The carriage rode in near silence, the soft clatter of wheels dulled by moss-covered cobblestones and the thick canopy of the Ebonshade Forest. Morning light had yet to breach the dense fog curling through the trees like restless ghosts.
Ashara leaned against the window, watching the dark silhouettes of twisted trunks blur past. In another life, she had passed through these woods on her way to broker a doomed alliance. That journey had ended in fire.
Now, it began again—with Ezekiel sitting across from her, sharpening his blade, and Kallad lounging beside her with unsettling ease, his boot propped up, arms crossed, unreadable as ever.
System Notification
✦ Main Quest Update: Relics of the Forsaken Era
➤ Objective: Retrieve Divine Artifact "Heart of Echoes"
Warning: Sentience Detected within Artifact
✦ Companion Loyalty Sync: ACTIVE
– Ezekiel: 78%
– Kallad: 58% (Unstable)
Ashara dismissed the system overlay and looked at them both, her fingers laced over her lap.
"We reach the ruins by nightfall," she said. "The map places it deep past the sixth ward-stone. Nothing from the Empire's archives marks that far."
Ezekiel didn't look up from his blade. "Which means either the records were erased... or no one returned."
Kallad gave a lazy shrug. "Or it's nothing but superstition."
She arched an eyebrow. "Superstition doesn't cause divine Trials."
"No," Kallad agreed, smiling faintly. "But it does make people easier to control."
Ashara didn't respond, but her mind twisted around that thought.
How many of the truths she knew were planted by others?
They left the carriage when the trees grew too dense for passage, horses spooked and restless. The old forest path was overgrown, roots thick like veins winding beneath broken stone.
By the fourth ward-stone, even Kallad grew tense.
Birdsong had vanished. The air held weight—as though the forest itself remembered.
Ashara's system glimmered again, a faint warning tracing the edge of her vision.
Zone Entry: Reliquary of Echoes – Outer Threshold
Environmental Effects:
– Memory Bleed (Resist DC 3)
– Passive Influence: Root-Sleep
✦ Trial Influence Detected
– Guardian Presence: Dormant
Status: WATCHED
She stopped walking. "Something's here."
Ezekiel instinctively stepped in front of her, blade drawn. Kallad's hands flexed at his sides.
They came upon the entrance just beyond a crumbling arch strangled in ivy and bone-white vines. The door was stone—unmarked, heavy, sealed.
But the vines parted as Ashara neared.
And then the voice came—not aloud, but through her.
Like the trees were breathing words into her spine.
"Blood-crowned. Betrayer's daughter. Will you walk where roots do not end?"
Ashara's breath hitched. The men turned to her sharply.
System Dialogue Activated
➤ Divine Entity Detected: The Whisperroot
Request Access: Y/N
Warning: This path locks future Divine Affinity choices.
"Do it," she whispered. "Let it speak."
The stone door slid inward with a grinding moan.
Beyond lay a vast underground gallery—not ruins, but a temple preserved by time and worship. Columns carved with stories rose high into darkness. Relics hovered in crystal cocoons: weapons, bones, scrolls wrapped in skin.
The air pulsed with memory. Not heat. Not life.
Ashara stepped forward, each footfall echoing louder than the last.
System Notification: Loyalty Mechanic Activated
Companion Perception Sharing ENABLED
✦ Kallad: Conflicted – Resistance Detected
✦ Ezekiel: Stabilized – Loyalty Path Entrenched
➤ Fate Thread Opportunity: Intervene during Loyalty Dissonance.
Ashara's breath caught again as she felt it—their memories bleeding into hers.
She saw a child-Kallad, kneeling in ash, chanting the name of a forgotten god.
She saw Ezekiel at sixteen, bloodied and exiled, carving oaths into his own skin to resist corruption.
And then—herself. Bound in golden chains. The crown forced onto her head like a yoke. The words: Let her reign, for she cannot rise.
She stumbled.
Kallad caught her.
His eyes, dark and storm-lit, searched her face.
"You saw it too," he said softly.
She nodded.
And for the first time, he touched her—not with possession or flirtation—but gently, a hand on her cheek, a thumb brushing away a single tear.
"I never knew," he murmured.
Ashara met his gaze. "You didn't ask."
At the center of the temple stood a pedestal. Upon it: a crystalline heart, softly pulsing like a slumbering flame.
Artifact Identified: Heart of Echoes
Class: Relic-Divine
Affinity: Memory, Time, Revelation
Sentience: Semi-Aware
Caution: Will only bond to one. All others will suffer psychic backlash upon contact.
Kallad reached for it.
The System flared red.
✖ Rejected – Divine Affinity Conflict
Status: Soul Burn Initiated
He dropped to his knees with a cry, blood trailing from his nose.
Ezekiel moved forward, only for Ashara to throw out an arm.
"It's meant for me," she said.
And she stepped forward, taking the Heart into her hands.
Pain lanced her mind. Not from the Heart—but through it.
Visions. Lifetimes. Faces. Betrayals.
A voice: "Remember not only what you lived, but what was stolen."
She dropped to her knees, clutching it. The world spun. The forest shook.
Artifact Bond Complete
— Passive Skill Unlocked: Echo Dive
✦ Allows retrieval of erased memory threads.
✦ Grants immunity to Memory Bleed.
✦ Loyalty Conversion Possible.
Ashara gasped as the pain ebbed.
And with it, clarity returned.
Someone had rewritten her life.
Not the cult. Not her enemies.
But a god.