Chapter 25 — The Shard’s Cry

The shard glowed in Yusuf's hand, light oozing between his fingers as if it were liquid glass. Each pulse had a voice—not words, per se, but voices. A litany of names yelled in chorus, rising and falling as if to be remembered.

Yusuf stumbled backwards. His sight distorted. The chamber twisted and fractured, walls trembling as wave-reflections.

"Yusuf!" Rae grasped at his arm, but in doing so, the light jumped into her hand. She yelled, pulling it back as though burned.

It stared alone, tilted head, impassive. "It's begun," it uttered.

What has?" Rae inquired.

“The fracture,” the child whispered. Its voice seemed older, layered with echoes. “The Codex was law. He broke the law. Now all the forgotten will scream until someone listens.”

The floor caved in under them, cracks spreading in all directions. Out of chasms, dark silhouettes scratched up into the room—semi-formed recollections with empty sockets and jaws agape in silent fury.

Yusuf's shard surfaced involuntarily. The light flared, and silhouettes stumbled backwards, convulsing in pain. But the brilliance near blinded him, filaments of memory embedded in his tissue. He felt them—lifetimes unscripted, moments unforgotten, names unpronounced.

It was too much. Too loud. Too endless.

He fell onto his knees, holding his head. If I keep holding this shard much longer, I'm going to drown.

Rae pulled out her sword, striking at the nearest specter, though her blows went through with minimal impact. "We need to get out!" she yelled. "Now, before this whole building collapses!"

The faceless boy moved closer, pointing at the shard in Yusuf's shaking hands. "If you hold onto it, you will come undone along with it. But if you release it, the Codex will reclaim it and repair itself. Choose. Yusuf looked up, out of breath. The voices around the shard swelled into one shout, as if all of those who had been forgotten importuned him: Do not make us disappear again.

Rae reached out to him. "Yusuf, listen. Take survival.

But now, this expressionless face tilted. "Choose memory.".

The chamber shook more forcefully, its ceiling creaking apart. The Harvester's departure had left nothing but turmoil, and Yusuf was at its eye.

He grit his teeth, pushing himself up. His decision would determine not only his destiny—but how memory would even exist beyond this moment.