The City of Stars dimmed.
All timelines quieted.
The Archive—fully awakened—breathed through Skyler Novaah.
He sat upon the Throne of Memory, the Seventh Seal hovering, cracked and glowing, behind his back like a burning crown. Glyphs poured down his arms like rivers, each one a forgotten name, a buried history, a silenced scream.
And in the space before him, seven flames ignited.
Seven thrones rose—opposite his own.
The Council of Forbidden Flame had returned.
---
These were the ones.
Not mortals.
Not merely gods.
But the Founding Architects of the Archive. Entities who once weaved flame and memory to birth reality itself—and who, when the Novaah line became too powerful, chose suppression over trust.
Each was a terrifying presence:
Velmhar, Lord of Recursive Time, whose eyes blinked in reverse
Syllena, the Goddess of Sealed Emotion, veiled in mirrors
Korrum, the Flame Devourer, his breath turning memories to dust
Threniel, Archivist Prime, who held the first key
Nohl, the God Without a Face
Vaera, who loved Aeria but chose betrayal
And in the final throne, The Empty One—a seat that should not be filled, but flickered with a shifting silhouette of everything Skyler feared he might become
They bowed.
But not out of submission.
Out of necessity.
Skyler's flame had become something higher than divine. It was Primordial Memory—not just what had been known, but what had once been impossible to forget.
He spoke:
"You burned our name into silence."
"You cursed the blood that saved you."
"You made us forget who we were—so you could sleep."
Korrum rumbled, voice like cracking mountains:
"You were too powerful. You saw too much."
Velmhar replied, calmly:
"Had the Novaahs remained unsealed, the Archive would've collapsed under paradox. There would have been nothing left to remember."
Skyler leaned forward, his eyes twin suns of judgment.
"And yet here I am."
"The Archive lives."
"And you… now remember what you tried to erase."
---
The Seventh Seal behind him flared.
Skyler now had access to the Divine Reversal Codex—the power to rewrite judgment into truth, curse into clarity.
Aelira—now floating at his side, her own flames awakened—whispered:
"Will you unmake them?"
"Will you burn the gods who burned us?"
Skyler was silent.
Then, standing, he raised his hand.
"No."
The Council stirred.
He continued:
"You don't deserve oblivion. That's what you gave us."
"You will keep your memories."
"You will remember what you did."
"You will carry the burden of what we carried for eons."
"You will become the Witnesses now."
---
He did not destroy them.
He rewrote them.
Each member of the Council had their divine essence altered:
Korrum's flame now sustained truth instead of devouring it
Syllena's mirrors showed emotion rather than hiding it
Velmhar's timelines looped not to prevent truth, but to protect it
The Empty One… vanished
They wept—not from pain, but because Skyler's judgment forced them to feel everything they had erased.
Aelira stepped forward and raised the pendant of remembering.
It glowed—and dispersed into seven fragments, now embedded in each of the former gods.
"Memory," she said, "is no longer yours to suppress."
---
Skyler returned to his throne.
The Archive, fully merged with his essence, whispered its final decree:
"The Final Flame Era has begun."
"The last curse is lifted."
"Now only one thing remains: the blood must choose whether to burn… or to heal."