The Sanctuary still burned in the distance.
Ash rained from the sky like a grim reminder of the Bonebound's attack. While the wounded were tended to and the outer walls repaired, Ethan stood alone in the lower archives beneath the Hunter's Guild.
Flickering lanterns lit rows of old books, war reports, and forbidden texts sealed in dust.
His hands were shaking—but not from fear.
From purpose.
"Evelyn Aster," he whispered. His mother's name.
A name the Bonebound had twisted into a weapon just hours ago.
He found her file where he never expected—in the Lost Hunter Registry. A record of the fallen. But Evelyn's page was red-flagged, stamped with the words: SEALED BY ORDER OF HIGH COUNCIL.
He stared at it.
Felt the mark under his shirt grow warm.
She was one of them... wasn't she?
Footsteps echoed behind him.
"You're not cleared to be here," said a voice—gravelly, low.
Ethan turned to see Guildmaster Veyra, arms crossed, her usual white coat replaced by a cloak of mourning black.
"I'm not leaving without answers," Ethan said. "What did my mother have to do with the Rift?"
Veyra didn't speak for a long time.
Then she stepped forward and laid a faded photo on the table. A team of six Hunters. Among them—his father, younger and proud. And beside him, a woman with dark hair and the same eyes Ethan saw in the mirror every day.
"That mission," Veyra said quietly, "was the first recorded Rift anomaly in Zone 6. We thought it was just another breach."
Ethan picked up the photo. "She was part of the same team that vanished?"
"No. She led it."
That made his chest tighten.
"She wasn't a field medic," Ethan muttered. "She wasn't support…"
"No," Veyra said. "She was one of the first Mark Bearers. The earliest experiments to fuse Rift sigils into human hosts."
Ethan's breath caught. "You knew?"
"I buried it. We all did. But your mark… that scar wasn't from birth. She gave it to you. At the cost of her own life."
The room spun.
Images flashed behind his eyes—a memory half-remembered: blood, her voice whispering his name, a burning light.
Ethan staggered back. "So what was she? A traitor?"
"No." Veyra's voice softened. "She was a sacrifice."
---
Later that night, Ethan sat at the Sanctuary's edge, watching the stars.
Zeila approached, dropping beside him silently.
"You found something," she said.
He didn't respond right away.
"She didn't abandon me," he finally said. "She saved me. From something worse."
Zeila looked at him sideways. "You thought she ran?"
He nodded. "All this time, I thought she died weak. I didn't know she died… fighting."
Zeila leaned back on her palms, glancing at the sky. "We all carry ghosts, Ethan. But your past isn't your chain—it's your blade. Forge it right."
He turned to her.
And smiled.
But deep in the woods beyond the wall, a cloaked figure watched them from the shadows.
And whispered: "The key begins to turn."
---