There was no sound, no up, no down, no feeling of her own body at all, only the endless white stretching beyond her vision like some vast ocean she had no way to measure, no horizon to hold onto, no edge, no barrier, no comfort, nothing she had ever known, nothing she could even name.
Leira felt like she had been pulled apart into tiny threads, her body unraveling, her mind unraveling, her soul unraveling, everything that had ever made her "her" now loose, floating in the void, and yet, somehow, impossibly, she was still here, she still existed, somehow still tethered to something she could not see, could not touch, could not fully understand.
Something stirred beneath her skin, not outside, not like a shadow in front of her, but inside, curling into the spaces between her thoughts, brushing against the raw edges of her awareness like the softest fingers she had ever felt, brushing over nerves that had never known gentleness before, brushing over parts of her she didn't even know were there.
You are not falling.
Leira gasped. The voice threaded itself into her mind, brushing past her thoughts with a closeness that made her shiver in a way she didn't understand, like it had been waiting for her to notice it, like it had been there all along, quietly patient, impossibly old, impossibly vast.
"Then… what is happening?" she whispered, and her voice sounded hollow, distant, strange, like it belonged to someone else in a place she could barely imagine.
You are remembering how to exist.
Her chest squeezed painfully, her mind trembled with the force of the realization, and she pressed a hand to her ribs, trying to feel the weight of herself inside her own skin, trying to understand what it meant to exist with something else alive inside her, pulsing, patient, immense.
"Remember… how to exist?" she whispered again, soft and uncertain, her voice barely more than a thread of sound, as if speaking louder might shatter her entirely.
Before her words could even settle, the white around her shifted, rippling like water disturbed by some unseen hand, there were soft glows forming beneath her feet, condensing into a floor of liquid light that quivered and shimmered and almost seemed alive, almost seemed to breathe beneath her, and when gravity came back too fast, her knees buckled, her hands reached for support, and she caught herself, fingers trembling, brushing the soft glowing surface, feeling the gentle hum of it pulse under her touch.
She inhaled sharply, and the air felt… thick, heavy, different, almost eerie, as if it belonged to her and yet belonged to something else entirely, and her own body felt new, strange, alien, but familiar in some small corner of her memory, as if she had always been meant to feel this way, yet had never had the chance to know it.
The Veil was still inside her. She could feel it, always there, always patient, a second heartbeat humming under her own, enormous, ancient, aware of everything she could not even begin to comprehend.
She tried to focus on the quiet, to understand the pulse beneath her ribs, the faint hum under her blood, the vast, stretching silence that surrounded her and filled her at once.
"Where am I?" she asked, barely above a whisper, her throat was dry, her voice was almost breaking, and the words felt foreign even to her ears.
Inside a memory.
Her heart stumbled, a heavy, uneven thud that made her feel dizzy in the weightless space.
"A memory?" she breathed, her voice strange, layered, echoing back to her in harmonies she did not recognize, as though her own words had multiplied into voices that weren't hers.
This is not a trial.
It is simply a memory you need.
Leira sucked in a sharp, trembling breath.
"Whose memory? This doesn't seem…" she whispered.
… It is yours.
And also not yours.
And the ones who came before you.
The white expanse shifted, edges darkening, shadows curling along the walls like smoke, faint at first, then sharper, more solid, black streaks piercing the light, and Leira's pulse spiked, her chest tightened, and she recoiled slightly, only to feel the Veil press gently against her mind, soft and firm at the same time.
Do not fear the memories.
You are not alone.
Then it came, a fragment, not a vision, not a dream, but the actual memory thrust into her, forced through her mind like a spear of light and shadow at once, sharp and impossible to ignore.
She was on a cliff, wind whipping her hair, warm sunlight across her skin, and he was there, Kael, laughing beside her, fingers entwined with hers, and she could feel him, steady, warm, alive, as if nothing in the world could touch him, as if this moment belonged to her and only her, but it didn't, and yet it did.
Her chest hurt. She pressed her hand against it, wishing she could hold it, hold him, hold the moment still forever.
But it dissolved, pulled back into the silver mist that filled the space, leaving her aching, hollow, and trembling.
Before she could even breathe, another memory struck.
A dark hall, a single Keeper, shoulders heavy beyond measure, whispering with fear:
"I can't hold the boundary much longer."
Another voice, faint, trembling, answering:
"Then we will lose this realm."
The third memory came instantly, hotter, sharper, violent in its intensity; a woman screaming, fighting shadows that clawed at her soul, dragging her down into darkness, and Leira instinctively clutched her head.
"What's happening to her?!" she cried, her hands trembling against her temples, her knees shaking beneath her.
The memories shattered and retreated, leaving silence that pressed against her like a weight, heavy, suffocating, almost tangible.
The Veil hummed inside her mind, faint, deliberate.
You asked why everything feels different.
"Yes… but you're showing me… lives I didn't live," she whispered, voice breaking, words almost swallowed by the space around her.
