The path to the Vault of Echoes lay beyond the Silent Lands — a realm abandoned by the Loom itself. No threads flowed here. No memories stuck. Time stuttered. Beasts wandered.
It was the graveyard of fate.
---
✦ Departure
Meyric walked beside Aiden, his cloak tighter than usual, his staff glowing faintly with defensive runes. They passed through twisted woods and stone paths etched with forgotten names.
> "We'll have to walk through the Dreaming Hollow," he said.
"There's… echoes there. Fragments of things people forgot."
Aiden nodded. His shoulder still burned from the Executioner's blade. And yet, a strange pull tugged at his mind — not just toward the Vault, but… elsewhere.
---
✦ First Vision
That night, as he sat by the campfire beneath pale threadless stars, Aiden dreamed.
A girl — laughing.
A silver ribbon in her hair.
A hand in his.
A promise whispered beneath a ruined sky.
> "Don't forget me."
He gasped awake.
Meyric stared at him.
> "What did you see?"
"Her. Again. Just a glimpse."
"The sword didn't erase her entirely," Meyric said softly. "It just… hid her. You're close."
Aiden's fingers curled. "I need to know who she is."
---
✦ The Watcher in the Mist
As they walked deeper into the Hollow, fog thickened.
The world went silent.
And then… the girl appeared again.
This time not in a dream — but standing in the fog.
Aiden stopped. "Do you see her?"
Meyric turned. "See who?"
She stared at Aiden. Not with fear. Not with longing.
But with warning.
> "They're watching you."
Then she vanished.
---
✦ The Threads Begin to Reconnect
That night, Aiden didn't sleep.
He sat beneath a dead tree, staring at the fog.
He took out the locket again. It was still blank inside.
But now, barely, something had returned — the outline of her face. A silhouette. A hint of her name on the edge of thought.
> "L… Lyra?"
The moment he whispered it, the fog around the Hollow shifted — and somewhere far away, the girl in Spindlehall clutched her chest.
She whispered, shocked:
> "He remembers me…"
---