By the time they reached the southern cliffs of Mirrorvale, the sky had turned violet.
The shape Mira had seen earlier wasn’t gone — just higher, distant, like it was waiting for something. Watching.
The descent began at the edge of the forest, where trees grew close and strange. Unlike the wildflowers and soft breeze of the reborn city, this place was untouched. Silent. No birds. No wind.
Ren tightened his grip on the hilt of the blade he now carried — forged from broken mirror shards, given to him by one of the survivors who used to be a blacksmith before forgetting everything.
Mira walked ahead, barefoot.
She felt it in her soles — the hum. The echo. The thing calling her.
“Are you sure it’s here?” Ren asked.
Mira didn’t answer. Her eyes were glazed, her heartbeat synchronized with something underground.
With each step down the stone path, the light dimmed. Not naturally — unnaturally. As if darkness wasn’t just falling, but rising to meet them.
Finally, they reached it:
A chasm. A tear in the land. Deep, and breathing. Literally breathing. The air pulsed in and out like a sleeping beast.
“This is where the Core was made,” Mira whispered. “Or where it was stolen.”
Ren looked at her sharply. “What do you mean?”
She stepped closer to the edge. “I remember now. Not everything. But enough.”
Images flickered in her mind — a council of masked beings, a heart encased in crystal, a ritual gone wrong, and a girl who wasn’t supposed to survive.
Her.
Mira turned to Ren. “They didn’t create the Core. They found it. And tried to use it. But it rejected them. It chose someone else.”
“Who?”
Mira didn’t blink. “Me.”
A low growl came from the pit. A sound ancient and angry.
And then — a voice.
“Child of memory,” it said. “You do not belong here.”
The walls of the chasm lit up with symbols. Red. Bleeding.
Ren raised his blade. “Get back!”
But Mira didn’t move.
She closed her eyes, opened her arms, and whispered, “Then let me show you why I do.”
The descent wasn’t over.
It had just begun.
YOU ARE READING
memory core
Fantasy> ❝Memories don't die... They just hide where no one dares to look.❞ Mira thought she was just a normal girl. Until she woke up in a strange room, with a name that wasn't hers and a heart that remembered something... or someone... else. There is som...
