The world blurred into twilight as they left the mortal realm behind.
Mist rippled beneath the carriage wheels, silver and cold, whispering of things that watched unseen. The forest around them shifted trees growing taller, older, their bark carved with faint runes that pulsed as they passed. The air thickened with scent: pine, earth, and something ancient, like starlight soaked in rain.
Melody pressed a hand to the window, watching the mortal skyline fade into shadow. "It's… changing," she murmured.
"It's remembering," Asha replied quietly from across from her. "The boundary thins when blood like yours crosses it."
Kael leaned forward, boots propped against the seat. "She means the realm feels you," he said, half-grinning. "You're basically setting off alarms."
Darian shot him a look. "Kael."
"What? I'm just saying"
Lucien's voice cut through, low and calm. "Enough."
Silence followed, the kind that filled the carriage like breath held too long.
Melody turned to the window again. The mist seemed to glow faintly, forming shapes that vanished when she blinked hands, faces, fragments of wings. Her pulse fluttered. "They're watching us."
"They're memories," Lucien said without looking at her. "This path remembers every soul that walked it."
She frowned. "Including ours?"
Lucien's gaze met hers in the reflection of silver eyes that held centuries. "Especially ours."
The words lingered. Something stirred deep inside her chest not pain, but ache, like a song she'd once known.
They rode in silence for a long while, broken only by the sound of hooves on unseen ground. The mist began to thin, revealing glimmers of light beneath it, as if the stars themselves had sunk into the soil.
Asha finally spoke. "Melody," she said softly. "Before all this… before Lucien found you… who were you in that world?"
Melody hesitated. Every eye turned to her, even Lucien's though he pretended not to listen.
"I was a journalist," she began, voice quiet. "Well, sort of. I started in photography, the kind that paid little but kept me chasing storms. I liked capturing things people didn't notice. Light on broken glass, reflections in puddles. Maybe because I always felt like I was… half there, half somewhere else."
Kael tilted his head. "And you lived alone?"
"Mostly. I had a small apartment in Elaris. Old walls, leaky pipes, a view of nothing but gray rooftops. I kept telling myself it was temporary, but I stayed. I guess I didn't have anywhere else to go."
Her eyes drifted to the passing forest, voice softening. "Sometimes at night I'd dream of a field under two moons. A man standing at the edge of it, waiting. I'd wake up crying, but I never knew why."
Lucien's jaw tightened, a flicker of gold crossing his eyes.
Darian leaned forward, his tone gentle. "And when you met him?"
Melody smiled faintly. "Lucien? I thought he was insane."
Kael chuckled. "That checks out."
"Quiet," Lucien muttered.
She ignored him, continuing, "He saved me from something I didn't even believe existed. After that, nothing made sense, not the symbols, not the voices, not the way my skin glowed when the moon touched it." Her fingers brushed the faint mark at her neck. "It was like… something inside me had been waiting to wake up."
"You sound like you miss that life," Asha said softly.
Melody looked down. "I miss the idea of it. The normal parts. But the truth is…" She hesitated. "Even before I met Lucien, I think I was already haunted by him."
Lucien's hand stilled on his knee.
"Every time I took a photo, I saw the same shadow in the frame," she went on. "Tall, watching. I told myself it was a trick of light. But now…" She shook her head. "Now I'm not so sure it wasn't you."
Lucien said nothing. The silence between them was heavier than words.
The mist outside began to shimmer brighter, bleeding gold through the silver. Melody's vision blurred for a moment and then the world tilted.
She gasped softly. The carriage faded around her, replaced by a field bathed in moonlight. Wolves howled in the distance, hundreds of them, kneeling before a silver altar. At its center stood a woman in white, her hair a river of starlight. She turned and Melody saw her own face.
The vision wavered. The woman reached out. "Lucien," she whispered.
Then it was gone.
"Melody?" Asha's voice sounded far away. "Are you alright?"
Melody blinked. The carriage returned, the others staring at her. She realized her hand was shaking. "I saw—" She swallowed. "I saw her. The goddess. Me."
Lucien's head turned sharply. "What did she say?"
Her breath hitched. "Your name."
He looked away too quickly, but not before she saw the pain flicker through his eyes.
Asha and Darian exchanged glances. Kael leaned back, whistling low. "Well, that's ominous."
"Not ominous," Lucien murmured. "Inevitable."
The mist around them began to part, revealing jagged cliffs that glowed faintly from within. Rivers of light ran through them, flowing upward instead of down. The realm was waking.
As they crossed a narrow bridge of stone, the air changed heavier, wild, alive. Melody felt it pressing against her skin, whispering in her blood. The mark at her neck throbbed once, hard enough to steal her breath.
"Lucien," she whispered. "Something's pulling me."
He reached across the seat before she could fall forward, his hand gripping her wrist. His skin burned cold. "Don't fight it. The realm remembers its queen."
"I'm not" she began, but the words broke off as the world ignited.
Light spilled across the horizon an entire valley of silver forests, crystal rivers, and towers of stone that seemed carved from moonlight itself. Wolves ran along the cliffs, their howls echoing through the sky.
Vaeloria.
Melody's vision blurred with tears. "It's beautiful."
Lucien released her wrist slowly. "It was," he said. "Once."
The carriage came to a stop on the ridge overlooking the valley. The wind carried the scent of frost and memory. Asha stood first, her cloak snapping behind her. "Welcome home," she murmured.
Melody stepped out after her, boots sinking into the glowing soil. For a moment, she swore she could hear voices beneath the wind chanting her name in a language she didn't understand.
Her mark pulsed again. The world tilted. And before she could stop herself, she whispered a name that wasn't hers to know a name carried from another lifetime.
"Lucien Vareon."
He froze. The others turned.
Her voice was soft, distant, almost reverent. "That was your name before she cursed you."
Lucien's expression was unreadable, but his hand trembled as he reached for her. "You remember."
"I don't know how," she breathed. "It's like she's waking inside me."
A gust of wind swept through, carrying the faint echo of a woman's laugh light, sorrowful, divine.
Lucien's gaze darkened. "Then the Hollow will know soon too."
Below them, somewhere deep in Vaeloria, a wolf howled. The sound was not of mourning this time but of warning.
Melody lifted her eyes to the two moons rising side by side. "What happens now?"
Lucien's answer was soft, almost a vow.
"Now," he said, "we remember everything we tried to forget."