The morning after Kael finished the map, Mira sat by her father's side. He looked healthier now, his memories slowly settling back into place, but his eyes carried a weight, a fear of losing her again.
"Mira," he said softly, his voice still rough, "you've already done so much for me. You brought me back from the shadows. Why do you need to keep going? Why risk yourself again?"
Mira clasped his hand, her thumb brushing over the deep lines in his palm. "Because it isn't finished yet, Father. You're safe now, but the flower that poisoned you is still out there. What if someone else suffers like you did? What if… it's worse next time?"
He looked away, his grip tightening. "But if I lose you… there won't be anything left of me to save."
Her heart ached at his words. She leaned closer, resting her forehead against his. "You won't lose me. Kael's with me. And I promis, I'll come back. I'm not leaving forever. Just… let me do this one last thing. For you. For everyone."
Silence stretched between them. His breathing was heavy, uneven. Finally, his hand trembled as it rose to her cheek.
"You sound just like your mother when she was young," he whispered, tears glistening in his eyes. "Always stubborn. Always chasing what was right, no matter the cost."
Mira smiled, though her eyes burned. "Then trust me, the way you trusted her."
A long pause. Then, with a broken sigh, he nodded. "Go. But promise me you'll return. Swear it, Mira."
"I swear," she said, her voice steady.
When she stood, Kael was waiting at the door, the folded map in his hand. Mira gave her father one last look, a silent promise in her eyes, before joining Kael.
Behind them, her father sat alone, whispering a prayer he hadn't spoken in years.
"Bring her back to me."
Mira and keal sat on a bench near the library, the folded map tucked under Kael's cloak.
Mira carried something new in her satchel: a sketch they had carefully copied the night before, with help from the dragon librarian who wore his crooked glasses low on his nose.
"That's the thing," Mira whispered as they walked along the forest path. "The one used to steal memories. If it stays out there, someone worse than before might find it."
Kael nodded, his face more serious than she'd ever seen it. "We catch it, we break it. Simple plan. Complicated execution."
They had heard from the dragon that the pendant was not still. It was bound to a spirit, shifting from place to place, hiding in shadows, latching onto the weak and lonely. The dragon's eyes had flickered with unease when he warned them: It will not want to be destroyed.
As they pushed deeper into the forest, the air grew colder. Birds fell silent. Even the leaves seemed to hold their breath.
Kael unfolded the drawing once more, comparing the etched lines to the faint marks carved into nearby trees. "It's close," he murmured.
Mira shivered. She felt it too, a strange tug at the edges of her mind, as if something whispered her name from behind every tree. The pendant was near.
Suddenly, a flicker of light darted between the roots of an oak, slipping like a shadow across the ground. Mira gasped. "There!"
They chased it, their boots pounding the earth, ducking beneath branches, until the flicker shaped itself into a dark, shifting form , not quite beast, not quite shadow. And around its throat, hanging heavy, was the pendant from the drawing.
It hissed when it saw them, its voice a tangle of thoughts, not words: Mine. Memories are mine.
Kael drew his dagger, Mira tightened her fists.
"Looks like it doesn't want to be caught," Kael muttered.
"Then we'll just have to make it," Mira answered, fire burning in her eyes.
The creature loomed before them, its body half-shadow, half-smoke, shifting endlessly like it could never decide what it truly was. The pendant around its throat pulsed with a sickly light, and Mira could feel it tugging at her thoughts, trying to peel them away like pages from a book.
Kael gritted his teeth, stepping in front of her. "It wants to feed. If we fight it, it'll just keep pulling more out of us."
Mira thought quickly, her father's blank eyes flashing in her mind. A life without memories… it's nothing. Just an empty shell.
She steadied her breath. "What if we don't fight it?"
Kael glanced at her sharply. "Don't fight it? Mira, it'll drain us."
"No," she said firmly, "what if we give it something? Memories. Not stolen, but offered. So it can feel what it means to live, to love, to remember."
The creature hissed, twitching like it half understood.
Kael's eyes narrowed. He didn't like the idea — but he trusted her. "If this goes wrong, Mira…"
She smiled faintly. "Then you'll just have to pull me back."
Together they closed their eyes, opening their minds willingly. Mira let herself remembers running in the woods chasing a rabbit, her father laughing as he lifted her into the air, her mother's soft songs in the kitchen.
Kael did the same — the first sword his father gave him, the day he broke a teeth and he's mom gave him a gift while he was asleep.
They remembered one memorie together—
The day they first meet when Mira didn't trust him really the day he promised her about saving her father. He did —now he wants to save everyone from getting their memories ereased.
The creature froze. Its smoky form flickered, the pendant around its neck glowing brighter — not with hunger, but with warmth. It was feeling.
Mira whispered, "Do you see now? Memories aren't weapons. They're treasures. They're what make us who we are."
For the first time, the creature's shape steadied, and it lifted a trembling hand to its own chest. A sound escaped it, not a hiss, but something almost like a sob.
Slowly, it clawed the pendant from its throat. The stone cracked, light spilling out like water. Then, with a cry, it hurled the pieces into the lake.
The shadow dissolved into nothing. Only silence remained.
Mira sagged with exhaustion, Kael catching her before she fell.
"It's gone," he whispered.
She nodded weakly, a smile breaking across her face. "No one else will ever forget because of it."