Skyler didn't sleep that night.
Not because he was afraid.
But because the Book wouldn't let him.
The Recalled Flame had reopened itself—this time without touch. It hovered in the heart of the sealed chamber, spinning slowly as fireless embers drifted from its pages. Symbols bled into the air around it. Whispered names floated past Skyler's ears—none of them familiar, yet all of them somehow his.
Orias stood at a respectful distance, arms crossed behind his back.
"The Witness bloodline never had one name," he said. "It had thousands. Each one… a version. A version of you."
Skyler paced slowly around the flame-lit book. "Then what's mine?"
Orias's eyes dimmed with a strange mix of reverence and sadness.
"That's the problem. Your true name... isn't allowed to exist."
The room darkened. The flame around the book flared—and a glyph burned onto the crystal floor. A vertical spiral, etched in red-gold flame. Then the Book spoke in a voice that came from inside Skyler's bones:
"Initiating Identity Sequence: Core Access Protocol... VERITAS NOVAAH."
Skyler gasped.
He hadn't heard the name before—but it hit him like lightning. A name that made his chest tighten and his memories stir.
The voice repeated it:
"VERITAS."
Skyler dropped to his knees. The room shifted around him.
He saw visions:
Himself as a boy standing before a throne of mirrors
Thousands of timelines branching from his fingertips
A woman calling out to him, "Veritas! Remember who you are!"
Gods whispering, "Erase the name. Erase the line."
He blinked—and he was back in the chamber. Heart racing. Breathing hard.
"What did it call me?" he asked.
Orias spoke gravely.
"Your name before the multiverse declared it forbidden. Before they scrubbed it from all memory logs, myth repositories, and bloodline registries."
"Veritas Novaah. The original Witness. The one who saw the First Lie."
Skyler staggered backward.
"I'm not just the last Novaah," he said. "I'm the first."
Orias didn't deny it.
His mother appeared at the doorway. Her eyes—moist with memory—locked with his.
"Skyler was the name we gave you to survive," she said softly.
"Veritas is the name you must take… to awaken."
Skyler turned to the Book, which had now closed again, a thin golden flame still flickering on its surface.
"So the whole multiverse forgot me?" he whispered.
His sister's voice cut through the silence:
"No. The multiverse was forced to forget you."
Outside, thunder without clouds cracked across the horizon.
A name had been spoken aloud.
And now, everything that remembered was beginning to stir.