Kai and Maya tumbled through the dimensional tunnel and landed hard on a surface that felt like smooth ice. When Kai opened his eyes, he gasped. They were standing in a world made entirely of glass.
Everything around them was transparent and crystalline. Glass trees rose like frozen lightning, their branches catching and reflecting light in patterns that hurt to look at directly. Glass flowers bloomed in impossible colors, and the ground beneath their feet was polished smooth as a mirror.
"Where are we?" Maya asked, her voice echoing strangely in the crystal air.
"The Dimension of Glass," Kai said, the knowledge flowing from the First Memory. "This is where memories go when they're completely forgotten. They crystallize here and become part of the structure."
Maya looked around in wonder and fear. "It's beautiful, but it feels... empty."
She was right. Despite all the crystal beauty, there was no life here. No birds, no insects, no people. Just the endless reflection of light through glass and the soft musical sound of crystal touching crystal in the wind.
Kai felt his memory crystals pulse. The Fourth Crystal was here somewhere, calling to him. But there was something else too. A presence that felt familiar but wrong.
"We're not alone," he said quietly.
A figure stepped out from behind a glass tree. At first, Kai thought it was the Memory Keeper from the archive. But as the figure came closer, he saw the differences. This woman looked younger, and her eyes held a sadness that seemed to go on forever.
"Welcome to my prison," she said with a voice like breaking crystal. "I am Echo, and I have been waiting here for a very long time."
"Waiting for what?" Maya asked.
Echo smiled sadly. "For someone who could hear the forgotten memories. And for someone who might be able to set them free." She looked directly at Kai. "Your crystals sing to the memories trapped here. They remember being part of someone's life."
Kai walked closer to one of the glass trees. As he touched it, images flowed through his mind. He saw a little girl's birthday party, but the memory was faded and incomplete. The faces were blurred, and the sounds were distant.
"These are memories people lost completely," he realized. "Not just forgotten, but erased from their minds entirely."
"Yes," Echo said. "And when the reset comes, all of these will be destroyed too. Billions of lost memories, gone forever."
Maya touched a glass flower, and tears began to fall down her face. "I can feel them," she whispered. "They're so sad. They want to go home, but they don't remember where home is."
Kai felt the Fourth Crystal's call growing stronger. It was somewhere deeper in this glass forest, but the path was dangerous. The memory crystals here were unstable, and touching the wrong one could trap a person's mind forever.
"Echo," he said, "how long have you been here?"
"Time doesn't work the same way in this dimension," she replied. "But I think it's been three cycles. Three times the multiverse has reset, and three times I've watched these memories disappear, only to be replaced by new ones."
"You've survived three resets?" Maya asked in amazement.
"Survived is not the right word," Echo said. "I exist here. But I'm not really alive anymore. I'm more like a guardian of lost things. The Fourth Crystal chose me to protect it, but the price was my freedom."
Kai's crystals began to glow brighter. "The Fourth Crystal is here?"
"At the heart of the forest," Echo nodded. "But reaching it means walking through the Garden of Lost Selves. Every memory crystal you pass will try to make you forget who you are. Many who attempt the journey never find their way back to their own identity."
"I have to try," Kai said. "The reset is coming, and without all seven crystals, there's no way to survive it."
Echo studied him for a long moment. "The Memory Keeper sent you, didn't she? She told you about the cycles, about the pattern that needs to be broken."
"Yes."
"Then you understand what you're risking. If you lose yourself in the Garden of Lost Selves, you'll become another guardian like me. Trapped forever, protecting something that might never be used."
Maya grabbed Kai's arm. "Maybe there's another way. Maybe we don't need all seven crystals."
"No," Kai said firmly. "The First Memory showed me the truth. Seven crystals are needed to create a stable pocket of reality that can survive the reset. Six isn't enough. One missing crystal, and everything we're trying to save will be erased."
Echo began walking deeper into the glass forest. "Then follow me. But stay close, and whatever you do, don't look directly at the memory crystals embedded in the trees. They'll try to replace your memories with the forgotten ones they contain."
As they walked, Kai noticed that the glass trees were getting larger and more complex. Some of them pulsed with inner light, and he could hear faint whispers coming from within them. The whispers spoke of birthday parties and first loves, of childhood pets and favorite songs. All the small, precious memories that people had lost completely.
"How much further?" Maya asked.
"We're almost there," Echo replied. "But the hardest part is still ahead. The Garden of Lost Selves doesn't just contain forgotten memories. It contains forgotten people."
Ahead of them, the forest opened into a clearing filled with glass statues. But as they got closer, Kai realized they weren't statues at all. They were people, turned to crystal, their faces frozen in expressions of confusion and loss.
And in the center of the clearing, glowing with pure white light, was the Fourth Memory Crystal.