The parchment felt too light for the weight it carried.
Ravine sat cross-legged on her bed, the dull gray light of another rain-stained morning spilling through the window. The registry trembled slightly in her fingers — not from cold, but from something she couldn't yet name.
Six names. Six faces.
Each one marked with a grainy photograph, a faded record name, a registered region, and brief notes — just enough to hint at a life once lived.
She didn't open it immediately.
First, she touched the Bloom resting against her chest. The familiar weight grounded her.
Then, slowly, she unfolded the parchment.
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Alias / Record Name: Eryn Halde
Gender: Female
Recorded Region: Lirael
Notes: Botanist. Composer of herbal lullabies. Known for weaving melodies into plant growth.
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Ravine's eyes lingered on the image — a soft-faced woman with dark braids, wearing a crown of living vines. The background of the photo was misted green, like a forest that always hummed.
Lirael. A name that stirred something fragile in her — like the memory of being comforted once, long ago, though she couldn't remember by whom.
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Alias / Record Name: Kaesa Dorne
Gender: Female
Recorded Region: Theralis
Notes: Mystic architect. Structured spells into living stone. Taught incantations in disciplined circles.
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Kaesa's portrait was sharp. High cheekbones. Stern eyes. Her robes bore etched runes and a geometric collar of steel threads. Ravine blinked. She looked like someone who had never wept.
But something about her gaze felt… familiar. Or maybe not. Maybe it was just the aching wish to belong to something, someone, somewhere.
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Alias / Record Name: Niva Lorne
Gender: Female
Recorded Region: Arilenth
Notes: Empath. Practiced healing through storytelling and dream-sharing. Worked in orphan sanctums.
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This one gave Ravine pause. Niva's face was soft, like a dusk-lit room, the kind one could sleep in forever. She had an aura that made Ravine ache in her chest.
She didn't know why.
Perhaps it was the warmth — the way Niva's smile in the photo looked not posed, but given.
She placed her finger lightly on the corner of the picture. It almost felt wrong to move on.
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Alias / Record Name: Lysa Caen
Gender: Female
Recorded Region: Delnira
Notes: Runecarver and shadow binder. Specialized in sealing broken boundaries. Fought off ghosts.
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Lysa's image was colder. Her features had the strength of stone cut from mountains. She wore black gloves, and her eyes didn't face the camera. They looked just off-centre — as though watching something unseen.
There was power there. And pain. And secrets.
But no recognition stirred in Ravine's bones.
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Alias / Record Name: Maelon Serre
Gender: Male
Recorded Region: Delnira
Notes: Specialist in dimensional keys and mirror magic. Kept journals of layered worlds.
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The penmanship here looked hurried, as though the scribe wasn't sure what to say.
Maelon's photograph was damaged — a corner burnt, the rest water-streaked. His hair was dark and long, tied back. His eyes were downcast, but something in the set of his shoulders suggested quiet rebellion. A refusal to disappear.
Ravine stared at his face for longer than she meant to.
But still, nothing pulled.
She frowned at the strange stillness inside herself — no crackling of memory, no sudden pull of certainty.
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Alias / Record Name: Tovin Aris
Gender: Male
Recorded Region: Elessyr
Notes: Elemental flute-carver. Said to summon storms with song. Last known apprentice of the Tempest Order.
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Tovin looked young — too young. His smile was unguarded, and the corners of the photo had been smudged with something, maybe blood, maybe ink.
There was no record of what he died doing.
Just the final note: "Lost in the explosion. No known family."
Ravine let the parchment fall onto her lap.
Six names.
Six lives.
One of them was hers.
And yet…
She didn't feel any closer to knowing.
The room had gone quiet. Even the ever-present rain was just a hush now — a whisper against glass.
She looked out the window. The Dead Zone still loomed, draped in shadow. But it no longer looked like a place. It looked like a mirror she couldn't yet see into.
What if she never remembered?
What if she didn't want to?
She pressed her hand to the Bloom beneath her cloak.
She could choose to stop looking.
She could bury these names and walk forward into a new story — a story that didn't hinge on old scars.
But then again…
Maybe the future was made stronger by the truth that built it — even if that truth came in ashes and broken names.
A knock.
She turned.
Maevan stood in the doorway, silent.
He didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
She folded the parchment, stood, and walked toward the door.
Maevan stepped aside to let her pass.
He waited.
And something in his silence told her:
There was still more to remember.
More to see.