The tunnel echoed with stillness.
Kade couldn't move. His knife trembled slightly in his grip, not from fear, but from the strange familiarity clawing at the edges of his mind.
The girl stepped into the light—bare feet ghosting over the frost-laced ground, silver eyes glowing like trapped moonlight. Her breath fogged the air, but the cold didn't touch her.
Lira's grip on her satchel tightened. "Kade. That's not just any Veilborn. That's a Frostbinder."
Kade kept his eyes on the girl. "What's that mean?"
"It means…" she whispered, "she remembers you."
The girl gave a slight bow, the movement smooth, regal. "You don't remember me, do you?" Her voice was soft, but each word struck like a chime made of ice.
"No," Kade said flatly. "Should I?"
She looked up, and in her eyes, a thousand winters passed.
"My name is Aurelle Virell. I'm your sister."
Silence fell like snowfall.
Kade's blood went cold.
"My sister is dead," he said, voice barely above a whisper. "She died in the fire."
"No, Kade." Aurelle stepped closer. "You died in the fire. I survived."
He staggered back. "That's impossible. I saw—"
"You saw what they wanted you to see," she snapped, emotion flaring beneath her frost.
Lira stepped between them. "Back off. If you're trying to manipulate him—"
Aurelle raised her hand.
Ice exploded from the ground, freezing Lira mid-step, trapping her in a dome of shimmering frost.
"She's not part of this," Aurelle said coldly. "This is between us."
Kade raised his blade, obsidian now pulsing with the new glyphs. "You think I won't fight you just because you say you're my sister?"
"I know you'll fight me," she replied, stepping onto a platform of rising ice. "Because you always hated being powerless."
"You think I'm still weak?" he growled.
"I think," she said, forming a blade of translucent frost from thin air, "that you've forgotten who you are—and I came to remind you."
She charged.
Kade met her mid-air.
Steel and frost clashed in a whirlwind of sparks and shattered ice. Each blow rang with buried memories—flashes of a girl laughing, holding his hand, crying his name as flames swallowed their home.
He remembered—
A promise made under a falling star.
"I'll protect you, Kade. No matter what."
The fight pushed them to the edge of a broken bridge, overlooking a pit of swirling mist that whispered in broken voices.
Aurelle drove him back with a flurry of graceful strikes. "You joined the Veilguard to find answers. But you forgot the cost."
"What do you mean?"
She flicked her wrist, and chains of ice wrapped around his limbs. "They took your memories, Kade. In exchange for power."
He froze.
The Veilguard… offered him a choice when he first awakened from the fire. He'd chosen vengeance over truth.
"They told you we died," she continued. "That your name was cursed. But they needed you—your potential. So they made you forget."
Kade's strength flared.
The chains shattered.
He struck forward, blade aimed for her chest—but she caught it between her palms, frost biting at his skin.
"You're stronger than before," she whispered. "Good. You'll need that strength."
She let go.
Lowered her weapon.
And knelt.
Kade blinked. "What are you doing?"
"I swore an Oath," she said. "If you ever returned… I would stand beside you. As your sword."
Behind her, the frost cracked—and a glowing sigil bloomed in the air.
Lira broke free of the dome, coughing, confused.
Aurelle rose, the ice melting around her.
"I'm not your enemy, Kade. I came to warn you."
"Warn me of what?"
She turned, voice hollow. "The Archon doesn't want to kill you. He wants to merge with you."
Kade's heart dropped. "Merge?"
"The shards inside you… you're the only viable host. The others failed. He's been shaping you from the shadows. Every fight, every mission—he's been feeding the Veil through you."
Kade stepped back, feeling the weight of the truth.
"The whole time… I thought I was fighting him. But I've been strengthening him."
Lira glanced between them. "We need to move. Fast. If what she's saying is true, the longer you hold those shards—"
"—the more he becomes me," Kade finished.
Aurelle nodded. "There's one way to stop it."
"I'm listening."
"You must gather the Seven Forgotten Shards—each locked in cursed relics across the shattered world. Then, at the Heart of the Veil, you can rewrite your fate… or end it."
Kade sheathed his blade.
"Then let's find them."
---
Elsewhere…
The Archon sat in a throne of bone, watching through a pool of inked flame.
"He remembers more than I planned."
A hooded figure knelt beside him.
"Shall I intervene?"
"No," the Archon whispered, fingers tracing a line of blood on his palm. "Let him chase the truth. Let him gather the shards. It's the only way… to forge the perfect vessel."
He smiled.
"Let him struggle. And when he arrives at the end…"
His eyes burned violet.
"…I will be reborn."
---
End of Chapter 15