By IMERPUS RELUR
--
The night deepened around Ashen Kai, but within, a distant warmth flickered—familiar and dangerous.
A voice spoke in his dreams.
> "You rewrote death, Kai. But can you rewrite memory?"
He turned, half-asleep, half-aware, into a meadow made of lightless threads.
Standing beneath a dying moon… was a woman.
She was not made of flesh, nor thought, but pattern.
Her eyes weren't just watching him.
They were reading him.
> "Do you remember the pact, Kai?"
His name burned inside her voice.
He fell to his knees—not from reverence, but recognition.
The Codex within him trembled.
She smiled.
> "One of Nine. Now awakened. My name is LUCIDA. And I am your forgotten mirror."