The clearing felt different now. Not safer — just more real. The wind had calmed. The fire that once danced around Tom's body had left behind only warmth, and the earth beneath Peter's feet had settled. But none of them moved for a long time.
Tom stood still, eyes half-closed, the echo of flame still clinging to the back of his arms. He didn't speak, but the silence around him felt different than before — not heavy, but sure. Peter stood a few feet away, breathing deeply. His wind demon had vanished too, but it had left behind something in his stance — a kind of readiness, like he now understood what he'd always been running from.
Susan turned her glyph lens over in her palm, slowly, thoughtfully. "That was... beautiful," she said, her voice quiet but firm. "Raw. Controlled. Not like before."
Jack sat down on a nearby root, arms resting on his knees. "So two of us have awakened again. Is this going to keep happening now?"
Frank nodded slowly. "I think so."
Lucy hadn't said anything. She still stood beside Kitty, watching the wind blow lightly across the edge of the trees. Her hand had drifted unconsciously to her palm, where the fading mark — the one from the memory engine — had once been.
Kitty looked at her. "You feel it too, don't you?"
Lucy blinked, then nodded. "I'm scared to call it what it is."
"It's still part of you," Kitty said. "Even if you don't want it to be."
Frank turned toward them. "It doesn't have to be evil. None of them do."
Susan looked up. "That's something we never figured out. Are the demons just powers? Or... something alive?"
Tom answered without hesitation. "They're alive. But not like us."
Frank crossed his arms. "They're memory. Emotion. Energy made real. The reason they awaken is because we finally face something we've been ignoring. Ourselves."
Jack looked over at Frank. "And yours? What was yours?"
Frank was silent for a moment.
Then he said, "I think mine hasn't awakened yet."
Everyone looked at him.
Susan tilted her head. "But you fought Renex. In your past life, you sealed him."
Frank nodded. "I did. But that was another me. Another life. That version of me had to give something up to do what he did. I still don't remember all of it... but I don't think I've met the demon he carried."
Lucy whispered, "Then maybe it's still inside you. Sleeping."
Frank looked up at the trees. "Or hiding."
They left the clearing by afternoon. The path led deeper into the canyon, where the cliffs began to bend inward like ribs. The forest floor darkened as they entered a narrowing stretch of land, where the trees grew tall and tangled like old thoughts trying to be forgotten.
Susan ran her hand along a mossy stone as they passed. "These woods are old. I don't like how quiet they are."
Tom nodded. "Keep your guard up."
The path dipped downward until they reached a slanted glade, where the ground seemed to dip and rise in uneven patterns, like scars in the earth. The air buzzed faintly, not with sound, but tension.
Kitty froze first. "There's something here."
Lucy looked around. "I feel it too."
They spread out slightly. Jack stepped toward a fallen log — and then stopped.
There was something underneath it.
He crouched and lifted it carefully, then stepped back.
Underneath was a symbol. A glyph — carved not into stone, but dirt. It shimmered faintly. Not from light, but from memory.
Susan gasped. "That's not from any glyph family I know. That's... that's a demon glyph."
Frank crouched beside her. "Meaning?"
"It's a memory marker," Susan said. "But not one we left."
Peter looked around. "Then who?"
Tom stepped closer. "Or what."
The symbol pulsed.
Then, from the trees, came a soft noise. Like weeping. Childlike. Fragile.
They turned as one.
Kitty stepped forward. "It's coming from over there."
Lucy moved with her, and the others followed. The trees parted ahead, just barely, and beyond the branches was a small hollow in the earth — like a crater covered in moss.
And at the center sat a girl.
She looked no older than ten, dressed in robes too large for her, torn and ragged. Her hair was pale, her eyes glowing faintly. But what made everyone stop — what made Lucy's breath catch — was what hovered behind the girl.
A demon.
Not massive or violent.
It hovered above her like a shadow — shaped like sadness. Its limbs were thin, its head bowed, its body curled like it was trying to protect her. It didn't move.
Kitty stepped closer. "She's a vessel."
Susan shook her head. "No. She's a lost one."
Frank looked at the demon. "Why doesn't it attack?"
Tom said softly, "Because it's grieving."
Lucy stepped forward.
The girl looked up.
Her voice was broken, trembling. "It wouldn't wake up. I waited. But it wouldn't come out. Then... it did. But I wasn't ready."
The demon lowered its head further.
Lucy crouched beside her. "What's your name?"
"I don't know anymore," the girl said. "I forgot it when it screamed."
Kitty knelt beside Lucy. "She's like us. But not one of the seven."
Susan looked around. "There could be more like her. Survivors of older awakenings."
Peter asked, "What do we do?"
Tom looked to Frank.
Frank stepped forward.
He knelt before the girl and said quietly, "You don't have to fight anymore. We'll carry your name for you. Even if you don't remember it."
The girl started to cry.
The demon behind her shifted — and dissolved. Not violently. Gently. Like mist in the wind.
The glyph on the ground faded.
And so did the girl.
She vanished, leaving behind only silence.
They stood still for a long time.
Then Lucy whispered, "She was a memory."
Susan nodded. "A leftover. A fragment of someone who couldn't carry it."
Tom turned away. "We need to awaken before that becomes us."
And without another word, they continued.
The path ahead was narrower now.
But the demons were awake.
And they were listening.