Chapter 10 – Ashes of Forever
The wind carried no scent that morning.
No smoke.
No blood.
No blossoms.
Just silence—the kind that clung to Kael like old wounds.
He stood on the cliff's edge, where sky met nothingness, watching the sea grind itself into the rocks far below. It had been days—maybe weeks—since he last saw Ren. Time blurred now, like ink running in rain.
He had given up everything.
Even the comfort of being remembered.
Ren lived now—fully human, fully free. His laughter no longer echoed with grief. His dreams were no longer haunted by fever and fire. Kael had bought him peace with a memory-shaped hole.
And now, the world no longer called Kael by name.
Even fate had grown quiet.
But Kael remained.
A World That Forgot Him
He walked through villages like a phantom. No one recognized him. No old woman wept at the sound of his voice. No child tugged his hand with familiarity. Not even the birds stopped to rest on his shoulder, like they once had.
He was a ghost made flesh.
An echo that kept walking.
Sometimes, he thought about returning to Ren. Just to see him smile. Just to hear a single word.
But the curse was cruel. If Ren saw him now, he would only feel a chill. A stranger. A shadow in the corner of his eye.
That, perhaps, was the price of true peace—for others.
Not for Kael.
The Endless Graveyard
He returned to the cherry tree.
The first one.
The one where Liora and Aiva were buried centuries ago.
No petals grew there anymore. The soil was dry, bitter with memory.
Kael knelt, placing the last of his belongings on the ground:
Aiva's ribbon.
Liora's locket.
Ren's red scarf.
His hands lingered on each. Trembled.
He whispered their names—not expecting the wind to carry them. Just needing the silence to know he had not forgotten.
"I loved you," he said to the soil.
"And I love you still."
His voice cracked.
"But I am tired."
The Return of the Red Woman
As the sun dipped below the horizon, she appeared.
The one who had cursed him.
The one who had offered him the power to carry grief across eternity.
She stood in silence at the edge of the hill, cloak flaring in the wind, eyes no longer cruel—just… curious.
"You are near the end," she said.
"There is no end," Kael replied. "Only echoes."
She tilted her head. "And yet, you returned here. To where it began. That must mean something."
Kael turned toward the grave. "It means I am ready."
"To die?"
"To rest."
A pause.
"And what have you learned?" she asked.
He looked up at her—tired eyes, sunken cheeks, yet still burning with that same sorrow that had fueled him for a thousand years.
"That to love is to lose," he said. "But to live without love is worse."
She nodded.
"And what do you choose now?"
Kael closed his eyes.
And whispered:
"Let me be forgotten… even by myself."
The Final Gift
The wind howled suddenly.
The earth trembled.
Kael's memories flared like stars burning out.
Liora's smile.
Aiva's laugh.
Ren's tears.
All of it surged through him—too fast, too bright.
Then—
Nothing.
Just stillness.
He opened his eyes.
The woman was gone.
So were the graves.
So was the scarf.
He touched his chest.
It didn't ache.
Not because he had healed.
But because he could no longer remember what had once filled it.
He stood there—empty.
Clean.
Weightless.
And for the first time in centuries…
He smiled.
Epilogue – In the Heart of Another
Years later, a boy named Ren sat beneath a cherry tree that bloomed for the first time in decades.
He didn't know why he felt drawn to it.
Didn't know why he had placed a small ribbon at its base.
Or why, in the cold of evening, he sometimes heard a voice in the wind whisper:
"Walk with a ghost."
He never remembered the man with the haunted eyes.
Or the nights filled with stories by the fire.
But he wept anyway.
A kind of sadness that had no shape.
A kind of love without a name.
And far beyond that world—where time no longer touched—Kael walked into starlight.
Not as a curse.
Not as a ghost.
But as a fading dream, gentle and forgotten…
Like ashes in the wind.
End of Chapter 10 – Ashes of Forever
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