The rain didn't stop that night.
It only grew heavier, beating against the windows until the world outside blurred into a wall of gray. The sound wasn't just noise anymore, it was pressure, a steady weight pressing against the glass, the roof, the walls, as if the storm itself was leaning in to listen.
Leira sat on the edge of the couch, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. The light beneath her skin had faded again, but she could still feel it humming softly in her veins, like something alive and waiting, pacing just under her flesh. Every now and then it twitched, a flicker, a shift, as if responding to something beyond the room.
Kael moved around the space with hard, purposeful steps. He checked the locks again, even though he had already done it twice. His movements were sharp and deliberate, every gesture edged with tension. He kept glancing outside, his eyes following the storm as though he could see something moving through the curtain of rain that she couldn't. The faint creak of floorboards beneath his boots, the soft metallic click of the locks, every sound made the air feel thinner.
For a long time, neither of them spoke. The rain filled the silence until it felt like another presence in the room, loud enough to drown out thought, soft enough to let fear slip in through the cracks.
Leira pressed her fingers against the faint glow in her wrist, her voice steady but low when she finally spoke. "You said my name is a weapon. What kind of weapon?"
Kael stopped where he stood. For a moment, the only sound was the relentless rain and the faint hum of the lights overhead. He turned slowly, his expression unreadable, his eyes shadowed like he was debating whether to tell her the truth at all.
"Not the kind forged by hands," he said. "Your name isn't made of metal or magic. It's made of memory, and memory can cut deeper than any blade."
Leira frowned slightly. "Memory?"
Kael nodded, stepping closer. "Your name isn't just who you are, it's what holds the worlds apart. It's the seal that keeps the veil steady. When you speak it, or when the veil reacts to your presence, it remembers everything tied to you. Who you were. What you did. The balance you once kept. That's what makes it powerful. And dangerous."
A chill slid through her. She hesitated, thinking of the shadow that had attacked them earlier in the apartment. The way it had shrieked when her light touched it. The way the glow had fought back without her meaning to.
"So… what happened earlier? When that light came out of me. Was that because of my name?"
Kael studied her, eyes narrowed slightly as if examining things she couldn't see. "It was the veil," he said quietly. "It's bound to your name. When that creature tried to touch you, the veil reacted through you. It protected its keeper."
Leira felt a cold twist in her stomach. "Protected me… how? I didn't do anything."
"That's the problem." Kael's voice lowered. "Every time it does that, every time it acts without your control, it weakens the seal a little more."
Her breath caught. "Weakens? How?"
"Your name anchors the veil," he said, his tone steady but edged with concern. "When it acts on instinct, when it defends you without your command, it pulls energy from the bond that holds it. Think of it as a reflex. A desperate one. The more it happens, the more the connection frays. If you don't remember your name soon, if you don't restore that bond consciously, the veil will keep defending you until it breaks entirely."
Leira swallowed hard. "And if it breaks?"
Kael's gaze darkened, something grim settling into his features. "Then the shadows won't just find you, they'll flood through you. The worlds will touch again, and there'll be nothing left to hold them apart."
The room felt colder after that. Even the lights seemed dimmer. Leira stared at her hands, remembering the flash of heat that had burned through her skin, the way the creature had dissolved into dust. Her fingers trembled.
"So… my name is keeping everything together."
He nodded. "You are the seal and the key at the same time. You were born from the veil, and now it's bleeding through you. That's why it glows. It remembers what you've forgotten."
A heavy, pulsing silence filled the space between them. Leira didn't move. She wasn't sure she could. The weight of his words pressed hard against her chest, unfamiliar and overwhelming, a truth too large to fit inside her.
The storm outside crackled faintly, lightning flickering behind thick clouds.
Then the floor trembled. At first, it was a faint vibration, like a heartbeat under the boards. Then it deepened into a low, rolling pulse that seemed to travel through the walls, through the furniture, through her bones. The lamps flickered once, twice, then steadied again, humming like they were afraid to go out.
Leira's breath hitched. "That is not normal… is it?"
Kael turned toward the window again, his jaw tightening. "They're moving."
"The shadows?" she whispered.
He nodded once. "They've found you."
Her pulse drummed painfully. She rose to her feet, her hands trembling despite the numbness crawling up her arms. "How do we stop them?"
"We don't," Kael said immediately. He crossed the room in three long strides, the urgency in his movements sharp enough to slice the air. He grabbed her wrist, his fingers warm against her skin. "We run."
Before she could process it, he pulled her toward the back door. It swung open with a groan, and cold air rushed in, sharp, wet, smelling of storm and earth and something metallic she couldn't place.
They plunged into the night.
Rain soaked through her hair in seconds. It plastered her clothes to her skin, biting cold, heavy with the weight of the storm. The ground was slick beneath her boots as Kael guided her along a narrow path that wound behind the apartment complex and into the trees.
Behind them, the sound followed, soft, whispering, wrong. The kind of whisper that wasn't made by wind but by something that remembered the shape of words and tried poorly to imitate them.
"Kael," she panted, struggling to keep up. "Where are we going?"
"To the only place they can't enter."
"And where's that?"
"The temple," he said without turning. "The one you built."
She almost stumbled. The rain blurred around her. "What?"
Kael didn't slow down. His grip tightened around her hand. "You built it, Leira. In another life. And if you ever want to remember who you are, that's where we start."
They pushed deeper into the forest. Trees rose on both sides, tall and black against a bruised sky, their branches whipping in the wind. Shadows bent strangely across the ground. The path narrowed, twisting like a memory trying to hide itself.
Behind them, the whispers grew louder, closer. Some sounded like breathing. Others like an imitation of her own steps, echoing a beat too late. The cold deepened around her, sinking into her bones despite the heat still pulsing faintly under her skin.
Kael squeezed her hand once, firm and steady. "Don't look back."
Leira didn't. But she could feel them, the shadows slipping through the rain, bending around trees, drawn to the pulse beneath her skin. Each step felt heavier, like the ground tugged at her heels.
The forest finally opened.
The temple rose in the distance, half hidden by mist, its dark stone walls breathing faint traces of light. It looked less like a building and more like a wound carved into the earth, a place the world had tried to forget but failed to bury completely.
Leira's steps slowed as they neared. Her pulse thrashed wildly.
Kael glanced at her, his eyes reflecting the faint glow under her skin. "Do you trust me?" he asked, looking deep into her eyes.
Leira studied his face. Rain clung to his hair, ran down his jaw, gathered at the edge of his collar. Despite the storm, his expression held something quiet, steady, almost reverent. For a fleeting moment, she thought she saw something move behind his eyes. Not fear, not relief, but recognition. Like a man seeing the ghost of someone he'd already lost.
She nodded once.
The rain hissed around them. The air felt thick, charged, alive.
Kael reached for the heavy stone door, his voice barely a whisper. "Stay close. The moment we step through, the world might start remembering you too."
The temple door opened with a low groan, stone grinding against stone. The sound vibrated through her ribs.
Leira hesitated at the threshold. Her heart pounded so loud she could barely hear the storm anymore. The light under her skin pulsed once, twice, then steadied, as if bracing itself.
She looked at Kael. His blade caught a flicker of lightning, his face set with quiet resolve. He nodded.
Together, they stepped inside.
The air shifted instantly, heavy, electric, aware.
Something ancient stirred in the dark, and Leira knew, with sudden, terrifying clarity, that whatever waited beyond that door hadn't forgotten her at all.