Chapter Ten: The Shadow Within the Memory
A heavy silence followed the messenger's words. The warning bell from Elidor echoed in the distance, each toll a dagger in the night's silence.
"What do you mean?" asked Sion, his voice hoarse.
The messenger, a young man in his twenties wearing a faded Elidoran robe, stepped forward trembling. "When we took the pendant from the Queen a thousand years ago… we did not take it all. There were two boxes."
The Queen shuddered. "I remember… two boxes. One for memory… and another…" She paused, her eyes widening. "For forgetting."
"Forgetting?" Kairn repeated.
"Not ordinary forgetting. Deliberate forgetting. The part of me that agreed to leave behind… so I would not suffer."
The messenger nodded. "The first box, the memory of your weeping and the cause of your sorrow, became the pendant. The second box… was the memory of why you agreed to forget."
"And why did you agree?" asked Elara.
The Queen closed her eyes. "Because I saw the alternative. I saw what would happen if I did not forget: war. My son against my descendants. Ice-folk against humans. And all of it… because of my grief."
She fell silent, then opened her eyes. "I agreed because I loved them more than I loved my truth."
The messenger continued, "The second box remained in Elidor's secret archives. We thought it… worthless. Just a confession of guilt written on ancient parchment."
"And it was stolen?" asked the former leader of the Dark Hunters.
"Not stolen. It vanished. From a room sealed with seven magical locks. And whoever took it… left a message."
He pulled a sheet from his pocket. It was made of dried human skin. Words were written in ancient blood:
"The first memory was weeping.
The second memory was betrayal.
Now I will make you remember why you deserve to weep."
The messenger looked up. "Signed with a name: Caleb."
Everyone who heard the name froze. Even the Queen looked as if she had been struck.
"No…" she whispered. "It can't be…"
"Who is Caleb?" asked Sion.
"My firstborn. The eldest. The fully human one," said the Queen, her voice barely audible. "And the only one who… rejected me."
Kairn shook his head. "But you are my only son I knew of."
"Because I erased his memory. Because he… saw what I would become. He saw what humans would do to the ice-folk. And he chose… to take a side."
"A side against whom?"
"Against no one. Against everyone." She looked at the messenger. "When did the box disappear?"
"Three days ago. The same night… you appeared."
Sion suddenly understood. "He was waiting. He waited a thousand years. Waited until you awakened, until you appeared… then he took the only memory that could truly hurt you."
"It does not hurt me," said the Queen. "It hurts all of you. Because he knows: that memory holds the reason for humanity's betrayal of the ice-folk. And the reason… might make you hate each other again."
The old man from Elidor stepped forward. "What is that reason?"
The Queen looked at him for a long time. "You know. Deep within. In your forbidden myths. In your hidden dreams."
Then she turned to Sion. "My firstborn… Caleb… did not choose humans over ice-folk. He saw that the mixing itself was the mistake. He saw that every crime, every betrayal, every tear… came because we tried to be together."
"And that is what he wants to prove now," Sion understood. "He takes the memory, shows it to everyone… and destroys any hope of reconciliation."
"Yes. Because he believes total separation… is the only mercy."
At that moment, he appeared.
He did not walk in. He did not emerge from the shadows. He simply… was there.
A man in middle age, his hair black but streaked with white like frozen lightning, and his eyes… had no color. They were transparent, like glass in a window cleaned by cold rain.
"Mother," he said, and his voice was flat. No sadness, no anger, nothing. "You have returned."
The Queen looked at him, and tears began to form. "Caleb… how you have changed."
"Changed? I am the only one who did not change. I am the only one who remembered the lesson."
"What lesson?"
"That love… causes pain. That closeness… causes betrayal." He took the second box from his coat. It was small, black, made of petrified wood. "And here is the proof."
"Do not open it," said the Queen.
"Why? Are you afraid they will see the truth?"
"I am afraid you will see you were wrong. I am afraid you will see that your choice… was an escape, not wisdom."
Caleb smiled. His smile was terrifying in its emptiness of emotion. "Let us see."
He opened the box.
