The sky hadn't stopped bleeding since the Veil cracked.
Kael hadn't spoken since it happened.
And the girl with the scar hadn't stopped walking beside him…
The forest beyond the monastery was not supposed to exist.
Not like this.
Not alive.
Not watching.
But tonight, every tree leaned in like an eavesdropper. Every shadow knew his name.
Kael walked in silence, feet crunching leaves damp with forgotten time. Beside him, the girl — Seris — moved like a ghost with memory. Quiet. Unshaken. As if she had always walked through ruined myths.
The mark on Kael's wrist still pulsed faintly. So did the questions.
---
They reached a clearing beneath a dead, hollow tree. Its bark curled like burned parchment, branches clawing toward the sky.
Seris stopped. "This is far enough."
Kael looked back. The monastery had vanished into mist — a memory dissolving behind them.
His voice cracked through the quiet. "What… happened to me?"
Seris turned slightly. "You awakened."
"That doesn't mean anything to me."
She exhaled. "It means everything."
---
Kael sat on a cold stone and lowered his head into his hands.
"I wasn't supposed to feel," he whispered. "For ten years, I didn't. And now… now it's all too much."
Seris crouched beside him, her voice softer than dusk.
"That storm inside you? It's not weakness. It's truth."
"Then why does it hurt?"
"Because pain is proof you're still human."
Kael looked up, eyes dark with confusion. "They told me feeling was sin."
"They lied."
---
A Whisper from the Past
He closed his eyes. But sleep didn't come — only her voice did.
Not Seris's.
His mother's.
"They will teach you silence, Kael.
But you are my son — and silence was never in your blood."
His breath caught. "I saw her," he murmured. "Before the Veil cracked. Her face. Her fire. She said something about a tree…"
Seris reached into her cloak and pulled out a worn piece of parchment. She handed it to him without a word.
On it, scribbled in shaky handwriting:
"The Hollow Tree remembers what the world forgets."
Kael blinked. "I know this. I used to dream it."
"You didn't dream it," Seris said. "You remembered it."
---
The Story Beneath the Veil
"They erased everything," Seris continued. "Your past. Your name. Even your feelings. But they couldn't erase what you are."
Kael gritted his teeth. "Then tell me what I am."
She looked at him — not with pity, but with recognition.
"One of the Awakened."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Seris stood, her voice steady and dark.
"There was no curse. Only fear. Long ago, people like us — the Awakened — felt more than others. We remembered beyond the Veil. And with those memories came power."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Power to do what?"
"To feel the world back into shape. To bend it. Heal it. Ruin it. Emotion wasn't a curse, Kael. It was creation."
---
He shook his head. "Then why silence us?"
"Because you can't control creators. Only fear them. And so… the monasteries were built. Not to protect — to erase."
Kael stepped back, heart pounding. "So my whole life… was a prison?"
"No." Seris stepped closer. "It was a forge."
---
They Who Watch the Veil
Suddenly, a chill swept the clearing.
Seris froze.
Kael followed her gaze — into the shadows beyond the trees.
Shapes moved there. Slowly. Silently.
Figures robed in ash-grey. Faces hidden. Eyes glowing faint through the fog.
"Who are they?" Kael whispered.
"Not monks," Seris replied. "They're older. The Order of Silence. They guard the Veil. And they hunt the Awakened."
Kael stepped back. "What do we do?"
Seris didn't flinch. "We run."
"Where?"
She pointed beyond the gnarled forest, toward a place where the mist thickened like breath on glass.
"A day from here... stands the Hollow Tree."
Kael's pulse raced. "And what's there?"
Seris looked at him — scar glinting like a memory carved into her skin.
"The rest of your truth."
---
They ran.
Through trees older than memory.
Past symbols etched by hands that felt too much.
Beneath a sky cracking slowly like glass under fire.
Kael didn't know if he was ready to remember.
But the truth was already waking.
And it would not sleep again.
Just as they reached the edge of the clearing, a shriek split the sky — not human, not beast.
Seris stopped mid-step, eyes wide.
Kael turned.
A figure stepped out of the fog.
Draped in tattered robes.
Eyes like smoldering embers.
And on its chest — glowing brighter than Kael's own mark — a sigil of fire shaped like a screaming face.
The trees groaned. The earth recoiled.
Even the wind dared not breathe.
"You were not supposed to survive," the figure hissed.
Kael froze.
"Who are you?" he whispered.
The figure raised a hand, and the air itself shattered like glass.
"I am the reason they erased you."