They sat around a dying fire.
The stars above Laphyzel were scattered like shattered glass that night — as if the sky itself couldn't hold form. The wind shifted sideways, dragging whispers that didn't match the mouths that made them.
The world was… loosening.
Just enough for memory to slip through.
Hiro poked at the embers with a stick, his brows tight with thought. Vampher leaned against a stone that hadn't existed an hour ago — watching it pulse with forgotten names.
And Dee Megus stared into the fire like it owed him an answer.
They had just left the Fractured Vale, and with it, the woman who shouldn't exist: Myla.
The image of her lingered — not just in sight, but in feeling.
Her voice, like a story half-remembered. Her eyes, the color of promises lost.
"She looked familiar," Vampher finally said. "But not just familiar. Known."
Hiro nodded slowly. "She was in the Ruins of Neverwas, too. But… different. Older. Younger. Split?"
Dee didn't speak at first. His eyes closed.
And then, quietly — reverently — he said:
"Because they are the same."
Both Hiro and Vampher turned.
Dee exhaled, as if letting go of something heavy.
"They are echoes. Splinters. Refractions of one soul… scattered when the weave shattered and I sealed my divinity."
He opened his hand.
A silver thread shimmered across his palm — nearly invisible, but singing softly. A sound like a lullaby woven from starlight and sorrow.
"Her name was Myla. She wasn't a weaver. She didn't manipulate threads like me. She listened to them. Heard futures humming beneath the skin of the world."
He looked up, eyes glinting with memory too vast to hold.
"She was there. When I made my choice. When I sealed the gift the gods offered me and broke the Fourth Seal in time. She stood too close to what couldn't be understood."
Vampher frowned. "I thought the seal just held your powers."
Dee shook his head.
"It held more. It held the consequences. And the Thread I burned to stop the Time God's gate from binding all futures — that fried thread pulled her soul with it. Not into death. But into… fracture."
Hiro's voice cracked slightly. "She didn't die?"
"No. She scattered."
The wind picked up again — but it didn't blow through the trees. It blew around them, like a breath circling something fragile.
Dee continued:
"The God of Time feared what I was becoming. Not because I was dangerous. But because I refused him. So he built a Time Gate — to erase my freedom. My choices. But I broke it. And in doing so… I broke her."
He held the thread up. It shimmered. Vibrated.
"This is a remnant of that moment. The tear. The undoing."
Vampher's expression softened. "The echoes we've seen… the riddles… That was her, wasn't it? Her fragments?"
Dee nodded. "Each one remembers something different. Some know me. Some don't. Some love me. Others… fear what I became after."
Silence settled.
Then Hiro said it — gently, with no teasing in his voice.
"She was your first love."
Dee didn't speak immediately.
He lowered the thread. Let the fire catch the shimmer.
Then, in a voice more fragile than any of them had heard:
"She was the first person who looked at me — really looked — and didn't flinch. Who didn't care that I could unravel gods or stitch fate. She made me feel small in the best way. Human. Grounded."
He turned away, just slightly. As if ashamed of needing to say it aloud.
"When I sealed away my powers, I thought I buried it all. The pain. The longing. Even her memory. But when the Fourth Seal broke…"
He looked at them.
"…everything came back. Not just power. But possibility. And her."
The fire flared briefly, blue and gold.
Vampher looked down. "What happens now?"
Dee sighed. "Now that I remember… I'll start seeing her again. The echoes. More often. Clearer. But it's never really her. Just pieces. Fragments that didn't ask to be."
Hiro leaned forward. "What if… what if one day, the pieces find each other again? What if she could be whole?"
Dee gave a sad smile.
"That would mean forgiving myself for breaking her in the first place."
No one spoke after that.
The wind softened. Somewhere in the trees, something laughed — gently, like a dream slipping from the mouth of a sleeping child.
Her laugh.
Or close enough to break him all over again.
Hiro didn't press. He just placed a steady hand on Dee's shoulder.
Vampher closed his eyes, leaning back into the stone that hadn't existed before — now etched with her name.
And Dee… stared at the thread in his palm.
Not ready to let go.
But no longer willing to pretend he already had.