Chapter Three: The Memory Trial
Seon stepped between the two towering rocks, the faint blue light emanating from the walls as if the stones held frozen, pulsing hearts. In the vast, natural cavern, dozens of Lost Pilgrims stood, all gaunt as ghosts who had chosen to remain.
Elara, the woman with unevenly cropped, ashen hair, stepped forward. "Eiron only proposed. Accepting his proposal… was your choice."
She circled him. "You carry a false pendant. Good. But we care more about what you can afford to lose than what you hide."
From her pocket, she pulled an opaque piece of ice. "This is our first trial. Place it on your tongue."
"Why?"
"It holds the memory of the first Lost Pilgrim. You will feel what he felt. Then you decide if you want to feel it forever."
Seon took the piece of ice. Its cold was different—the chill of accepted despair.
When the ice touched his tongue, he was transported.
---
He saw a younger Eiron, his face full of hope, and his ten-year-old son, Caryn. Three men in black masks (Dusk Stalkers with simpler masks) stood before them.
"The boy saw what he shouldn't have," one said in a metallic voice.
"He was just playing!" Eiron protested.
"Playing on the Road is a luxury." The masked man took a step. "Two choices: we take him… or we erase his memory."
Eiron looked at his son, tears freezing on the rims of his eyelids. "Take me instead."
The masked man laughed. "You're too old. Your memory is too rooted."
Caryn suddenly stepped forward. "I'll go with you."
"Caryn, no!"
But the boy looked at his father with a gaze ten times older than his years. "If they are going to take my memory… I'd rather keep a part of it."
They took him. And Eiron fell to his knees in the empty hall, his hot tears carving grooves in the ice.
---
Seon returned to himself. The piece of ice had melted, but its taste remained: salt, tears, regret.
"Now you know the price," said Elara.
"Caryn… what happened to him?"
"He became Frozen. Not because he wanted to, but because he chose to. And that is the worst kind of transformation."
She pointed to the cavern wall where dozens of ice pieces glimmered. "Every piece here is a pilgrim's memory. Our library. Our history. We add our memories to remember why we go on."
An older man, his face carved like ancient stone, approached. "I am Farell. And now, I will show you something about the Road itself."
He led Seon to a descending tunnel. "Here. Where the Road sleeps."
They descended. The air grew heavier, colder. Then they reached a circular chamber.
In its center: a heart.
Not a human heart. Something larger, of black ice, beating slowly. Thump… thump… thump… Each pulse sent a ripple through the walls.
"This is the Road. Or a part of it," Farell whispered.
"It's alive?"
"It was alive. Now it sleeps. It dreams. And its dream is the cold we live in."
The heart beat again. And this time, Seon felt something: a profound loneliness. The loneliness of a being who had slept for millennia and forgotten it was asleep.
"The Frozen want to wake it," Farell continued. "They believe awakening means eternal peace."
"And the Coldwardens?"
"They want it to remain asleep. Because awakening means change."
"And you?"
Farell looked at him, his sorrow ancient. "We want to understand. We want to forgive it, if it needs forgiveness."
The ice heart beat once more. And Seon felt something new: hunger. A hunger for memory. The hunger of a being that wants to remember who it is.
"The true pendant…" Seon began.
"Yes," Farell cut him off. "We believe it is a piece of its memory. A piece that was lost when it fell asleep."
---
They returned to the main cavern. Elara was waiting. "Now you know our secrets. And you must decide: to stay, or to leave."
"And if I leave?"
"I will erase your memory of this place. You will never find us again."
"And if I stay?"
"You will add your own piece of ice to the wall. A memory from your past. Something you will lose forever."
She paused, then: "And you will have a task: Go to the Crossroads of Memories. Take the true pendant. Stand in the center… and wait for the question."
"A question from whom?"
"The Road will ask you. And if you answer wrong… you will freeze. You will become a part of the Road itself."
A long silence. Only the distant heartbeat echoed.
"Why do you think I will do this?"
Elara smiled a sad smile. "Because the Road called to you. And the pendant called to the Road. And you are in between."