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[Scene: Aboard the stolen Zephyrite ship Solace Unbound. The trio and Myrren flee Vault 9B, the sky behind them fractured and flickering with Bound presence.]
[Interior: Observation deck. Dim lighting. The ship hums with ancient Skyborne tech. Myrren stands alone at the viewport while Kaelen and Sylrae watch from behind.]
Kaelen:
"You said the Empire fed them. The Bound. Start explaining."
Myrren (quietly):
"They weren't born. They were bound. As weapons. Dream-thieves. Thought-leeches. The Skyborne called them 'Mnemonic Sentinels.' Crafted from the condemned."
Sylrae (grimacing):
"Crafted?"
Myrren:
"Criminals. Traitors. Dissidents. Their minds were shattered, hollowed, then filled with aether-scripted obedience. They didn't speak. They remembered for the Empire—faces, secrets, sins. The worst of us made them. The rest of us gave them targets."
Kaelen:
"And you?"
Myrren (removing his helmet—revealing half his face missing, replaced with mirrored aetherplate that twitches faintly):
"I led them."
[Silence. Only the hum of the ship.]
Thane (still weak):
"They're not just memories. They're… patterns. Trying to finish the stories they were forced to remember. To rebuild what broke them."
Myrren:
"Yes. The longer they linger in your mind, the more you become a fragment of their unfinished design. That vault wasn't a prison. It was a scripting chamber."
Sylrae:
"And now it's open."
[Suddenly—alarms flare. The ship jolts.]
Ship AI:
"External signature detected. Velocity impossible. Shape… inconsistent."
[The sky outside bends. A Bound appears. No ship. Just a figure, moving like a glitch through air, trailing aether-writhing tendrils of thought.]
Kaelen (grabbing controls):
"It followed us?!"
Myrren:
"They always do."
Sylrae (flicking power to weapons):
"Then let's show it what remembering us costs."
[The ship banks. Turrets charge. But the Bound doesn't fire. It speaks—through every screen, whisper, and pulse of light.]
The Bound (echoing through systems):
"Finish the story, Skyborn. Or we'll write it for you."
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End of Chapter Eight