Rael returned to his quarters long after sunset.
But his mind had never truly left the Fourth Obelisk.
He held the bone shard in his palm—staring at its faint, ghostly lines. Every time he blinked, it seemed to shift. Curl inward. Stretch outward. Pulse with something neither dead nor living.
He could still hear the girl's voice.
"They don't bleed red."
"They eat dreams."
What did that mean?
Who were they?
And what did she mean by "they don't let me have a name"?
---
He placed the shard on the mat before him, letting it rest in the moonlight.
"System," he whispered. "Analyze again."
[Scanning Item: Dream-Eater Bone Shard]
Material Composition: 40% Unknown organic calcium, 35% Nightmare Essence, 25% Temporal Echo.
Resonance Type: Soul fragment tethered.
Compatibility Level: 18% (User Soulstate unstable)
[Trait Fluctuation Detected – WARNING]
Interaction may induce Ancestral Memory Phasing.
Memory Phasing will extract suppressed or foreign memories linked to Origin Signature: 'Echo-0.'
Rael stiffened.
That name again—Echo-0.
The system had shown it before. Once, during the failed tutorial. Once when he grasped the Moonhowl beast's dying eye. And now… through this shard.
Then it's not a coincidence.
He reached for it.
Fingers trembling.
But before they touched bone—
Thud.
The door shook.
A knock.
Then another.
Calm. Rhythmic.
He slipped the shard away and rose, dagger at his back.
The door slid open.
A man stood outside. Broad shoulders. Shaven head. Eyes like coals in a dying fire. Wearing the silver crest of the Punishment Hall.
"Disciple Rael," the man said. "You're summoned by the Second Elder. Now."
---
They walked through stone halls, lit by spirit lamps.
The Punishment Hall elder didn't speak again, and Rael didn't ask questions.
They passed two guards dragging a bruised boy with broken fingers.
Then a girl tied in silk rope, sobbing.
Moonlight Court justice wasn't kind.
---
The chamber they entered was oval—lined with jade mirrors, veined with black qi threads.
Second Elder Yun Liansheng stood at the center. A thin woman, hair like midnight smoke, robes black and green. Her presence felt like coiled thunder.
"Close the door," she said.
The Punishment Hall disciple bowed and exited.
Now it was just Rael and her.
---
"You broke the law," she said softly.
Rael stayed silent.
"You fought in the outer woods. Unpermitted. You forged a kill-seal without registration. You carried forbidden items without declaration."
He didn't respond.
"And worst of all," she said, voice soft as a scalpel, "you made an inner disciple bleed."
He met her gaze.
"She bled because she was attacked. I stopped it."
Yun Liansheng walked slowly around him.
"But who authorized you to defend her? Who assigned you that mission?"
"No one."
"Exactly."
She stopped at his back.
"You're not a chosen. Not from a noble line. You've awakened no clan legacy. Your dantian is barely stabilized. You haven't even advanced past Flesh-Touched Stage."
Rael clenched his jaw.
"You're nothing," she whispered.
---
"Then why summon me?" he asked.
Yun Liansheng smiled—sharp and cold.
"Because that assassin carried poison from the Vermillion Pavilion. And her inner qi signature carried traces of the Broken Moon Sect."
Rael frowned.
"I don't know what that means."
She turned toward the mirror.
"It means," she said, voice distant, "that we have enemies within enemies. And now, they're watching you."
She raised her hand.
Fwoosh.
One of the jade mirrors rippled, revealing a surveillance recording—Rael's fight in the forest.
Even the part where the mask glowed.
Even the part where the girl fled at the name "Echo-7."
Yun Liansheng's eyes glittered.
"Who are you really, Rael?"
He didn't answer.
So she turned to him and whispered:
"I think you're bait. And I plan to see who bites."
---
Rael left the chamber half an hour later.
Alive. Unpunished.
But no freer than before.
---
By the next morning, the Moonlight Court was stirring again.
Training fields opened.
Elders gave lectures.
Disciples dueled in the Courtyard of Ten Thousand Blades.
But Rael?
He was in the Forge Path Caves, deep beneath the eastern cliffs, where spirit smiths melted bone and blood into weapons.
Why?
Because the dream-shard called to something buried there.
---
He found a blind forgemaster hunched near an obsidian crucible.
The man was ancient. Skin like tree bark. Eyes milky white. But the moment Rael unwrapped the bone—
He laughed.
"Oh… that old echo again. Still whispering, is it?"
Rael stiffened.
"You recognize it?"
The forgemaster didn't answer. Instead, he took out a cracked vial and poured a drop of something glowing onto the shard.
It hissed. Then shimmered.
Then—
A symbol burned into its surface:
一
A single stroke.
One.
The old man handed it back.
"You've found one key. Nine more remain."
Rael looked down at the shard.
"The girl said they eat dreams."
The forgemaster nodded slowly.
"Because they were made from them."
Rael looked up sharply.
"What are they?"
The man's smile was dry as ashes.
"Memory-Forged. Soul-Binders. Echo-Takers. Call them what you want. But if you find enough of those shards…"
He leaned in.
"…you'll remember what you were before this world."
---
That night, Rael sat under the pavilion roof, alone with the stars.
The shard was warm in his hand.
Behind his eyes, he saw glimpses.
Not visions.
But echoes.
A city of glass spires.
A burning red moon.
A voice screaming his name in a language he no longer spoke.
"Echo-0, fall back! You're not stable—!"
---
His heart raced.
But he wasn't afraid.
Because fear was for the old Rael.
The one who'd wandered blindly.
Now?
Now he had direction.
Find the shards.
Remember the past.
Survive the present.
And maybe… just maybe…
He'd learn what he truly was.