The Sovereign fell, but it did not crash or crumble.
It disintegrated, like a sigh finally exhaled after eternity.
With its end, the Void began to tremble—not violently, but reluctantly, like a dream that did not want to be forgotten.
The sky above them—if it could be called a sky—fractured. Pale gold bled through the cracks.
Not fire.
Not magic.
But remembrance.
Eryssa dropped to one knee, the Blade of Memory humming low beside her.
"It's done," she said, voice barely audible. "The core has been undone. The Outliers… they'll lose cohesion. Collapse into themselves."
Mira stood slowly, staring into the vastness. "So that's it? We won?"
"No," Kaelen said, scanning the horizon where lesser Outliers still writhed in confusion. "We survived."
Around them, the fragments of the Void fluttered like ash in reverse—rising upward instead of falling, drawn to the rift's ceiling. The dark was thinning. Not because it fled—but because it forgot itself.
Orin staggered toward the space where the Sovereign had stood. In its absence, a hollow remained—not empty, but full of things too ancient to define. A gravity that pulled at memory, pulling him.
He stopped inches from the void-heart.
"It's calling you," Eryssa said.
"I know," Orin whispered.
"The Skybrand was always meant to return the flame to the place of first silence," she continued. "We brought memory into this world. Now… we offer it back, so the rest can live."
Orin looked down at the Skybrand, its flame now soft and warm, like a candle in a long night.
"Will I survive it?" he asked.
Eryssa didn't answer.
Mira stepped up beside him, and without a word, took his hand. Kaelen joined them. So did Eryssa.
"No one forgets alone," she said.
Together, they stepped into the hollow.
Orin raised the Skybrand.
And released the flame.
---
The Void collapsed.
Not in violence—but in peace.
A final sigh.
A closing of ancient eyes.
A world waking from the longest sleep.
---
They awoke beneath a silver sky, the rift gone. The stars above burned brighter than ever.
Orin opened his eyes, breathless.
"I thought I'd be lost," he murmured.
"You were," Mira said gently. "But we brought you back."
Kaelen smiled, wind rustling his hair. "Because we remembered."
Eryssa looked skyward. "And now the world remembers too."
End of Book One: The Ashes of the Forgotten Sky