They sat beneath the orchard's edge, where the light barely touched the trees and the wind carried no birdsong.
Liora rested on a mossy stone, brushing her fingers across the half-burned parchment. Raen leaned against the trunk beside her, eyes closed, listening.
> Not for danger.
But for lies in the silence.
Because silence, he'd learned, always said too much.
---
> "They lied to everyone," Liora whispered.
"About the Unwritten."
Raen didn't respond. He was used to lies.
> "We were told you were monsters," she continued. "Cracked souls that broke the world's harmony… threats to reality itself."
She looked at him, voice tightening.
> "But that's not what you are."
Raen opened his eyes, golden light flickering in his irises.
> "Then tell me," he said quietly.
"What am I?"
---
Liora took a breath.
> "You're the ones who remembered what the world tried to forget."
> "The Unwritten were heroes, kings, rebels, gods…"
"Too dangerous to kill, too powerful to keep."
> "So they used the First Edict — they erased you from the narrative of existence."
"And sealed the records beneath the Tombscript Vault."
---
Raen stood, jaw clenched.
> "They didn't just erase us…"
"They rewrote the world."
He looked at the sword still sleeping beside him, embedded in the dirt. It hadn't returned since the fight.
> Maybe it was thinking.
Or maybe… remembering.
---
Liora's voice cut through the weight in his chest.
> "You're not the only one left."
Raen turned sharply.
> "What?"
> "There are others," she said. "Not many. Scattered. Hunted. Some… changed."
She stood and pointed to the north.
> "A man named Dareth Vale still draws breath. They called him the Storm Monarch before they erased him."
> "He remembers you."
---
Raen narrowed his eyes. The name lit sparks in the dark corners of his mind.
> "He was… part of my party."
A storm mage.
A friend.
Maybe.
Maybe not anymore.
> "Where is he now?"
> "They say he walks the Blighted Coast. No cities, no light. Just echoes and ash."
Liora looked at him carefully.
> "If you go… you'll be walking into a warzone. The Arc Keepers want him destroyed. And he doesn't trust anyone anymore."
---
Raen picked up his sword.
It didn't hum.
Didn't pulse.
But it warmed in his hand — as if agreeing with him.
> "Then it's time I reminded him who I am."