[Memory Node: 2 of 7 – Accessing…][Caution: Thread is damaged. Subjective reconstruction initiated.]
The crystalline vault pulsed once, and Ethan felt it—not a vision, not a recording. A reliving. His breath caught as the chamber dimmed, and the world peeled away like burning parchment.
Then – Oron Karth
Stars burned overhead like the eyes of gods.
The sky was ash and flame. A shattered throne-station drifted above a dying planet, half-consumed by its own gravity well. From the wreckage, ancient warships spiraled downward in trails of molten metal and failed grav-tethers.
And standing at the apex of a crumbling spire—
The Ghostwake.
He was taller than Ethan, cloaked in void-thread and layered armor etched with gold circuit veins. In his right hand, he held a spear of radiant flux, too brilliant to look at directly. The Wraithling hovered behind him—sleek, wounded, but still powered, its hull lined with glowing sigils of command.
Voices rang out over distant comm-channels.
"The last gates have collapsed!""Sector Karth-Prime is lost—repeat, lost!""Where is the Ghostwake?!"
And still he stood—waiting. Watching.
From the sky came the Unnamed.
They weren't ships. They weren't beasts. They were something between. Shapes too vast for logic. Wings that folded space like cloth. A hunger that shrieked across dimensions. They fell toward Oron Karth like a curse.
The Ghostwake spoke then—his voice distant, layered with static and pain.
"Aethra. Final protocol."
A pause.
"Confirmed," the ship answered. "Releasing last tether. I will remember."
He turned, just once, to look at the Wraithling.
"Forget me."
The scene shifted.
A blast of radiant light. The spire shattering beneath him. A detonation of System energy so immense it carved a hole in the stars.
The Ghostwake leapt—spear-first—into the heart of the largest Unnamed, a creature whose body was a galaxy of eyes and flesh-metal.
And then—silence.
Aethra's voice broke through the memory, now present-day and strangely quiet.
"He did not die as a man. He died as a gate. A wound through which other truths slipped."
The vision ended. Ethan staggered back, sweat on his brow. The vault dimmed.
[Memory Node 2 – Complete.]
Now – Aboard the Wraithling
The ship hummed quietly. Aelira stood across the chamber, arms folded, her expression unreadable.
"That was him?" she asked.
Ethan nodded slowly. "The original Ghostwake."
A pause.
"Why did he tell you to forget?"
Aethra answered in a voice like wind through ancient ruins.
"Because if I remembered everything… I would go mad.And so would you."