th nar

urling in pain. The silver-glow of the voice-shards dimmed behind them, and a colder silence crept forward-thicker than ab

he forgett

fal

feel right,"

and had gone still. No p

now," she said, her voice soft and strained. "Here, even time forge

r; she felt the path, a thread woven between what was and what should have been. The shard o

canyon curved unnaturally, as if trying to wrap around the intruders and smothe

r it?" Kael

t, Aria

she

sentient. A pressure behind the ears. A hollow ache in the gut.

en it

tu

ir, but carved from the

orgotten f

ching his head. "

athless moment, Aria stood in another place-under a red sky, in a village where

he was

one knee, the stone

p!" the Gu

The moment his skin touched it, light surg

ed to break him. B

re

rising in her thoughts. "You can

recoiled f

it sc

as-quiet into something sharp and unbearable. Aria fell to

en-mov

s made of fractures and dust, eyes like splinters of a forgotten moon. They did not walk-

"They've taken the shape of m

upright. "What

are the enforcers of forgetting. But they

owbound

the win

, at first-

around Aria and Kael like a vortex. The feath

thing. Even if you don't reme

ooked

odded

ned her

voice, but with the wind's. A thread of thought, of longing, a fragment of th

ct was i

lowboun

ttered-like fir

scre

age-it was

the binding threads of oblivion. One by one, the Hollowbound collapsed, t

nce

t now-cleaner. Not

leaning on the stone.

per we go, the less the Hollow will rel

m her lip and nodded

canyon's belly. Strange symbols flickered along the walls-glyphs of vanishe

said. "I don't k

Aria correc

ybe st

dral of silence, carved not by hand, but by absence. The air here held weight.

center,

n it: a

med with threads of bone and root

even

orward. The mi

ached f

la

nto the dark

ind s

hitched. "I

" Aria

sel

. "That's n

. "It's a memor

ped to t

eyes met its su

mo

aming in the rain, trying to keep Aria's name from falling away, s

bli

The Hollow feeds on doubt. This mirror is a gate-it shows you

ng the stone to his chest.

he Guide said. "And letting the

nod

ched for

they stepp

rror f

Doubt screamed.

grip did

hel

he w

ach

hems

mirror s

ate o

it wa

ot wa

land or sea-it was unbeing. And in its heart, a single structure floated:

, stunned.

," the Guid

ence wa

ught fel

not around th

e come

answer. Sh

A name? A memory

orward. "I wan

forget. Everyt

fli

not a being.

t was off

ooked

rs falling. "No. I won

sm

emem

Hollow r

ire cr

nd rus

s beg