Sykaion's name vanished.
Not with ceremony. Not with violence.
Just... absence.
Every ledger blinked. Every token faded. Every reference to him resolved as [NULL]. The System's logs updated, clean and clinical:
> IDENTITY ERASED
MERCY NODE: DORMANT
LEDGER ANOMALY: STABILIZED
But stabilized did not mean healed.
Zeraphine refused to move from his side. She held his hand as if willing memory itself to return through skin.
Arlyss stood at the door, weapon drawn—not for defense, but grief. Her eyes didn't blink. She refused to accept the silence in the vault.
And yet, in the deepest part of the flame, something moved.
It wasn't a voice.
It was intention.
Because belief cannot be overwritten if it was never coded.
And what Sykaion had created... was a living oath.
The flame twisted in the vault, not as fire—but as a symbol. A sigil of memory carried forward.
The Feather. The Vault. The Articles.
They did not vanish with him.
They began to speak.
> "This was not written to glorify one name."
> "This was not carved to reward loyalty."
> "This is what remains when value has no price."
One by one, every person who had once traded in the shop felt something bloom in their chest.
A light.
A warmth.
A whisper.
They looked up. Stopped mid-step. Mid-argument. Mid-fear.
And they spoke it aloud.
Not his name.
But his legacy.
> "The one who carried belief."
> "The one who gave more than he took."
> "The one who did not profit from mercy."
And across Veltrin, terminals that had blinked to null began to glow again.
Not blue.
Not red.
But gold.
The Articles reappeared.
But no longer signed.
They were owned by everyone.
Zeraphine gasped.
Arlyss dropped her blade.
Inside the vault, the flame pulsed.
And a new line etched itself into the wall:
> ARTICLE XI: If belief lives beyond the believer, then no system can silence it.
Vareth saw it.
From his throne of red code, he stood.
And for the first time, his face cracked.
Not with fear.
With fury.
"You gave them your voice," he snarled.
And in the silence after, the System itself whispered:
> "He let the flame speak."