The first sign that the world was breaking came at dawn.
The sky fractured — not in sight, but in sound.
A low hum rolled through the city like thunder trapped in glass, making every clock stutter, every heartbeat skip. Birds froze mid-flight. Time hesitated.
And for a heartbeat, everyone remembered something.
A wedding that never happened.
A war that was never fought.
A name they'd never spoken but somehow loved.
When the hum faded, nothing looked different.
But nothing felt the same either.
---
⚜️
Eunha felt it strongest.
The Axis pulsed under her skin like molten gold. Her wrist glowed faintly through the sleeve — the mark shifting, spreading like veins of light.
Each pulse came with a flood of sensations — laughter, sorrow, blood, love — all crashing against her mind in waves.
Jiheon held her steady as she staggered. "What's happening?"
She forced her breathing steady. "The seal's collapsing. The memories we suppressed are trying to return."
"All of them?"
She nodded weakly. "Everyone who ever touched the Axis — every reincarnated soul. The world's beginning to remember itself."
---
⚜️
In the streets, confusion spread like fire.
A baker stared at his hands, whispering a prayer to a god no one had worshipped in centuries.
A soldier dropped his sword, tears streaming as he remembered dying under another flag.
Even the city's children wept without knowing why.
The rain had stopped, but the world looked like it was still mourning.
---
⚜️
At the bookshop, Eunha drew the curtains.
The glow from her mark illuminated the dim room, bathing the shelves in eerie light.
Jiheon paced, his composure fraying. "If these memories keep returning, people will go mad."
"I know."
"Then seal it again."
She shook her head. "We can't. The disruption fractured the Axis beyond repair. It's bleeding across timelines. The only way to stop it—"
"—is to destroy it completely."
She froze. "Yes."
He clenched his fists. "And that means what exactly?"
Her silence was answer enough.
If the Axis died, so would they.
---
⚜️
Jiheon turned away, running a hand through his hair. "You're saying we die again — just to save a world that forgot us?"
Her voice trembled. "It's the only way to give everyone peace."
He laughed bitterly. "Peace? This isn't peace. This is erasure. You call it sacrifice, but it's suicide by duty."
"Then what would you have me do?"
"Live!" His voice cracked. "For once in your damn life — live for yourself, not for the world!"
The words echoed.
Something deep inside her trembled — the part of her that had been Lady Varis, the Countess of the Fallen Moon.
She'd heard those words before.
From the same man.
On the same night she'd destroyed everything.
---
⚜️
A blinding flash tore through the room.
Both flinched.
When their eyes adjusted, the mark on Eunha's wrist was gone — transferred to the floor, glowing like molten gold. The light took shape — circular, intricate, alive.
The Axis sigil.
It pulsed like a heartbeat.
"Someone's activating it," Eunha whispered. "Someone else remembers."
---
⚜️
They rushed into the rain-soaked streets, following the faint golden glow threading through the alleys. The trail led to the city's ancient temple — long abandoned, a relic of forgotten gods.
Inside, dozens of people stood in trance-like silence, their eyes glowing faint gold.
In the center stood a woman dressed in ceremonial white, her hands raised toward the fractured altar.
Eunha's heart stopped.
"Lady Myung."
The high priestess from their first life. The one who had blessed the Axis — and cursed it when they defied fate.
Her voice echoed through the temple, ancient and soft.
> "The cycle must continue. The memory must remain."
Eunha stepped forward. "You're bringing it back!"
Myung turned, her eyes full of sorrow. "It was never gone, Countess. You merely postponed eternity."
Jiheon unsheathed his blade. "Then eternity ends today."
---
⚜️
The Axis flared.
Reality splintered. The temple blurred — stone shifting to battlefield, then to ballroom, then to ruins. Every life they had lived flickered through existence in seconds.
Eunha clutched her head as memories poured in — lifetimes of love and death, over and over.
Jiheon fell to one knee, gasping, eyes burning gold. "I remember… everything."
In one life, he'd been her knight.
In another, her enemy.
In another still, her executioner.
And in every one — her lover.
---
⚜️
Lady Myung raised her hand. "You cannot destroy the Axis. It is the spine of time itself. Without it, all threads unravel."
Eunha glared through tears. "Then let it unravel! I'd rather end than repeat this curse."
Myung's expression softened. "Then you doom all who depend on it. Their lives, their peace, their chances at redemption."
Jiheon stepped forward. "And what of ours? Haven't we paid enough?"
Myung's gaze fell on him — pitying, almost maternal. "You were always the Reluctant One. Even when love begged you to stay, you ran from it."
He flinched as if struck.
"Perhaps," she whispered, "that is your punishment."
---
⚜️
The temple shook. The Axis roared — a sound like a thousand heartbeats collapsing into one.
Eunha's mark reignited, burning through her skin. "Jiheon!"
He caught her as she fell, the world around them dissolving into gold and shadow.
Her voice was faint. "If we die here, promise me—"
"Don't." He pressed his forehead to hers. "Don't say it again."
Tears streamed down her face. "Then I'll say something else."
She smiled weakly. "I loved you, every time."
He laughed through tears. "Even when I was the one who killed you?"
"Especially then."
---
⚜️
The Axis blazed.
Light consumed everything — the city, the rain, the memories.
And for an instant, there was silence.
Then, a whisper.
> "Cycle… broken."
---
⚜️
When the light faded, the temple was gone. The city slept under clear skies.
People awoke with no memories of past lives. No voices in their heads. No haunting echoes.
Only peace.
And in the bookshop, two figures sat by the window.
Eunha looked up from her book. Jiheon entered quietly, rain still dripping from his cloak.
He smiled faintly. "Have we met?"
She tilted her head, smiling back. "Maybe in another life."