The Watchpoint looked like a ruin from another age.
Moss-covered stone arches jutted from the earth like broken ribs, half-buried under layers of creeping vines and centuries of silence. Wind whistled through the open spaces where walls should have been, and the air shimmered faintly with old magic—magic that buzzed across Aeryn’s skin like static.
Kael moved ahead, silent as ever. His long coat fluttered around his legs as he stepped onto a worn circle of carved runes at the center of the crumbled sanctuary.
“This place is protected?” Aeryn asked, hesitant.
Kael’s hand hovered over the center rune. “It was. Long ago.”
A soft pulse of light flickered beneath his palm.
“And now?” Aeryn asked, stepping closer.
Kael glanced over his shoulder, his expression unreadable. “We’ll find out.”
With that, he pressed his hand flat against the stone.
The ground beneath them hummed—low and strange, like a breath held for too long. The carvings flared gold, briefly illuminating the entire circle. Then, just as quickly, they dimmed to a dull glow.
Aeryn stood just outside its edge, uneasy. “What if it doesn’t hold?”
“Then we run.” Kael said it simply, without fear. “But we’ll have time. A ward this old wakes slowly.”
“Comforting,” Aeryn muttered.
Kael stepped back and looked at him, finally holding eye contact longer than a moment.
“You’re changing.”
Aeryn blinked. “What?”
Kael’s gaze lingered. “The Veil is touching you. Already.”
Aeryn frowned. “What does that even mean?”
Kael hesitated. “It means... you’re remembering things you never learned.”
That wasn’t comforting either.
But he wasn’t wrong.
Since waking in this world, Aeryn had felt it—images, sounds, flashes of memory that weren’t his. Or weren’t supposed to be. He hadn’t told Kael, but last night, after the statue, he’d dreamed again. Of fire. Of a man falling into it. Of a promise made in blood.
He hadn’t seen Kael’s face in the dream.
But he’d felt him there.
---
They made camp in the center of the Watchpoint. Aeryn watched as Kael set stones in a circle, then murmured something in a language Aeryn didn’t know. The fire that sparked to life wasn’t red, but silver-blue, flickering like moonlight.
“How do you do that?” Aeryn asked, watching the flames.
Kael glanced up. “I bind the memory of fire to the present.”
Aeryn stared. “That’s… poetic.”
Kael shrugged one shoulder. “It’s survival.”
Still, something about the phrase stuck in Aeryn’s mind. The memory of fire…
He sat across from Kael, letting the warmth seep into his skin. He was tired in a way that sleep didn’t fix—tired like something inside him was waking up too fast.
“Why are you really helping me?” he asked quietly.
Kael didn’t answer at first. Then he said, “You remind me of someone.”
Aeryn tilted his head. “Someone from here?”
Kael shook his head. “No. Someone from before.”
Aeryn blinked. “You mean… another world?”
“Another life.”
The answer made something twist inside Aeryn’s chest. “Who?”
Kael’s eyes met his, gray and stormy. “A man I failed.”
---
That night, Aeryn dreamed again.
This time, it was clearer.
He stood in a ruined temple—columns split by time, vines crawling up cracked marble. The sky above was ablaze, red-gold and burning, and in front of him stood a man.
Kael.
But not the Kael he knew.
This Kael wore black armor streaked with dried blood. His eyes glowed faintly, his hands crackled with magic, and he looked at Aeryn with something between pain and reverence.
“You shouldn’t have followed me,” he whispered.
“I made a promise,” Aeryn said—though it wasn’t his voice.
“I broke mine,” Kael replied.
A pause.
Then Kael reached out, fingertips brushing Aeryn’s jaw.
“You always return to me,” he said softly. “Even when you don’t remember.”
The dream shattered.
---
Aeryn woke with a start.
The fire still glowed, and Kael sat as he always did—still, watching the dark. But when Aeryn shifted, Kael turned his head.
“Bad dream?”
Aeryn looked at him, searching his face. “I saw you.”
Kael didn’t react.
“We were in a temple. The sky was on fire.”
Now Kael’s gaze sharpened, a flicker of something unreadable crossing his features.
Aeryn pushed further. “You said I always return to you.”
Silence.
Kael didn’t deny it.
“I’ve lived before, haven’t I?” Aeryn whispered.
Kael’s voice was low. “Many times.”
“And you knew me?”
Kael looked away. “Yes.”
Aeryn’s heart pounded. “Were we… something?”
Kael’s voice cracked like distant thunder. “You died in my arms.”
The words stunned Aeryn.
He didn’t know what to say.
Didn’t know if the tightness in his throat was grief, fear, or something far older.
“But I don’t remember,” Aeryn murmured.
“You will,” Kael said. “The Veil never forgets.”
Aeryn stared into the fire, and for the first time, he realized something terrifying.
He had died.
But maybe… he had died for Kael once.
And maybe, just maybe, he would again.
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