Rain hammered the streets of Lumnis, turning the cobblestones into slick mirrors of neon. Elysia pulled her hood tighter and darted through the crowded black-market alleys, every sense alert. She was a thief of memories, and tonight, she wasn't here for scraps—she was hunting something rare.
A dusty stall at the end of a narrow lane caught her eye. Its glass case was cracked, cobwebbed, but inside glowed a faint blue light. Her heart skipped. She reached out, fingers trembling as they brushed against the fragment sealed with a crimson mark. It pulsed softly, almost as if it were alive.
"What is this doing here…?" she whispered.
The moment her fingers closed around it, the fragment erupted in blinding light. Elysia stumbled backward, stumbling into a puddle, her vision swimming. When the light faded, she wasn't entirely sure she was still in the city.
Before her stood a boy. Silver eyes, tousled dark hair, and an aura that felt both familiar and alien. The world around him shimmered like broken glass, fragments of memories floating in the air, swirling with a weight she couldn't comprehend.
"You weren't supposed to touch that," he said, voice low but piercing, echoing like it came from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Elysia blinked, trying to steady her racing heart. "Who… who are you?"
The boy didn't answer. Instead, the fragments around him twisted, forming visions she couldn't escape: a laughing girl she didn't recognize, a corridor drenched in shadow, a whisper of a promise made long ago. Her head throbbed. The memory felt hers, but she couldn't place it.
Suddenly, she was back in the alley, drenched and trembling. The fragment pulsed faintly in her hand, the red seal flickering like it had a heartbeat.
A chill ran down her spine. She sensed eyes on her. Slowly, she turned—and caught a hooded figure perched on the edge of a rooftop. A smile curved over his face, sinister and patient.
"Finally… you found it," the figure whispered to the rain, voice carried away by the storm.
Elysia swallowed hard. Her life had been about surviving, stealing scraps of memory to trade for coins, but now she realized: she had stumbled into something much larger. Something that would not let her go.
Every memory has a price. And hers? It had just begun.