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Chapter 22 - Chapter 21: The First Dreamer

The compound was already under siege.

Reality trembled. Timeline 13's Witness Hunters—entities born of law and flame, clad in armor forged from erased memories—descended through breach-gates that tore the sky like paper.

But Skyler?

He wasn't there.

Not here, anyway.

Because the Book had opened again—and this time, it didn't ask permission.

A seal—not one of the seven, but older—cracked open in his soul.

And Skyler was taken.

Not by force—but by memory.

---

He awoke in a world without gravity. A dreamspace so ancient it no longer had form—just floating fragments of thought. Ruins of ideas. Language that hadn't existed in eons, now swirling like ink in water.

At the center, tethered to nothing yet bound to everything, sat a man.

Or what was left of one.

Old. Barefoot. His body composed of ink, fire, and glass. His skin cracked like burned parchment. Glyphs moved across him like breathing. One eye was a black hole. The other… was Skyler's.

"You've come," the figure said, voice like stone breaking inside wind.

Skyler floated forward, unsure if he moved with will or memory.

"…Are you the First?"

The figure nodded slowly.

"I was the first to see too much.

The first to bear the flame before it had a name.

The first Witness—before there were even Witnesses."

"They called me Velmhar, the Dreamer."

Skyler stared. "You sealed the first truth?"

Velmhar exhaled—and the air itself wept.

"Yes. I chose to forget, so that creation could continue.

And now you've come to undo my choice."

Skyler clenched his fists. "I didn't choose this."

"No," Velmhar whispered. "But you were written to. Long before me."

"You are the Child of the Book. The one who remembers before remembering was possible."

Skyler's glyphs burned, reacting to Velmhar's presence.

"Why me?"

Velmhar raised a finger—and the memoryscape shifted.

Skyler saw it all.

The first seal being crafted in the dying heart of a forgotten god

Aeria Novaah standing beside Velmhar in another form, weeping as truth was cut into flame

A circle of seven, each carving a piece of their soul into the Seven Seals—and then choosing to forget who they were

"You were the only one we couldn't erase," Velmhar whispered.

"You were born after the seals, but written before them. You exist outside the equation."

Skyler staggered. His mind burned. But he understood something new:

He wasn't just breaking seals.

He was unsealing who they were.

Velmhar stood now, fire rippling across his chest.

"The Fourth Seal awakened your sister.

The Fifth… will awaken me."

Skyler narrowed his eyes.

"You want me to free you?"

Velmhar smiled—but it was broken. Wounded. Tired.

"No. I want you to understand what will happen if you do."

He raised his hand—and Skyler saw a flash of the end:

A world flooded in memory, drowning in forgotten gods

The Archive crumbling as every suppressed truth returns at once

A flame so pure, it burns even possibility

Velmhar stepped close.

"Truth isn't just memory, child.

Truth is a force. Unbound, it will tear reality apart."

Skyler met his gaze.

And for the first time, he asked a question no Novaah had dared:

"What if… it's meant to?"

Velmhar's eye widened.

"Then you are not a Witness, Skyler."

"You are the End of Forgetting."

---

Back in the real world, Aelira stood over Skyler's body as it began to stir. The glyph on his chest had shifted—now marked with a dream-sigil wrapped in spirals.

Orias stepped back in awe.

"He found him… He found Velmhar."

Skyler gasped—eyes snapping open, filled with stars.

"Seal Five," he whispered, "wants to burn."

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