The Echoes of Forgotten

Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Whirlwind of Memories.



The jungle had fallen eerily quiet in a matter of moments. The only sound was Elara's groans as she sat slumped against the base of a massive tree, her breath shallow and uneven. The air was heavy with the scent of damp earth and moss, mingled with the faint metallic tang of her own blood. Her arms felt stiff, and her legs trembled from the effort of dragging her body to this small clearing. Every breath she took sent a sharp pain lancing through her ribs, but Elara forced herself still, her mind fighting with the nightmares of the last five years.

She clenched her fist against the uneven ground, littered with jagged stones and fallen leaves mixed with grit that got stuck under her fingernails, trying to focus on the present.

But her mind betrayed her, the darkness pressed in, and with it came back the whirlwind of rushed memories.

Elara wasn't in the jungle anymore. She was back in their house, sitting at the small dining table, consisting of four chairs around a square table. Four plates sat before her, but only one was occupied, the others cold and untouched. Her head hung low as she asked someone invisible, her voice barely a whisper, "When will you be back?"

Their parents had died when she was only 12, since then, Kael was her only guardian and support in this vast world and now he too had been gone for weeks, leaving Elara alone to sit in the silence, a silence that never bothered her before was now suffocating, pressing against her like an unseen weight. It's not like Kael was always there for her- no, he was mostly out on various missions or patrols, but she knew when he'd be back, she knew he was there. The uncertainty now was killing her, gnawing at something deep inside her.

The memory shifted, and now Elara was standing at the door of their house, backpack slung over her shoulder, one hand on the doorknob as she stared silently, her eyes out of focus. She didn't have the courage to open it, to step inside the empty house. It had been two years already, two long years of wait for her brother but he had not come back, not yet. She strained her ears to hear for any kind of movement inside, anything that could indicate he had returned, but there was nothing. She finally left the doorknob and shifting her back to the door she crouched down, her steps echoing in the empty halls, her body shaking slightly as she sobbed in her arms, the loneliness pressing down on her.
The memory shifted again, this time she was practicing in the small garden behind their house, alone again. Her features had matured somewhat, her once mischievous turquoise eyes, were now cold and lifeless. The sun was setting, casting long shadows as she concentrated on the movements Kael had taught her, her face a mask of determination. Her brother's voice ringing in her head, "You must be able to defend yourself even when I am not around." Now that he really was not around, she pushed herself, over and over, until her arms ached, until the night grew too cold to continue. She finally sat, the wooden sword falling from her hands, she looked at her hands, swollen and full of blisters. "Please, please come back."
The memory shifted for the third time, she was back in the sitting room. Her face was calmer and more mature than she was before as she sat across the person she least expected to come- Riven.

It had been three years since she'd last seen him. Three years of silence from the cold, stoic man whose facial similarities, despite her best efforts, always unsettled her. Elara still couldn't shake how much he resembled her. If a stranger had walked into the room, they would've mistaken them for siblings. But they weren't. They could never be. This man couldn't be her brother, there was a time when Elara welcomed this idea but now...

The silence stretched, Elara hadn't asked about his visit, nor had he said anything, he just sat there with his usual stoic expression, taking his time as he sipped from the glass with deliberate breaks. Elara on the other hand was silent in anticipation and hope. Her heart pounded in her chest as she tried to decipher the reason for Riven's unexpected visit. Could it be? Could her brother be coming back? Was his- Riven's visit today to tell her that her brother- that Kael is coming back? Hope bubbled in her chest, tentative and fragile. She gulped as Riven drained the last of his water, his movements as calculated and detached as ever but it didn't bother her anymore. Straightening in his chair, Riven finally looked at her, his cold grey gaze met her turquoise ones, which shimmered with hope.

"He won't be coming back."

Elara stared, the words not adjusting properly in her brain. For a second she thought she heard wrong, clearly, he said: he was coming back soon. So, why is it that she was hearing something entirely opposite?

"What did you say?" She breathed, something in her mind was shouting at her not to... To leave, to make this man leave and not listen to him but she had to. She had heard it wrong before, but he will correct her, he will tell her-

"Kaelion, he is not coming back," Riven repeated, making sure she knew who they were talking about.

Lies. He was lying. Elara stood abruptly, her breaths coming in ragged gasps. Through the corner of her eyes, she saw Riven move but she didn't care, she raised her hand to stop him. She wanted this man to get away from her as far as possible. She dreaded his next words, she had waited for 3 whole years, but, not for this news.

