"A king doesn't cry over the fire he stokes. But maybe he should. — From the restricted memoirs of Ardyn Silvan, the Court Scribe of the Western Keep."
The Throne Remembers
High up, away from the chaos below, King Solomon Greywoods stood in front of the Mirror of Ages at the Crownreach Citadel.
Instead of seeing his reflection, he saw snapshots of his past.
There he was, younger, kneeling in an ancient temple dedicated to lost gods, his hands shaking as he carved the first symbol of the Covenant Code onto the stone altar.
Please... I need her to live.
The Architect answered him—not with words, but with silence that felt like a binding agreement.
From that moment on, Solomon Greywoods wasn't just a king by birthright.
He was a king by choice.
Mio's First Death
She had only been ten.
A fever hit her that no magic could touch, a sickness no one understood.
The High Healers called it a soul fracture— where sometimes, the spirit inside just breaks apart as if rejecting life itself.
He would hold her tight every night, and he could only watch as she slipped away.
Then, the Architect showed up.
"To keep her alive," it communicated through a dream priest, "her essence will need to be rewritten."
Her feelings, memories, even her affinity for fire—all would be adjusted. She would live, but she wouldn't be the same girl anymore.
"Do it, Solomon had murmured. If I must go too, then so be it.
But, the Architect had taken only Mio, leaving behind just a shadow of who she used to be.
A daughter created from a blueprint.
Not born—crafted.
Present Day — The Breach Rings Loud
When Mio touched the Soulforge Core, the whole kingdom seemed to shake.
Systems lagged, lights flickered, and data lines went haywire.
People started murmuring about "glitches in prayer," and "gods who blinked."
In the undercities, dreamers began to wake, remembering things they had been told were never real.
One woman spoke of her son, stolen away by the Black Flame Inquisition, who mysteriously showed up again in a portrait she thought she had destroyed.
Truth was spilling out everywhere.
And nobody liked that.
King Solomon's Resolve
"They think I made a deal for power," Solomon muttered to his High Bishop, Karthis.
"Did you not?" Karthis asked quietly.
Solomon turned away, gazing out the chapel window. Sunlight never truly reached this side of the keep—it was always shadowed.
"I made a deal for a chance at life."
"You saved your daughter."
"No," he replied sharply. "I lost her. And made a replica."
Karthis fell silent.
"But now that replica is tearing apart our world to find herself."
"So she's more real than any of us here," Karthis stated.
The king closed his eyes tightly.
"I have to stop her before she becomes the fire that consumes the very reason I sit on this cursed throne," he stated firmly.
In the Streets: Talks of Revolution
Mio's rebellion was spreading like ink on parchment.
Messages were burned into walls proclaiming: "Remember the forgotten."
Her flame sigils began popping up on clothes, coins, and doorways. These small acts of defiance meant the world to people.
She wasn't just a rebel anymore.
She became a movement.
Leonhart and the Memoryless started to organize groups of people who had awakened. They messed with leyline routes, shut down surveillance runes, and shielded those who were recovering from false memories.
Though Leonhart kept to the shadows, whispers circulated about a systemborn with a fiery spirit.
They called him the Ash Code.
A Message from the King
One night, while they were resting in the old Flame Gardens, a solitary falcon landed. No magic, no runes—just a scroll sealed with black wax.
Mio opened it.
My daughter,
You long for justice, but justice isn't fire.
It's stone. Cold. Hard. You'll shatter against it.
Come to the Hollow Crown. Alone. I'll tell you the truth, even if it doesn't bring you peace.
—Your Father
The seal crumbled in her hand.
"It could be a trap," Leonhart warned.
"It definitely is, she replied. "But it's also an opportunity."
"Then we should burn it down together," he suggested.
"No," Mio replied quietly. "This is something I need to face by myself."
The Hollow Crown
A hidden citadel inside the main castle.
Not many knew it was there, and even fewer had entered. Built during the Soul Code War, it was where kings hid their silent sins.
Mio stepped inside as the sun dipped down.
Her father was waiting in the atrium.
No guards, no weapons—just him. Older and clearly tired.
"I've failed you, he admitted.
"You made me again," she shot back. "That's worse."
"I saved your life."
"You took it away first, didn't you?"
He offered a data crystal.
"The original core. Your true self. Before the Architect changed you."
Mio shook as she held it.
"Why now?"
"Because if you destroy the system," he said gently, "you'll obliterate everything tied to it—including the real you."
She locked eyes with him.
"Then I guess I'll just have to be something new. Something that's real."
Then she threw the crystal into the flames.
Back in the Ash
Leonhart waited in the memory garden, watching the city burn with revolution. When Mio came back, she took a moment of silence before speaking.
She simply stood beside him.
Finally, she whispered:
"He gave me the chance to return."
"And you didn't take it?"
She shook her head.
"Because I found the truth. And it wasn't in the past but in you, in me, in all of us who are still ready to fight."
Leonhart turned to her, his grip soft but firm as he took her hand.
"Then let's finish this."
And above them, the first sky-beacons from the Architect began to fall.