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A strange silence enveloped the gray forest that Adam and Zira entered, as if
the trees themselves were breathing silence, afraid to whisper and awaken
something that had been sleeping for centuries. Their steps were quiet,
measured, and the only sound was the rustling of memory leaves falling from the
bare branches.
Zira said, looking at her glowing pendant:
"The closer we get, the brighter the pendant glows... The entity we are
searching for here is not only from Nimora... it is connected to you, Adam."
Adam suddenly stopped, his eyes widening with hesitation:
"Do you mean... it knew me before I was born?"
She answered calmly:
"I think it knows who you are... more than you know yourself."
Moments of silence passed before a nearby shadow split open to reveal a stone
gate covered with carvings resembling tears. But these were not ordinary tears;
they were cracks carved into the stone emitting faint blue lights.
Labobo whispered as he suddenly appeared on Adam's shoulder:
"This... this is the gate of the Palace of Shattered Memory... everyone who
entered saw the truth, but it did not save them from madness."
The three entered cautiously. The inside was unlike anything Adam had seen
before: long corridors, their walls changing every second, as if pulsating with
stolen memories. On every side, cracked mirrors reflected distorted images.
Adam stood before one. It showed his grandmother's image, but not as he knew
her. She was young, wearing a soldier's uniform, holding a sword of black light.
Zira said with a trembling voice:
"Is this... your grandmother? Was she a warrior in the lost army of light?"
Adam shook his head, unbelieving:
"That's impossible... she was just an old woman who cooked me soup every day..."
A chilling voice came from the depths of the palace:
"Grandmothers who cook soup are the deadliest warriors, because they know the
secret of forgetting..."
Shadows appeared again, but this time they were not ordinary shadows. They were
beings wearing faces of those Adam knew: his mother, old friends, even himself
at different ages.
One shadow, bearing Adam's face at age 10, said:
"You abandoned us, Adam... you let your memories wither to continue your
journey."
Adam reached out to touch it, but Zira pulled him back quickly:
"Don't touch them... they are reflections of your abandoned decisions. Just
touching them means you will live regret a thousand times."
Adam breathed deeply. He felt that this palace did not want him just to
remember, but to suffer.
Amid this turmoil, a certain vision repeated in all the mirrors: the face of a
beautiful woman, her hair silver like the moon, and her eyes the color of frozen
blood. She looked at him directly, smiling mockingly.
Labobo whispered in astonishment:
"Who is this? She is not from Nimora... nor from Earth..."
Suddenly, the mirrors began to shatter, one after another, the sound of breaking
glass resembling the wails of the dead.
Zira said:
"We have begun to awaken the buried truth... prepare yourself."
From the rubble emerged a tall entity, covered in a cloak of torn memory
threads. Its eyes were endless black pits. When it spoke, its voice echoed from
afar:
"Welcome, Adam... grandson of nothing."
Adam's blood froze in his veins.
"What do you mean?"
The entity answered:
"Your grandmother was not your grandmother... you are not of her lineage... you
are the product of a wrong decision."
His heart trembled, and Zira placed her hand firmly on his shoulder:
"Don't believe him... ancient beings are masters of sowing doubt."
But the voice continued:
"Your grandmother was the guardian of the keys of forgetting. She broke one to
protect you... You are the key, not the grandson."
At the moment light burst from Adam's chest, the same threads covering the
entity appeared, but they were coming out of him, dancing in the air as if
searching for something.
Zira was silently crying, then whispered:
"Adam... the countdown has begun. The choice is not between knowing who you are
or not, but between choosing who you will be."
He looked at her, eyes full of confusion, then at the entity. The world around
him began to fade, as if everything was unreal.
But in the midst of the collapse, Adam held Zira's hand and said:
"If I am the product of a decision... then let me be my own decision."
And he stood up to face the entity...
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Motivational phrase at the end of the part:
"You may be a chapter in a story you did not choose... but you always hold the
pen to write its ending."