Kale led them deeper into the forest, far from the marked trails Elira and Ash had followed before. The terrain grew unfamiliar — denser, colder, quieter. No birdsong, no rustling wind. Just the sound of their footsteps, and the occasional creak of trees too old to fall.
"Elira," Ash whispered as they walked, "we shouldn't trust him this easily."
"I know," she murmured. "But Marian sent him. Or at least, he says she did."
Kale glanced over his shoulder. "I can hear you."
Ash didn't flinch. "Good."
Kale only smiled — a tight, unreadable thing. "I'd be more worried if you trusted me right away."
They traveled for hours before they reached a place Kale called the Veiled Hollow — a shallow ravine shrouded in mist, where light bent strangely and sound seemed to hush itself. At its heart stood a crumbled stone altar, overgrown with moss and carved with the same flame symbol Elira had found in Marian's journal.
Kale motioned to it. "This is where your memories were taken."
Elira's breath caught.
Ash stepped forward, fists clenched. "Taken by who?"
Kale shrugged. "I wasn't there. But this is where it happens — where the Hollow Flame cleanses people. Or so they say."
The word cleanses made Elira's skin crawl.
She approached the altar. Something about the place tugged at her — not fear, not recognition, but grief. Her fingertips grazed the edge of the stone and the mist shifted.
A flash —
Ash's hand in hers, blood dripping from his temple.
Someone shouting behind them.
A voice like fire: "Forget, or burn."
Then — darkness.
Elira staggered back, breath ragged.
"You saw something," Kale said.
She nodded. "A memory."
Ash touched her arm gently. "Of us?"
She nodded again.
Kale knelt by the altar and pulled something from beneath the moss — a small, glass vial sealed with red wax. Inside, something glowed faintly.
"Another gift," he said. "Left by Marian. She said when one of you remembers, this should come next."
Elira took the vial, hands trembling. "What is it?"
"She called it 'the key to the second lock.'"
Ash looked up sharply. "There's more than one?"
"Three," Kale said. "Memory. Fire. and Truth."
Elira pocketed the vial carefully. She didn't understand it yet — but Marian had known they would come here. That meant everything had been planned.
Ash still didn't take his eyes off Kale. "Why are you helping us?"
Kale looked at him for a long moment. "Because I lost someone to the Hollow Flame too. And because Marian saved me once, when I didn't deserve it."
His voice cracked just slightly, then steadied again.
"But don't mistake me for a friend. If you turn toward the Hollow Flame, I'll be the one to stop you."
Elira met his gaze. "We're not turning toward it."
"No," Kale said. "But you're getting close."