal burn through her chest.
“For eighteen years, you let me think my mother abandoned me.”
Theron bowed his head.
“I was ashamed.”
“And you let her remain a prisoner.”
“I searched for her. When I finally learned she was alive, Malrec had already bound her to the prison seals.”
Elara stared.
She wanted to forgive him.
She wanted to hate him.
Both feelings hurt.
Vaelor lowered his antlers.
“Truth is not always a gift. Sometimes it is a wound.”
Elara looked toward the guardian.
“What do you want from me?”
“To decide whether pain makes you cruel.”
The Third Flame appeared between its antlers.
Elara looked at Theron.
“I’m angry with you.”
He nodded.
“You should be.”
“I don’t know when I’ll forgive you.”
“I understand.”
She took a shaking breath.
“But my mother is still alive. We can still save her.”
Theron looked up.
Elara held out her hand.
“Help me do that.”
The old scholar began crying.
He accepted her hand.
Vaelor lowered the Third Flame.
Silver light entered Elara’s wrist.
A third symbol awakened.
At that moment, Kael’s pendant grew painfully hot.
Elara gasped.
A vision flashed before her.
Kael chained to a throne.
Black fire surrounding him.
His mother watching.
Then his voice echoed inside her mind.
Elara… don’t come back.
The vision ended.
Elara seized the pendant.
“Kael!”
Vaelor looked toward the southern sky.
“The Shadow Crown has taken the Prince.”
Elara turned toward Theron.
“We’re going back.”
May you like
The guardian lowered his head.
“Then remember this, heir: the next sacrifice offered to the darkness will be someone you love.”