---
It was not a memory like the previous ones. It was a feeling.
Everyone at the Crossroads felt it at the same moment:
Betrayal.
Not a small betrayal. A profound one.
They saw the night of the decision: a group of the first humans, meeting in secret. The Queen asleep. And they spoke:
"We cannot continue like this. Our children are born different."
"They are stronger than us. They endure cold that kills us."
"And what if one day… they decide we are not good enough?"
"We must control. We must ensure power remains in our hands."
Then the plan: not just to imprison the Queen. But to change history. To make humans seem like saviors, and the ice-folk like invaders.
And the worst part: The Queen heard them.
She was awake. And heard everything.
And she saw the faces of her friends. Humans she had lived with, loved, borne children with.
And instead of anger… she wept.
She did not weep because she was betrayed. She wept for them. Because their fear was so great they chose betrayal over trust.
Then came the hardest decision: She agreed to forget.
Not because she submitted. But because she forgave them.
"I understand your fear," she told them in the memory. "And because I understand… I will forget. And I will make you forget. And no one will know this happened."
But one refused: Caleb.
"No!" he screamed in the memory. "Do not forgive them! Do not forget! This is injustice!"
But she looked at him with sorrow. "Justice without mercy… is not justice. Just another cruelty."
---
The memory ended.
And everyone was weeping. Not only from pain, but from shame.
The old man from Elidor fell to his knees. "We were… traitors."
"You put me in a difficult choice," said the Queen. "Defend my ice-folk and start a war… or forgive and forget. And I chose forgiveness."
Caleb closed the box. "And it was a mistake. Because forgiveness without justice… creates more injustice. Look at you now: after a thousand years, you still fear. You still separate. You are still… human."
"And you?" asked Sion. "What have you become?"
Caleb looked at him. "I have become the truth. I have become the logical conclusion: if mixing causes this pain… then let there be separation."
"But there is a third way," said the Queen.
"There is not."
"There is. It did not exist then. But it exists now." She looked at everyone. "Acknowledgment. Apology. Learning."
Caleb laughed. A dry, empty laugh. "And you will forgive again? And forget again? And repeat the cycle?"
"No," said Sion. "We will not forget this time. We will remember. And we will remember to prevent, not to punish."
Caleb kicked the ground. "Empty words! After a thousand years, fear still rules!"
"But it is no longer the only ruler," said Elara. "We learned on the Path that fear and hope can coexist."
"And that love and betrayal can be in the same heart," added the former hunter leader.
"And that cold and warmth… both are necessary," said Kairn.
Caleb looked at them one by one. And his transparent eyes seemed to hurt for the first time. "You… insist on error."
"No," said the Queen. "We insist on being human. And to be human means to err… and to try again."
She extended her hand to him. "Join us. Not because you are wrong. But because you are in pain. And because pain… should be shared, not wielded as a weapon."
Caleb stood, the box in his hand, looking at her outstretched hand. A thousand years of isolation in his eyes. A thousand years of certainty that he alone saw the truth.
Then… he dropped the box.
"I cannot," he whispered. "I cannot forgive."
"We do not ask you to forgive. We ask you… to try."
He raised his eyes. And they now held tears. His first tears in a thousand years.
"And if… we fail again?"
"Then we try again," said the Queen. "Because the alternative… is to die alone. And I lived that for a thousand years. It is hell."
Caleb wept. A man hardened for a millennium, weeping like a child. Because the truth he held for so long… was only half the truth.
The box on the ground opened. And the memory escaped… and dissolved. Because it was no longer a secret. It had become a lesson.
---
End of Chapter Ten
The tears dried. The memory belonged to all. And the Crossroads became… a beginning.
But before the real construction of the Confluence could begin…
The ground beneath their feet began to tremble.
Not from anger. Not from sorrow.
But from… something emerging.
Something that had slept beneath the Path longer than the Queen herself.
And something… that was awakening now because the memories had been freed.
And from beneath the World Tree, a voice emerged:
"At last… you remembered."
"And now… it is my time."
---
Chapter Eleven: "What Lies Beneath the Path" Coming soon… 📜❄️👥