Episode 2: The Whispering Lantern
The flame breathed his name.
"Kairo…"
He was immobile at the attic stairs' end. Behind him, the house was silent — no wind, no sound, just that whisper repeating in impossible manners.
That name hadn't been spoken like that in more than a decade. Not since—
"Lyra?"
He hardly whispered the name.
And then… she emerged into the moonlight.
Same black hair, cascading in soft waves. Same sapphire eyes that always burned with questions. Same soft voice.
Same age.
But she should have been twenty-seven.
She hadn't aged a day.
Kairo stumbled back, mouth dry. "No. You're— you're not real."
She smiled, tilting her head, as if trying to remember how smiles worked.
"You came back," she said gently. "I waited so long in the Hollow Place."
Kairo's voice shook. "The Hollow Place? You— you vanished. Everyone believed you were—"
"Gone? Lost? Dead?" She grinned, but her eyes didn't laugh. "No. I was taken. Marked. Chosen. Just like you."
She inched closer. Her feet hovered above the floor. Her shadow remained behind.
Kairo's instincts screamed.
"Why now? Why after ten years?"
"Because you woke it," Lyra told him, nudging a pointed finger at the grimoire. "The flame recalls. The Hallow Spark recalls what once was held to it."
The attic creaked as if alive. Symbols on the floor began to glow dimly again — the same symbols that seemed to materialize when the grimoire first opened.
Kairo clenched his teeth. "What are you?"
Her face spasmed.
Then. altered.
For an instant, her skin flashed like static. One blink — and she was hollow-eyed, faceless. A crack spread from her forehead to her collarbone. Black ichor throbbed below.
"I am that which succeeds the fire," she breathed in a voice that was not hers. "I am that which is left when the falsehoods are spent."
He retreated.
The grimoire slammed open by itself.
A new page was unfolded — a trial he never saw before.
[Spark Trial: The Lantern's Bargain]
TRIAL III: THE BARGAIN
When voice not its own speaks in flame, and the past assumes a face you knew, you can decide:
Bind the Hollow, or become it.
The attic lantern suddenly flared into blue fire again, and the room was filled with a screaming wind. Shadows danced — then broke their silence.
"Bind or become. Decide, Kairo Veilhart."
His heart raced. "I don't even know what that means!"
The grimoire throbbed.
From it sprouted two shards of glass — one white, shining with an otherworldly light, the other black, threaded with red cracks.
"The white holds her," declared the flame. "For a price: one truth is lost forever."
"The black unites you," the voice hissed. "You are joined to her… and open the first memory of the Hollow Flame."
Kairo gazed at Lyra.
She stood silently now, sobbing tears from empty eyes.
"Please," she whispered. "Choose. Before I lose myself again."
[Choice: Bind her, or become her.]
He held both shards in trembling hands.
His mind whirled.
Bind her — and forfeit a truth. But save her.
Become her — and know what she knows. But lose control?
Then—
He made a choice.
He drove the white shard into the heart of the sigil on the floor.
The room burst with light.
Lyra screamed.
Kairo screamed with her — not from pain, but from loss.
Something within him shattered.
[Truth Lost]
"You will forget one truth," the voice declared.
A warmth departed from his chest. An entire section of him — a memory, a fact — dissipated like steam.
He attempted to recall his mother's face.
He couldn't.
He couldn't even recall whether she was alive.
When the light faded, Lyra fell into his arms.
She resembled a human again. Fragile. Mortal.
But unconscious.
The attic was quiet again.
Only the grimoire still lay open, softly glowing.
[Updated Spark Status]
Kairo Veilhart
???? Spark Level: 1 (Mirror Tongue)
???? Trial Passed: The Lantern's Bargain
???? Penalty: Memory of maternal figure removed
???? Effect: Soul now bound to the Hollow Flame. Further spark progression possible.
⚠️ Lyra Morwyn Status: Bound
Lyra has been prevented from being saved from complete corruption.
Now exists in a state between human and Hollow.
Soul bound to Kairo through the White Flame.
Has broken memory of the "First Bearer."
Warning: If bond is broken, Hollow corruption will continue.
???? Last Twist: The Burned Page
Kairo stood there, gasping, and he saw something.
One page of the grimoire burnt itself in the trial. Only one line was left intact.
The bearer who came before Lyra failed the Fourth Spark.
His name. was Kairo Veilhart.
He gazed, shocked.
"What…?"
His eyes blurred.
A memory — long buried — flickered at the edge of his mind.
A different attic. A different flame.
A different lifetime.