“Yes,” I rasp. “We remember.”
The figure steps closer, and the godfire parts around them like water. Their face is impossible to focus on—shifting like clouds in a storm, neither young nor old, neither kind nor cruel. Just eternal.
“You died that day, Caelen.” The god’s gaze settles on me. “Both of you did. The fall took you before your fingers could truly lace with hers.”
My chest tightens, the phantom cold of the abyss returning to my lungs. I remember the darkness that stretched on forever. The way her hand slipped from mine just inches from safety.
“But the gods do not waste true soulbonds.” They gesture between us, and the air ripples with the movement. “What you had was sacred. Woven into the loom of fate itself. To let it end on that cliff would have been... a tragedy we could not abide.”
“So you brought us back?” Lumi whispers.
“We gave him a choice.” The god’s attention shifts back to me, their eyes like twin stars burning through frost. “You, Caelen. You, who loved her so fiercely, you followed her into death without a second thought.”
I can barely breathe. The air feels suffocating, heavy with the weight of a memory that has been locked in a box for three millennia.
“We offered you a second chance. But it came with a price.”
I remember.I remember standing in a place between life and death. A gray, endless expanse where the wind didn’t blow, and the sun didn’t rise.
A voice—this voice—asking:
“Do you want her back?”
“Yes.” No hesitation. My soul belonged to her.“I’ll do anything.”
“Then listen carefully. We will send you both back. Reborn. But you will not return as you were. You cannot be the man who failed to see the shadow in your own brother’s heart. ”
“I don’t care?—”
“You will become a beast. A guardian of one of our sacred forests. There, you will judge souls—every person who enters your domain. You will see their truths, their lies, their darkness. You will be a filter for the world, Caelen... so you never miss the signs again. So that you recognize a threat when it comes for her.”
They pause.
“And there is no guarantee you will find her again.”
My heart stopped.
“She will be reborn as a human. Mortal. Fragile. With no memory of you or the name you shared. And you... you will be a monster. She will fear you. She may run. And that’s if she ever returns to the cold at all.”
“Tell me,” I begged, “Tell me how to save her!”
The god’s voice didn’t speak; it etched a riddle into my soul.
“The bond that broke beneath the snow
Sleeps deep where only cold winds blow,
But four truths spoken, four debts paid,
Shall wake the vow that death delayed.
She chooses you where winter stole her last breath,
In snow and cold, she chooses love, not death.
The heart must choose the Beast’s cold breath.
And the shadow falls a second death.”
