"Before Skyler Novaah was born,
his name was already inked in flame."
That's what the Book whispered the moment Skyler opened it.
He and Aelira stood in the central memory hall, alone now. Saya and Orias had withdrawn, overwhelmed by the glyph pressure emanating from the siblings. With four seals awakened and the forbidden flame restored to partial strength, even the walls struggled to hold them.
The Book of Recalled Flame flipped on its own, its pages moving as though caught in a storm—until it stopped on a brittle parchment, sealed in time-threaded wax.
Skyler's fingers trembled.
Aelira nodded at him. "Open it."
He broke the seal.
And there, etched in blood-ink older than any known language, was the title:
"Entry 000: The Child of the Book."
Beneath it, a passage:
"There will come a flame-born child
written before the first timeline was measured.
A carrier of collapse. A harbinger of memory.
His name will be Skyler Novaah,
and he will burn the lie that holds all creation together."
Skyler reeled back.
"No," he muttered. "This isn't possible. This is me. This entry is about me—and it's the first one?"
Aelira stepped forward, eyes wide.
"This… is Pre-Archive. A prophecy recorded before any Witness even existed. Skyler, you were scripted before the first multiverse bloomed."
Skyler's knees nearly buckled. "Then this wasn't fate… this was design."
Suddenly, a secondary entry shimmered below the first—hidden until the original had been read. It formed itself in ember-light:
"Skyler will not walk alone.
When the flame returns to two bodies,
the Seven Seals will shatter from within.
Memory will stop obeying time.
And the Archive will ask a question no god dares answer."
Skyler swallowed hard.
"…What question?"
The Book answered.
But not in writing.
In sound.
The entire room echoed with a single, impossibly ancient voice—female, layered with thousands of overlapping tones, like every version of Aeria speaking through time:
"What truth is so powerful… it must be forgotten to survive?"
Skyler looked to Aelira.
Aelira nodded slowly.
"And we're going to find out."
As the words faded, the Book slammed shut—flames curling up its spine like veins sealing over a wound.
Then the entire compound shuddered.
Emergency alarms flared in Orias's wing. Saya screamed through the comms:
"We've got incoming! Witness Hunters from Timeline 13! They've found us!"
Aelira turned to Skyler, eyes glowing now with her own glyphs, her own memories unfurling like wings.
"Time to stop being prophecy."
"And start being Witnesses."
Skyler stepped forward, flame-etched blade in hand.
"Let's burn the lie."