The sky above the Novaah compound raged with fire.
The Witness Hunters tore through memory-barriers, riding beasts woven from lost timelines, searching for one thing:
The Fifth Seal.
But deep below, in the sanctum beyond the Book's vault, Skyler Novaah stood before a wall that should not exist.
It wasn't stone.
It wasn't metal.
It was charred possibility—a dimensional scar, pulsing with violet flame and whispers.
Aelira stared at it with wide, ancient eyes.
"This is the Portal of the Burned Truth," she said.
"Aeria created it after the Archive's First Collapse. It's where she locked the truth we weren't allowed to know."
Skyler's glyphs flared in response. The Fifth Seal on his chest—a spiral around a single burning dot—glowed brighter with every breath.
Orias, standing at a safe distance, activated his memory-sensor.
"It's alive," he whispered. "This portal is feeding on suppressed recall threads from across the multiverse."
"It's been waiting."
Aelira stepped forward.
"Mother built this gate with flame-forged memories—truths so powerful they could undo entire timelines just by being remembered."
"If we open it…"
Skyler answered, eyes calm but burning.
"…we'll remember what the gods wanted us to forget."
"What the Novaah blood was before the curse."
He placed his hand on the portal.
It screamed.
Not with sound—but with forgotten names.
Aelira flinched. "It knows you. It remembers you, Skyler. As if you were here when it was sealed."
The portal cracked—flame bleeding out in violet rivers, forming ancient glyphs in the air.
And then—without waiting for permission—it unsealed.
---
They were pulled inside.
There was no movement. No sound. Just—
Truth.
Layered. Impossible. Terrifying.
They stood in a swirling sphere of light and broken memory—each shard revealing something deeper:
Aeria, holding a burning fetus and whispering, "Forgive me, Skyler… you were never meant to wake alone."
The first Council of Flame, splitting divinity across bloodlines to contain a Primordial Recall Event
Velmhar, carving the Fifth Seal onto the bones of dead gods
The origin of the Novaah name: Not a family, but a function—"Those Who Witness, That Others May Forget"
And then…
Skyler.
Not as a boy.
Not as a man.
But as a source.
Wrapped in divine memory. An echo of the Archive's core. An unformed truth with choice written into his very essence.
Skyler fell to his knees.
"I was never just born," he whispered.
"I was… constructed. Out of everything they tried to forget."
Aelira knelt beside him, tears falling. "You're not cursed, Skyler."
"You're truth's revenge."
The Portal flared—and collapsed inward, collapsing into a single sigil that branded itself onto the Fifth Seal.
Skyler screamed—light pouring from his eyes.
A final sentence etched itself into the burning air:
"When the Fifth Seal burns, the Archive begins to remember itself."
---
Back in the real world, above the Novaah compound, the sky split open.
And from the crack, a city of flame and memory began to descend.
Not an invasion.
Not an army.
But something worse:
The Archive had woken up.
And it was coming to ask:
"Who dares unseal the truth?"