The northern borderlands were ruins.
Once fertile, now scarred. Forests burned. Villages abandoned. The scent of ash clung to the wind like a curse that never lifted.
Kael stood at the edge of the last outpost.
Behind him, the empire.
Ahead, the wilderness — and the unknown.
---
He had been traveling for two days, hidden beneath layers of shadow-woven disguise. His face was that of a wandering merchant, his presence erased by Veilwalk, a temporary field granted by the Shadow System.
He moved like a ghost. Unseen. Unheard.
But even ghosts feel cold.
---
At dusk, he arrived at a ruined chapel nestled between jagged rocks.
It was marked — not with any god's symbol, but a banner made of stitched rags. The symbol painted on it wasn't imperial. It was an old crest.
A forgotten house.
One Kael remembered only from whispers during his time as Aserion's blade.
> "House Ilaren... The ones who stood against the throne before the war."
Inside the chapel, voices murmured.
Kael slipped through a crack in the wall.
---
Three rebels sat around a fire, cloaked in mismatched armor.
And standing between them—
Was a woman.
Hair white as frost.
Eyes hidden behind a war mask.
But the way she stood—firm, regal, haunted—Kael's heart froze.
> "It can't be…"
She turned slightly.
The mask caught the firelight.
---
[Shadow System Alert]
> ⚠️ Soul Resonance Detected
Identity Match: 67%
Name: Lyra Ellenhart
Status: Deceased
Timeline Conflict: Major
---
Kael stepped back, breath caught in his throat.
Lyra.
The girl Aserion executed.
The girl who had screamed his name before she died.
But she was here. Alive.
Leading the resistance?
---
"Did you hear something?" one rebel asked.
Kael vanished into the shadows, heart pounding.
He needed to leave.
Now.
But the System pulsed again.
---
[Shadow System — Optional Branch Triggered]
> Quest: "Confirm the Truth"
Objective: Make contact with Lyra. Discover her memory state.
Risk: Timeline rupture
Reward: ??? (Unknown)
---
Kael stood at the edge of the forest, eyes fixed on the flickering chapel.
His mission was to observe. Not interfere.
But this…
This wasn't just a mission.
This was personal.
---
"You were supposed to be dead, Lyra…"
"But maybe… so was I."
---