The fire crackled weakly in the Painted Ones' outpost—an ancient watchtower overgrown with thorn-laced ivy and preserved murals. Outside, the snow continued to fall, coating the world in silence.
Inside, Aren knelt before an old woman, her face pale and eyes glazed with pain. She was dying.
"She has the blood fever," Leiran said, his voice tight. "A memory infection. Some spirits call it soul rot. One of her paintings backfired—anchored her to a moment she couldn't escape."
The old woman thrashed in place, whispering to ghosts Aren couldn't see.
"She's reliving a massacre over and over," Kaeliah murmured, knuckles white on her blade. "We should end her suffering."
Aren didn't move.
"No," he said. "Let me try something."
[Skill: Memory Graft – Active]
Target: [Painter Oracle - Elder Veema]Condition: Anchored trauma loop
Action: Insert Stabilizing Construct – Temporary Memory ThreadRisk: Mind backlash / Corrupted anchoring
Proceed? Y/N
Y
The world shifted.
Aren's vision plunged into ink and screams.
He stood within the woman's mind—not metaphorically, but truly. Her soulspace formed a battlefield of broken canvases and burning trees. She curled beneath a collapsing mural of a Spiritbound knight impaling her husband.
Aren walked toward her, holding the Veritas Edge, its whispering flame flickering across the soulscape.
"You don't have to stay here," he said.
She didn't look up.
"I deserve it," she whispered. "I painted their deaths wrong. I let my children believe the temple spared us."
The shadows shrieked louder. Paint twisted into chains.
Aren's voice cut through it: "Then remember something worth surviving for."
He plunged the edge into the chains—and his shadow exploded outward.
[Memory Graft Successful]
Trauma stabilized. False anchor overwritten.
New Thread: Peace by the Hearthfire – A memory fragment of her sons before the purge.
Mental State: Calm / Restored (Temporary)
Back in the waking world, Elder Veema exhaled… and for the first time in years, smiled.
Leiran stared at Aren, awestruck. "You didn't just suppress it. You rewrote it. You rewove the truth."
Aren stood slowly. His nose bled. His knees trembled.
Kaeliah caught him again. "You risked your soul for her."
"I didn't do it for her," Aren said. "I did it because the Spiritbound don't just kill people—they shatter who they were."
He wiped his blade and looked outside.
"It's time I start unbreaking what they broke."
Far away, in a high tower built from spiritglass and bound oaths, a candle flickered violently.
A woman in white robes looked up from a pool of silver water.
[Sovereign Presence Detected]
Domain: Vale of Stillwater
Interaction: Unauthorized Graft
Target: Veema of the Painted Ones
She narrowed her eyes.
"So," she whispered, "the Hollow King breathes."
[Sovereign Alert: You Are Now Watched]Faction Triggered: The MindkeepersStatus: Hostile / Investigating
Note: The Mindkeepers maintain the memory code of the entire Spiritbound World. You have committed an act of high treason.
Later that night, Kaeliah sat beside Aren on the ruined ramparts.
"You realize what you've started?" she asked.
"I do."
"They'll come for you now. No more hiding."
Aren's gaze never wavered from the stars.
"Good," he said. "I'm done hiding."
Kaeliah didn't smile. But she leaned her shoulder against his, silent and sure.
In the distance, snow fell harder.
The Painted Ones began preparing their sanctuary for siege.
And Aren Vahl—spiritless, sovereign, and now remembered—opened his soul to the cold wind, and whispered:
"Let memory burn."