Asterley was surrounded by forest — deep, old, and humming with silence. Students were forbidden beyond the stone archway that marked the edge of the academy's trimmed lawns. Haera always found that odd. It wasn't a security risk. No wild animals had ever been reported. Yet every student obeyed. As if the forest itself had made them afraid.
That night, Haera dreams again — only this time, she's barefoot.
The forest path is lined with candles, flickering like they're alive. A black veil rests on her head. Ahead, a man waits by an altar of moss and bone. She walks toward him without question.
She wakes gasping, the name Kael on her lips — not Cairos.
---
At breakfast, Cairos avoids her gaze.
"You're hiding something," she blurts when they meet in the hallway later.
He sighs. "It's not hiding. It's protecting."
"From what?"
He doesn't answer. Instead, he slips something into her coat pocket and walks away.
Haera waits until she's alone to check.
It's a map — hand-drawn. Of the school grounds… and beyond.
One part is circled in blood-red ink.
"The Scar."
---
By dusk, she's standing at the stone archway. The forest watches her. Breathing. Waiting.
She steps in.
Each footfall feels like it echoes into memory. The further she goes, the colder it becomes — not in temperature, but in time. Like she's slipping backward through centuries.
She finds it — The Scar — a ring of earth where nothing grows. Charred black soil, cracked like an old wound.
In the center: a stone pedestal. Upon it, an object wrapped in velvet.
She unwraps it slowly.
A dagger.
Beautiful. Ancient. Familiar.
She sees her hand holding it in another life. Blood on the blade. Her own blood.
The ground beneath her shakes. Whispers rise from the trees.
"Lilienne…"
She turns, startled.
Standing at the edge of the clearing is a boy. Not Cairos. Not anyone she knows. Pale hair, sharp features, dressed in ceremonial white.
"You're early," he says softly. "You weren't supposed to remember me yet."
"Who are you?" Haera asks.
He bows slightly.
"I'm Kael. The one you chose… before him."
---
That night, she returns to the dorm in silence. The dagger still in her coat. Her hand won't stop shaking.
Cairos is waiting.
"You went," he says, eyes storm-dark.
"You knew," she whispers. "You led me."
"I needed you to remember him."
"Why?"
He leans in. "Because the past isn't done with us. And Kael — he wants to rewrite it."