Not entirely.
Her pulse skipped.
"Not entirely?" she asked, voice small, trembling.
The Echo shows fragments you must carry.
Not every life.
Not every truth.
Only the pieces that shaped the Keepers before you.
Pieces of their fear.
Pieces of their pain.
Pieces of their choices.
Leira pressed her palms to her eyes. Every beat of her heart felt enormous, as if it would burst from her chest.
"And… Kael?" she whispered softly.
"Why do I feel him like this? Why does it hurt so much?"
Because he shaped you too.
Her throat constricted painfully.
The memory of warmth, loyalty, hand in hand, so fragile, so fleeting, so impossible, made her chest tighten, made her legs tremble, made the ache in her heart sharper than any blow.
"And… what about…Cassian?" she breathed, barely above a whisper. "Why do I feel him even in this moment?"
The silence stretched. Thick, suffocating, impossibly heavy.
Then the Veil answered, cold, precise, almost clinical:
He shaped you more than anyone else.
Leira's fists clenched.
Flashes tore through her mind, his hand reaching for her, tendrils of shadow clawing his face, the look in his eyes as he fell to corruption she believed she could never undo.
The grief was hers, but not all hers.
"Why… why does it feel like I'm losing him too?" she whispered, voice cracking. "Why do I feel anything for him at all?"
Because you lost him as well.
Many times.
Her chest tightened painfully.
Memories of countless deaths, countless Keepers, countless failures pressed on her, like waves crushing her from every side.
She was not just carrying her own pain now.
She carried the weight of everyone who had failed, everyone the shadows had killed, everyone lost because fate would not bend.
"No…the person I lost is Kael." she whispered again.
The Veil's voice softened, warm, gentle, impossibly tender.
Kael is your light.
Your first bond.
Your first loyalty.
Your first love.
But Cassian… he was your storm.
Your first betrayal.
The fire that burned too bright, the hand you reached for and found empty, the pulse in your chest that both ached and called to you in equal measure.
He was love you could not tame, love that left scars deeper than any wound, love that taught you both devotion and despair in the same breath.
He was the sweetness and the poison, the warmth that carried you and the shadow that nearly broke you, and even now, even after centuries, the pull of him is a tether you cannot release.
Leira's throat constricted painfully. Just the thought that there was actually real love between her and a man she believes is a monster made her heart ache, made her feel like she was betraying the pure and honest love that Kael has shown her. Tears threatened to spill, but she could not move fast enough to release them.
"When do I get to see Kael again?" she whispered.
Soon.
"And… what about the shadows you want me to destroy…what about Cassian?"
Sooner.
Her hands twitched, silver light cracking under her skin, surging faintly. The white expanse pulsed, waiting for her acceptance, waiting for her to understand. What she felt fo Cassian was blood boiling, heart racing, and while she could not interpret it as anything else, what she felt was far from it…hate.
The memories still lives inside you.
Fragments of old Keepers.
Fragments of your own cycles.
Fragments of Kael's loyalty.
Fragments of Cassian's fall.
All threads of a single truth.
"What truth?" she whispered, trembling.
You have died many times.
And this life… this one… it is the first time you have survived long enough to find me.
Long enough to see the paths of those who were falsely fallen, long enough to bear the weight of all that was stolen from the worlds, long enough to stand against the corruption that devours them.
And now… together, we will bring justice to those who have suffered in vain, to the Keepers and innocents betrayed, to the shadows that have feasted for centuries unchecked.
Leira closed her eyes. Her pulse slowed. Her body trembled.
Her heart felt too big, her mind too full.
"Tell me what you need me to do." she asked softly, her eyes filled with intense focus.
Stand.
The floor brightened beneath her feet.
It held her weight.
Steady.
She breathed, slow, deliberate, drawing herself together.
Listen.
A faint hum grew, voices rising, faint but clearer: Keepers who had lived, Keepers who had fallen, whispers of hope and despair, fragments of joy, regret, sorrow, and bravery threading together.
Learn.
The white space shifted, floating islands appearing, more glowing orbs, threads of light stretching into infinity, some steady, some chaotic, some twisted by corruption.
And prepare…for when you leave this place.
Her stomach dropped.
"Back to the mortal world?"
Yes… but the shadows know who you are now.
They know what you have become, the power that pulses through your veins, the force that the Veil has awakened within you.
They know the reckoning you are destined to them, and they will come for you, relentless, cunning, and merciless, because you are everything they fear, and everything they were born to destroy.
Her fists curled, silver light pulsing between her fingers.
"And after that?"
After that… you will face your centurial hunter.
Her heart stopped.
Cassian.
The white room pulsed like a predator's heartbeat.
Then the floor cracked, twisting and bending, forming a path forward.
Leira breathed in deeply, feeling every echo, every memory, every fragment pulse through her.
She was alive. She was powerful. She was new. She was unfinished.
And she had to survive it all.
The Veil hummed, threading through her bones.
This is only the beginning, Keeper.