Harith slowly opened his eyes.
The sky above his head was not blue as usual but seemed to be painted with a breathing crimson, each cloud moving like a sheet of living ink on paper.
He sat, clutching the soft earth beneath him.
The grass glistened not with dew, but with tiny, glowing letters, dancing before disappearing into the light.
"This… the world I wrote?" he whispered, almost in disbelief.
He turned.
In the distance, stood a city of crystal towers, stone streets, and a sky that reflected music.
But strangest of all, every time he stepped, the world around him trembled as if it recognized him.
"Welcome back, Master Writer."
The voice came from a girl with hair as white as moonlight, her eyes blue with a hint of inexplicable sadness.
Lyria.
She stood among the white flowers that swirled in the air, as if the entire world bowed to her presence.
But when Harith looked at that face, something pierced his soul...a memory he had never experienced, but felt too true to be considered fake.
"You know me?" Harith asked slowly.
"How is it possible... when I myself don't know who I am here?"
Lyria smiled faintly.
"You wrote this world with your tears, Harith. This world was born from your heart and I... was created from the quietest part of you."
She was stunned. Her name was called not by the real world, but by the creatures in the story that she supposedly created.
Every time Lyria said her name, the world seemed to stop breathing.
The wind stopped, distant sounds faded and a faint voice echoed from the sky
"The name that is written... must not be repeated."
Harith stared at the sky that trembled like paper that was almost torn.
"What does it mean? Who wrote that verse?"
But Lyria didn't answer. Her eyes turned dark and behind her blue pupils, appeared the reflection of Harith's own face, but cracked like a broken mirror.
"If you keep looking for who you are," he said slowly, "this story will start to forget you."
Instantly, the wind blew hard. The writing on the ground began to fly into the air, forming thousands of letters that swirled around them and from afar, the crystal tower began to crack, the letters coming out of its walls like blood.
Harith looked down, seeing his own name written on his hand...HARITH HADAMI but letter by letter began to fade.
And the world, for the first time, cried.
---
"In the world I created, my own name is being erased."