The sky had not thundered in days.
Raiko stood at the edge of a lake that didn't exist on any map. It appeared in her dreams, called to her through the rustling of branches and the hum of clouds.
The surface was still, too still — like a mirror trying not to remember what it reflected.
She stepped onto the water. It held her.
The pendant around her neck flickered faintly. The Chronoquartz shimmered with recognition. She was close.
Behind her, Alice and Rosalie waited with Stormwalkers watching the treeline.
"It's waking up," Alice whispered.
"No," Raiko replied. "It's watching."
---------------
At the lake's center, lightning struck.
But not downward, it rose from the water.
A column of storm wrapped in form — humanoid but vast, ageless. Its presence echoed thunder before it even moved.
The Stormfather.
Raiko did not bow.
"Did you call me here?" she asked.
"No. But I heard you echoing across dimensions."
His voice was the sound of entire stormfronts cracking open.
"You wear the Shogun's frame. You wield time. But do you remember your first storm?"
Raiko stepped closer. "I remember pain. Awakening. And choice."
"Then you remember me."
The Stormfather raised a hand. Lightning coiled into a sword — her sword, but older. It burned violet and silver.
Raiko reached for it. As her hand closed around the hilt, memories exploded behind her eyes:
Thousands of storms. Lifetimes across worlds. Forms — male, female, formless — each time born in lightning.
"You're my origin," she whispered.
"No. I am your memory. Your origin is choice."
---------------
A trial began.
Raiko faced her past selves — each bound by different storms, different regrets.
One had turned tyrant. Another, hermit. One died to protect mortals. One destroyed a sun.
She watched them all, felt them all, embraced them, then let them go.
"I am the storm that chooses," she said.
The lake split beneath her feet. A new domain opened — a temple made of clouds and memory. The air tasted like copper and ozone.
The Stormfather faded, leaving only words:
"You carry our legacy. But what you build… is your own."
---------------
Raiko returned hours later.
Alice met her with an embrace. "You're glowing."
"I walked through the storm," Raiko said. "And it remembered me."
Rosalie kissed her. "Then let's give the world something worth remembering."
That night, thunder rolled again.
But now it called her daughter.