---
The return to camp was wordless.
Each of them felt it—the weight of something ancient pressing behind their eyes. Even the forest, though no longer corrupted, seemed to watch them with wary silence.
Kael sat by the low-burning fire, turning the Shard of Origin in his hand. Its glow had dimmed since the battle, but faint echoes still pulsed beneath its surface like trapped memories. Every time his fingers brushed the crystalline edge, that presence stirred. Watching. Waiting.
> [Item: Shard of Origin – (1/7)]
Description Updated: "Piece of a sealed design. The game was never just about power—it was about purpose."
New Option Unlocked: 'Memory Echo – Whispers from Before'
"You going to use it?" Lyria asked, her voice soft. She hadn't sat since they returned—just paced the edge of camp, as if waiting for something to follow them back.
Kael looked up. "If it's a trap, it already has its teeth in us."
He activated the echo.
---
[Memory Echo: "Whispers from Before" Initiated]
Caution: This is a high-impact psychic projection. External awareness will be suspended.
> Proceed?
> Yes.
---
> Syncing Consciousness...
> Projection Stabilized.
The world blurred.
Kael stood now atop a silver platform suspended in a sky of void and stars. Gravity didn't matter here. Time was something distant and crumbling.
Across from him stood a figure in white robes stitched with constellations. Its face was a perfect mirror, and in it—Kael saw himself.
"You are late."
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, layered with echoes of countless others.
Kael stepped forward. "Who are you?"
The mirrored figure tilted its head.
"You are. Or rather, what you might have been."
"The Shards are not just pieces of power. They are fragments of a design—one that you were meant to finish. Before it was... interrupted."
The stars above flickered, one by one.
Kael narrowed his eyes. "What interrupted it?"
The figure's reflection flickered. Then cracked.
"They called it The Architect's Game. A contest of fates. The world as board. You were a player. Then you disappeared."
A pause. Something deep behind the mirror shifted—like a trapped scream.
"But now... you're back in play. And you're not the only one."
The echo ended with a shattering pulse of soundless force.
---
[Memory Echo Complete]
World Memory Fragment Gained: "First Move"
New Lore Entry Unlocked: The Architect's Game
---
Kael gasped as the vision collapsed. He clutched his head, breath ragged. He'd been standing, but now his knees were in the dirt, hands digging into the earth as if to anchor himself.
Thorne was beside him instantly. "What the hell happened?"
Kael's voice was hoarse. "We're in a game… and we were players before. Someone hit reset."
Lyria knelt beside them. "And the Keeper said we weren't ready. That means someone else is."
Kael's fingers tightened around the shard.
> [Quest Updated: The Architect's Game – First Move Complete]
New Sub-Quest: Identify the Other Players (0/?)
---
Meanwhile – A Stormbound Tower Far Away
Dark clouds swirled around a spire that clawed at the sky like a black needle.
Within, another shard pulsed with power—and a woman in crimson stood before it, her smile as sharp as a blade.
She tilted her head, sensing the change in the weave.
"So... he remembers."
Her eyes burned.
"Finally."
---
End of Chapter 12