The wind howled like a wounded thing as the boy stood at the edge of the valley. Clouds churned in furious spirals overhead, black against the bruised-purple sky. Lightning arced sideways, stitching cracks into the heavens. The orb in his hand—a vessel of four lights now—throbbed like a living thing.
The others had named this place the Heart.
Ava had only whispered of it once—"Where storms are born, and truths come to die."
The climb was brutal. Rain lashed sideways, and the rocks crumbled beneath his feet like forgotten promises. But he didn't stop. Not now. Not when he was so close to the fourth.
He reached the summit just as the storm opened its eye—a brief, breathless calm at the mountain's peak. And there he was.
The fourth.
Not hidden in shadows, not cloaked in mysticism—just… standing. A boy with salt-white hair, a coat that shimmered like glass in rain, and a gaze that pierced through lifetimes.
"You took your time," the fourth said without smiling.
"I had to find the pieces," the boy replied. "You were the last."
The fourth studied him. "And now that we're all remembered?"
The orb rose between them, glowing like a miniature sun. But it wasn't stable. It cracked down the center, leaking golden light.
"We wrote the Act to forget the truth," the fourth said. "But it didn't erase it. It just buried it."
The storm shifted. The sky above began collapsing inward, folding like pages burning in reverse.
"We didn't seal away a monster," he said. "We sealed you."
The boy staggered. "That's not true."
The fourth stepped closer, voice sharp as the wind. "It is. You were the conduit—the one who bore its voice. We couldn't destroy it, so we did the only thing we could. We made you forget."
"No…"
"You asked us to."
The orb shattered—light and memory exploding outward in a silent scream.
Suddenly, he was falling—not through air, but through time, self, and story.
And as he fell, he remembered it all.
The storm wasn't around him.
It was within him.
Everything's changed. Every truth he thought he knew has fractured. Shall we follow him into the memory that reveals what The Act truly was? Or maybe we explore the origins of the voice he carried unknowingly all along... The descent is just beginning. 🌩️🌀