The aftermath of the Echo Knight's fall left the tower in silence—not the fearful kind, but the breath before a storm.
Aren stood at the edge of the broken battleground, feeling not victory, but fragmentation. The power he'd unleashed during the battle had taken something from him. Not his health, not his strength—his sense of self.
He couldn't remember his favorite color.
A minor thing. Trivial, even. But it gnawed at him.
[Warning: Sovereign Identity Stability: 89%]
Recent actions: Echo Banish – High-Level Memory Deconstruction
Side Effect: Minor personal anchor distortion detected.
Recommendation: Reestablish key memory threads within 72 hours.
He pressed a hand to his temple. "Of course."
Kaeliah noticed, her amber eyes narrowing as she approached. "It's happening, isn't it?"
"Yeah," he said hoarsely. "I'm forgetting myself. Little by little."
"You have to be careful with this power, Aren," she said. "You're not just burning your enemies. You're burning yourself to do it."
"I know." He exhaled, looking toward the sunrise. "But if I don't burn, they'll bury everything."
They gathered in the sanctum that afternoon—Aren, Kaeliah, Leiran, Elder Veema, and the Painted Ones' other leaders. Spirits flickered like candlelight in the high corners, watching with soft sorrow.
A courier spirit arrived mid-meeting, a pale wisp bound in bronze chain.
It unraveled its message before them all.
[World Edict – Issued by the Spiritbound Council of Ivory Oracles]
Title: Edict of Mental Sovereignty
Clause I: Any unauthorized memory manipulation is considered an act of spiritual defilement.Clause II: Any entity proven to possess memory alteration abilities must surrender themselves for mind-cleansing.Clause III: All known practitioners of "Sovereign Grafting" are declared heretics.
Signature: Grand Oracle Selyra the Serene
Enforcement begins at moonrise.
The air turned cold.
Kaeliah stood so suddenly her chair toppled. "They're declaring war on memory itself."
Veema's voice was quiet. "No. Not war. An erasure. They will rewrite us as criminals."
Leiran's paintbrush shattered in his hand. "How dare they claim mental sovereignty—when they're the ones who control every school, archive, and spiritual record!"
Aren didn't move. He reread the edict, once. Twice. And again.
"It's already begun," he said. "This isn't just a reaction to what I did. It was planned."
He tapped the edge of the parchment.
"They're not scared of me. They're scared of what I could inspire."
Outside, messengers began to arrive. Not just from other rebel groups—but from forgotten tribes, erased bloodlines, and even a few rogue archivists who once worked for the Spiritbound Council.
Each had stories of altered histories, stolen memories, family names scrubbed from records.
Kaeliah turned to Aren that evening as they looked over the maps.
"You started something bigger than revenge."
"I didn't want this," he said.
"But you were the only one who could," she replied.
[New Domain Quest: Sovereign Spark]
Objective: Establish a recognized sanctuary for memory freedom
Optional Objectives:– Recruit three Memoryborne or equivalent awakened rebels– Resist the first cleansing wave of the Mindkeepers– Develop a Sovereign Codex to preserve true threads
Reward: Unknown
Warning: High resistance expected. Mental backlash imminent.
That night, Aren walked alone to the place where the Echo Knight had fallen. The mural was now finished—his past self falling, his current form standing.
But something in him felt off-balance.
His memories stuttered at the edges.
He closed his eyes and attempted a stabilization graft—using the only memory that felt fully intact: his mother's voice.
[Personal Thread Re-anchor: "The Night of the Lantern Song"]
Memory: Age 9 – Sitting beside a window, learning an old story from Mother Vahl
Status: Restored
Anchor Strength: 17%
Imprint: "Even if the lantern goes out, remember how it made you feel."
Emotional Boost: +2% identity cohesion
The warmth of her voice returned for only a moment.
But it was enough to remind him why he was doing this.
He wasn't fighting for glory, power, or even rebellion.
He was fighting to remember.
To give others the right to do the same.
Three nights later, Aren stood before the gathered rebels beneath the fractured moon.
Kaeliah at his right, Leiran at his left, and behind him—dozens of memory-marked warriors, scribes, weavers, and spirit-seers who had lost someone to Spiritbound erasure.
Aren raised his voice.
"I am Aren Vahl. I was once nothing. A boy without a spirit. Forgotten."
He held up the echo mask of his fallen self.
"But now I remember what they tried to erase. I remember who we were before their lies."
He tossed the mask into the fire.
"We will build a place where memory is not a weapon—but a right."
Cheers erupted around him.
But deep in the Spiritbound capital, beneath the Ivory Archive, a woman in pure white set her hand against a wall of living parchment.
The name "Aren Vahl" glowed—then flickered.
[Override Protocol Initialized: Sovereign Identity Blackout]
Begin: Project Hollowing.