A name is not an identity.
It is an oath.
And Serenya's was once broken by the very stars that blessed it.
The air around Anaya shimmered like a broken veil.
She had whispered her true name—Serenya—only once, but the world had heard it in echoes. Now, everything felt... different.
Not wrong. Not right.
Just old.
As if the world had rolled back to an unwritten chapter. One that had been burned from the scrolls of time.
Caelum hadn't left her side.
Though she couldn't feel the threads anymore, she felt other things—a pull behind her heart, as though the name had reopened an ancient wound.
Or a gate.
"You're fading," Caelum said quietly.
She blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Your shadow. Your breath. Even your voice... it's not fully here."
He wasn't wrong.
She could see her reflection in the lake—but it didn't move when she did.
It just stared.
Expressionless.
Watching her like a stranger.
Then the mist came.
It rose from the lake.
But not as fog.
It glowed faintly. Pearlescent. And it whispered.
"You've spoken the name. Now walk the bridge."
The voice was neither male nor female. Neither kind nor cruel. It sounded like memory.
"Don't go," Caelum said.
But Serenya knew she had to.
Something waited for her in that mist.
Something locked away when her name had been stolen.
The Bridge of Names
It appeared before her—long, thin, woven of silver thread and midnight feathers.
Above it: a sky with no stars.
Below: nothing but soft, shifting light. Like every dream ever forgotten.
One step—and her feet didn't make a sound.
Two steps—and she could no longer hear Caelum.
Three steps—and the mist swallowed her whole.
She stood alone.
But not for long.
A figure awaited her at the midpoint of the bridge.
A woman.
Tall. Veiled in white.
Skin like glass. Hair like frost.
But her voice—
"Hello, Serenya."
Anaya—no, Serenya—froze.
She knew this woman.
"You were my First Keeper," Serenya whispered.
The woman nodded.
"And you were my final betrayal."
The Keeper of Names
She had once been the guardian of all True Names. Before the war. Before the sealing.
"Do you remember why we locked your name away?"
Serenya shook her head. "I only know it was powerful."
The Keeper touched her hand.
And suddenly—she remembered.
Flashback – The Trial of Serenya
She stood before the Celestial Tribunal, hands bound in white fire.
She had committed the one sin no immortal soul was allowed.
She had spoken another's true name—to save them.
To bring a soul back from oblivion.
But doing so… unmade the threads of fate.
It collapsed three timelines. Killed a thousand innocent echoes. Fractured the balance.
So the Tribunal did the unthinkable:
They stole her name.
Sealed her soul.
And exiled her through the river of rebirth.
Seventeen lives.
Seventeen deaths.
Each one forgetting more than the last.
Until now.
Back on the bridge
Serenya fell to her knees.
Tears rolled silently down her face.
"I was trying to save someone," she whispered. "Not destroy the world."
The Keeper knelt before her.
"You saved him, yes."
"But in doing so, you became the weapon that Fate could no longer control."
"That's why your name was buried."
Serenya clenched her fists. "Then why let me remember now?"
The Keeper's expression turned grim.
"Because the Soulkeeper is no longer a guardian."
"He's using your name."
"He wants you to remember not to restore balance…"
"…but to rewrite it."
Serenya stood.
"So what now? What is this place?"
The Keeper gestured to the mist.
"This is the Realm Between Names. The place where forgotten oaths sleep."
"If you cross to the far side… you can reclaim what was locked away with your name."
"But be warned—"
"The final truth is not something you can un-know."
Serenya turned to look back.
She could still faintly see Caelum's silhouette on the other side of the mist.
Still waiting.
Still believing.
"I have to know," she whispered.
"Then go."
The Keeper stepped aside.
"And Serenya—if you meet your reflection on the other side…"
"Don't trust it."
The Far Side
The bridge ended at a black door floating in nothing.
No frame. No handle.
Only a symbol: a sword pierced by a thread of light.
She touched it.
The door dissolved.
And behind it—
A girl.
Herself.
But older. Eyes glowing with power. Wearing armor that shimmered with ancient runes.
"Finally," the reflection said, smiling. "I've waited through seventeen lifetimes."
"Who are you?" Serenya whispered.
The girl smiled darkly.
"I'm who you were supposed to become—before you were cursed."
"Now that you're here…"
"We can become whole again."