Chapter 2 The Hunter's Memory

The storm raged through the night, but Lyra didn't move from the temple's center.

Her mark still glowed faintly - the Eye of the Moon pulsing to a rhythm that wasn't her heartbeat. It beat with his.

She'd spent lifetimes trying to forget the sound.

Now it throbbed through her veins like a curse reborn.

The flames of the candles had long since died, yet moonlight flooded the ruin as though drawn to her. Every stone shimmered with a thin film of silver light, whispering fragments of a language she'd once known - the tongue of gods.

"Why now?" she murmured. "Why let me remember this time?"

The silence didn't answer. But the mark flared again, and with it came a vision - not her own, but his.

A battlefield of broken stars.

Eryndor standing over her fallen body.

Her blood glowing silver as he whispered, "Forgive me, Huntress."

Lyra gasped and fell to her knees. The memory faded, leaving behind the same ache that haunted her every death.

"Forgive you?" she whispered. "I remember what you did, Hunter."

But even as the words left her mouth, another part of her whispered that it wasn't that simple.

She pushed herself up and stepped toward the entrance, her boots splashing through shallow pools of rain. Beyond the temple, the mountains stretched into shadows. Somewhere in the distance, she could still feel him - the faint thread of energy that always connected them.

She hated that connection.

She needed that connection.

A sudden shift in the air made her freeze. The moonlight dimmed.

Something was coming.

The next moment, the temple door exploded inward - shards of stone scattering as a creature lunged through. Its body was smoke and bone, eyes burning with divine fire. A Moon Wraith. One of the Goddess's assassins.

Lyra barely had time to raise her hand. The mark on her palm blazed white-hot, and a wave of energy burst from her fingertips, slicing through the creature's chest. It shrieked - a sound that cracked the air - before disintegrating into mist.

Lyra stumbled back, panting. "They've already found me."

A voice answered from behind the broken pillars. "And yet you're still alive."

Eryndor stepped out of the shadows again, calm as if he'd been waiting for her to prove herself. His cloak whipped in the wind, eyes glowing faintly gold.

Lyra straightened, anger lacing her tone. "Following me already? Or did your Goddess send you to finish what her pet couldn't?"

"She doesn't know I'm here."

"Liar."

He stopped a few feet away, close enough for her to feel the heat of his power. "If I were lying," he said quietly, "you'd already be dead."

Her pulse quickened despite herself. "Then what do you want?"

Eryndor looked past her, to the smoldering ashes of the wraith. "That thing was sent to test your strength. The Goddess wants to know how much of your power you've recovered."

Lyra's lips curved into a bitter smile. "And what did she learn?"

"That you're not weak anymore," he said, meeting her eyes. "Which means she'll send worse next time."

Something flickered between them - something heavy, electric. Lyra wanted to turn away, to erase the strange awareness crawling beneath her skin, but his gaze pinned her like gravity itself.

"You shouldn't have saved me," she said. "You should have finished it when you had the chance."

"I tried."

The words were quiet - but they carried centuries of guilt.

Lyra frowned. "What do you mean, you tried?"

He stepped closer, his voice low. "Do you remember the night I killed you?"

Every muscle in her body tensed. "I remember the blade."

"Do you remember what happened before that?"

Lyra opened her mouth, then hesitated. The memory was fractured - like shattered glass in her mind. The fire. The moon breaking apart. The sound of a god's laughter.

He saw her confusion and sighed. "You weren't supposed to die that night. The Goddess tricked us both. I was meant to kill the darkness inside you, not you."

Lyra's heart twisted. "And you believed her?"

"I was her Hunter," he said simply. "Obedience was all I knew."

The pain in his voice almost made her falter. Almost.

"And now?" she asked.

"Now," he said, "I don't know what I am anymore."

For the first time, she saw something unguarded in his eyes - the same loneliness that had haunted her across lifetimes.

The silence stretched. Rain drummed softly on stone.

Lyra took a slow step back. "Whatever pity you think you deserve, you won't find it here. You killed me a hundred times over."

"I know." His voice cracked just slightly. "That's why I can't kill you again."

She froze.

He turned toward the open night. "The Moon will send her High Priest soon. He'll burn this mountain if he has to. You need to move before dawn."

Lyra clenched her fists. "And you?"

"I'll distract them."

"Why would you risk that for me?"

He didn't look back. "Because I remember too."

Before she could reply, he vanished - dissolving into shadows that scattered with the wind.

Lyra stood alone again, breath trembling, heart burning with a dozen emotions she didn't want to name.

She looked down at her mark. It pulsed once - twice - then steadied, as if echoing the rhythm of another heartbeat somewhere far away.

"Eryndor Vale," she whispered to the empty night. "You may have remembered me... but this time, I'm not yours to hunt."

The temple walls trembled, the wind howling through the cracks like laughter. Far above, the moon flickered - and for a moment, Lyra could swear she saw it blink.