Elara's POV
I stood before the three memories—each a thread of my past.
The pages hovered midair, each pulsing with heat and emotion. The villain, the Inkshaded One, watched in silence. His porcelain mask cracked a little more.
The page holding my sister's name throbbed.
Her laughter echoed.
A memory of her braiding my hair, humming softly…
Then vanishing.
The second page showed flames.
A young me, screaming.
My first manuscript turned to ash by my father's hand.
The third… was blank.
No image. No name.
Just silence.
Yet it pulled at me the strongest.
---
"Choose, Elara," he said, walking past me like a shadow. "Choose what to destroy to rewrite."
I reached out.
My hand trembled.
Fingers hovered over the blank page—empty, yet heavy.
My chest tightened. "What is this memory?"
He smiled cruelly. "One you chose to forget."
A single drop of black ink fell from my fingertip onto the page.
And suddenly, I remembered.
---
It was the moment I first discovered my ability.
I had touched a story about a monster in the woods, and it came alive—ripped out of the page and attacked my father.
I had been six.
Terrified, I'd screamed and wished it all away—and somehow, I erased the memory from everyone. Even myself.
But it left a stain.
My father changed that day.
My sister grew afraid.
I always wondered why.
---
The villain whispered, "Rewrite it. Stop it from ever happening."
My pulse raced.
Could I?
Was that what broke us in the first place?
If I erased that moment, I might never have awakened this power.
But maybe… my family would still be whole.
---
I touched the page.
Ink bled upward, rewriting lines of reality.
The scene reformed—my younger self stood in her room, reading aloud from the monster story.
Only this time—
I closed the book.
The creature never came.
The screams never happened.
My father's eyes stayed warm. My sister kept singing.
---
The world spun.
Pain shot through my skull.
I collapsed.
---
System Notification:
> Rewrite complete.
Consequence: Partial memory erasure in process…
Warning: External interference detected.
---
Lucien's POV
From within the cracked mirror, I saw her fall.
Saw the thing watching her—not part of this world.
That thing had tricked her into rewriting a core memory.
It wasn't part of the system.
It was infecting it.
"Damn it, Elara," I whispered. "You let him into your ink."
---
Elara's POV
I woke up in a strange room. Not the trial space.
A dormitory?
Soft sheets.
Sunlight.
A calendar blinking: Welcome to Year One, Inkwell Academy.
What?
My fingers twitched.
No ink.
No book.
No memory of trials.
Just... confusion.
A voice called from outside.
"Elara! We're gonna be late for class!"
I opened the door—
And there stood Soren, smiling like he'd always known me.
And behind him—
Lucien. And Caelum.
All dressed in uniform.
All strangers.
---
I didn't remember them.
But my heart ached.
Because somewhere inside, the ink still whispered:
> Something is wrong.
---
End of Chapter 21