Skyler Novaah no longer dreamed.
He hallucinated memory.
It began slowly—like flashes at the edge of vision. A door where none existed. A phrase whispered by a voice long dead. A drop of blood on his palm burning with a memory that didn't belong to his current self.
But now?
He was awake, and still… he saw everything.
He sat in the chamber beneath the library, flame-blade resting beside him. The mirror had gone still—but the memories it stirred were alive. They followed him, haunted him, clung to his skin like smoke.
"You've breached the Third Seal," Orias said, watching from the edge of the flickering shadows. "The boundary between reality and memory is gone now."
Skyler turned slowly.
"I know things I've never been told."
His voice was distant. Almost... too calm.
"I know how Aeria bound the Archive to her soul. I know the names of the gods who hunted us. I know what happened in Timeline Zero." He shivered. "I wish I didn't."
Saya touched his shoulder. Her hand passed through a flicker of him—one version phasing into another.
"You're collapsing into your other selves," she said gently.
Skyler looked down at his arm—and saw it momentarily shift into a golden skeletal hand, lined with glyphs, then snap back to normal.
"I'm not me anymore," he whispered.
"You were never just you," Orias replied. "You are all of you."
The Book of Recalled Flame opened again—this time without being touched. It flipped to a blank page. Then, slowly, in Skyler's own handwriting, a sentence formed:
"The Fourth Seal must burn in sleep, or truth will bleed through the day."
But Skyler couldn't sleep. Not anymore. Every time his eyes closed, he switched.
Between selves.
Between timelines.
Between fates.
He began seeing a girl. Pale hair. Violet eyes. She'd appear in reflections. In flames. In the corner of the room, weeping.
"She's your first memory," Saya whispered.
"The one you're not allowed to remember yet."
"The child of the sealed flame."
Skyler backed away. "I don't know her."
"You will," said Orias. "When the Fourth Seal breaks… she'll be the first to speak your true name."
Reality cracked again. The chamber trembled.
Skyler fell to his knees as voices tore through his skull:
"Veritas Novaah, you were sentenced to memory-death!"
"The bloodline must not wake!"
"Seven Seals. Seven Flames. Seven Ends."
"You are a walking archive. You must be undone."
Skyler screamed—flame bursting from his mouth, scorching the chamber ceiling.
Saya shielded him.
Orias grabbed the Book. "He's close. The Fourth Seal is pressing."
"Then what do we do?" she shouted.
Orias turned, his expression grim.
"We put him to sleep."
"And we pray he doesn't wake up as something else."