"S-stop! D-don't"

"Elara-"

"Don't say it!! I don't want to hear it!!" Elara attempted to stop him desperately, the moisture around her eyes increasing the more she rubbed it away.

"Kaelion is no more."

Four words. Simple, empty words that tore through her chest, leaving nothing but a hollow ache.

She slumped back on the sofa, the hope she had dared to feel crumbled in an instant, turning into sharp needles that pierced her from the inside. Riven had spoken the words so casually, so devoid of emotion, despite her efforts to stop him.

There was no sympathy, no pity, no sadness for the loss of his best friend. It didn't matter to him.

"Y-you are lying." Elara denied, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to burst out any minute.

"I have no reason to," Riven replied, his casual tone a stark contrast to the turmoil he had caused inside Elara.

"You said he'll come back!" She argued back as she wiped the tears from her face angrily.

"I never said such a thing," Riven answered, unlike his calm tone, there was something in his grey eyes that made Elara burst, they were no longer cold or so she thought.

"I trusted you!!" Elara's voice echoed, louder than it should have been, and what followed it was silence. A silence, where you can hear the faintest sound of exhales. She tried to look at Riven's face, desperate to get any hint of emotion but he evaded her...

".... I never asked you to." Elara looked at the man in disbelief, her eyes shimmering with newfound tears but something died in them that day.

Something deep inside her shattered completely, she always thought that the reason this man never visited her in the last three years was because she never asked him to. She knew he was not fond of her, that the only reason he kept up with her was Kael. But his words from that day, the day when he gave her Kael's letter had stuck in her head all this time. Somewhere in her mind, she knew that if she ever needed him, he'd come to her aid but now she was not sure anymore. That trust, that hope had died today. Riven himself had killed it.

Elara barely registered the rest of his words. The world around her muted, her ears refusing to process the cold explanation that followed. He had turned the conversation back to Kael's death and the circumstances around it but her mind only clung desperately to one detail that shattered the veil of shock: "We couldn't find his body."

Her thoughts swirled. Her earlier argument was forgotten because of the new information she got. If they hadn't found his body, how could they be so sure? How could they say her brother was gone?

No, she couldn't believe them. She wouldn't. They must've been mistaken.

Kael was not gone. He couldn't be. He was alive somewhere- he had to be. He was playing one of their games, just like the hide-and-seek they used to play. She just needed to find him.

That day, she had sat there in the dim light of the sitting room, unmoving. Hours passed, and her back ached from sitting hunched over, but she couldn't bring herself to leave. When she finally looked around, she realized Riven was gone.

He had left her alone.

Again.

The only reason he had come back into her life after all those years was to tear it apart once more. Just when she had begun to adjust to Kael's absence, Riven had taken her fragile stability and shattered it.

Elara blinked slowly, shaking herself free from the memory's grip. The ache in her body grounded her back to the reality of the jungle. She breathed in the damp air as she whispered, "Now you want me to trust you? Keep dreaming."

Her resolve hardened as she pushed herself to her feet, clutching the dagger that was resting beside her. No matter how deep the jungle, no matter the danger that lay ahead, she would get out of here alive, for she still had to find her brother. She finally had a solid lead, Riven had confirmed it- slipped it in his hurry. That warehouse was really the place Kael had gone to for his secret mission, she must go there again.

Elara staggered as a sudden, violent ache erupted in her head and shoulder. The pain was searing, sharp enough to blur her vision and send the world spinning uncontrollably around her. She clutched her temple, her breath hitching as her balance wavered.

Her earlier rest had only made her battered body feel heavier, her limbs sluggish and uncooperative. The weight of exhaustion bore down on her, and her knees buckled beneath her. She crumpled to the ground, the rough earth unforgiving against her skin.

From the corner of her eye, through the disorienting haze of pain, she noticed something strange. Even in the suffocating darkness, a faint, shimmering light caught her attention. It wasn't the dagger. It was something else.

Loose strands of silver floated lightly across her face as she sank into the hard embrace of the ground. They gleamed faintly in the dim light filtering through the canopy, but Elara was too drained to linger on the thought.

Elara's thoughts faltered, confusion and exhaustion overtaking her. Darkness crowded the edges of her mind, and as her consciousness slipped further away, the faint glimmer of light faded into nothingness.


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