"I was your brother. Before you forgot."
The words echoed in my head, a chorus of disbelief and confusion. Kael stood at the edge of the crater, half-shrouded by mist rising from the cracked ground, eyes glowing silver in the fading light. My grip tightened around Eclipture.
"That's not possible," I said. "I don't remember you."
Kael stepped forward slowly, hands raised in peace. "You wouldn't. Not yet. The merge is incomplete. But the memories... they'll come back. In pieces. In pain. Just like mine did."
"What are you talking about?"
"You think Azrael was just a man in armor? A godkiller by chance? No. He was part of something larger, older. The Skyborne Twelve. We were made to keep balance. Until one of us broke it. Until you until he,decided to fall."
I shook my head. "I'm not him. I didn't kill anyone. I didn't break anything."
Kael's expression darkened. "Then why do you wear the armor? Why did Eclipture choose you? That blade only answers to Azrael's blood."
I had no answer.
Kael turned. "Come with me. I'm taking you to someone who can explain. A Watcher. One of the few who saw the end and lived."
I didn't trust him. But I had too many questions and no other path.I followed.
We moved through deadlands, fields turned to glass, trees petrified mid-bloom. Above us, the sky cracked wider with every mile. Starlight spilled through, but it wasn't comforting. It was alien. Wrong. Like the heavens were watching and growing restless.
"The Concord thinks you'll awaken fully within the week," Kael said. "If that happens and your memories return all at once, you could collapse a continent just by remembering the wrong moment."
"You say that like it's my fault."
"It is. Or it was. The lines blur with the merge. I've seen what happens to vessels who fight it."
"And what happens if I don't fight it?"
Kael looked back, his face unreadable. "You become the godkiller again. And this time, there may not be anyone left to stop you."
We walked in silence after that.
Hours later, Kael led us into a valley cloaked in fog. Mountains loomed like silent guardians. A waterfall poured upward into the sky using a gravity-warp, the kind only found in places scarred by skyfire.
At its center floated a monolith,ancient, cracked, pulsing with blue veins of energy.
"This is the Temple of Remembering," Kael said. "One of the few places untouched by the war. The Watcher lives within."
"Who is she?"
"She used to guide us. She remembers everything. Even the first skyfall."
As we approached the temple, I felt the armor pulse. Not in warning. In recognition. Like it had been here before.
Inside, the walls were covered in murals, floating cities, winged figures, symbols that stirred something deep in my chest. A woman stood at the altar, her back to us. Her robe shimmered like stardust.
She turned and my breath caught.Her eyes were blind. Clouded. But she looked at me like she saw everything.
"Azrael," she whispered. "You've returned."
"I'm not "
"You are. Not yet. But you will be."
I clenched my fists. "Why did he fall? Why did I,he kill one of the Twelve?"
The Watcher's expression saddened. She raised a hand, and the walls around us shifted, murals glowing to life.
A floating city, burning.
A child, wings torn off, cradled by a man in black armor.
A throne, empty, shattered.
"Azrael fell," she said softly, "because he chose them over us. He saw the cracks in the Accord. Saw the rot. He tried to change it. But the gods don't forgive betrayal."
"So he killed one of his own."
"He killed Thalor, the First Light. The one who ordered the purge of the skyless tribes. The one who believed mortals were a mistake."
Kael looked away.
"He didn't fall to conquer," the Watcher said. "He fell to save."
And suddenly I understood.
Not everything. But enough.
Azrael wasn't a villain.
He was a rebel.
A protector.
And maybe… just maybe… I was too.
The Watcher stepped forward and placed a glowing crystal against my chestplate.
The armor surged. Heat. Light. Memories.
I saw flashes a battlefield of broken stars. A woman crying my name. A boy with a crown of thorns.
"Synchronization at 64%. New protocols unlocked."
I gasped, falling to one knee.
Kael caught me. "You okay?"
I nodded. "More pieces. Still not whole."
The Watcher's voice turned grave. "You must leave now. The Skyborn have tracked you. They will burn this temple to ash."
Kael turned to me. "You have a choice now. Keep running… or finish what Azrael started."
Outside, thunder roared.
The sky was bleeding fire.
And war was coming.