*The Crowned Child***
White swallowed everything.
Not light—
not heat—
something deeper.
A blinding emptiness that pressed against Aru's ribs like an invisible fist.
He wasn't falling anymore.
He was **standing**.
On nothing.
On everything.
The Memoryfire had flattened into a vast, shimmering plain, stretching endlessly in every direction like a mirror made of liquid stars.
The child stood opposite him on the glowing surface, bare feet rippling the light.
His small hands still clutched the fractured, beating heart.
Aru swallowed.
"Who… are you really?"
The child tilted his head.
"I'm you."
Aru shook his head. "I didn't look like that when I was eight. My hair wasn't that long, and—"
The child's voice sharpened.
"I'm not the version YOU remember."
Heat crawled up Aru's spine.
The kid's eyes weren't just gold anymore—
they were forming rings.
Circular patterns.
Crests of rhythm.
**Aural Crown crests.**
Aru stepped back instinctively.
Every instinct in him screamed danger.
The child smiled, too gently to be human.
"You hid me here, Aru. Inside the Memoryfire. Locked me away so you could pretend you were just… normal."
"I wasn't trying to erase *you*," Aru whispered. "I wanted to erase the pain."
The child's soft expression hardened.
"But the pain is ME."
A pulse shot through the mirror-like ground, rippling outward in perfect concentric circles. In the distance, the light shifted—forming silhouettes of memories:
A sterile hallway.
Adults arguing.
Children crying.
Silver instruments.
A room with no windows.
A girl with white hair standing outside a locked door—
Aru clutched his head.
"No—stop—please—"
But the child kept walking, light swirling around him.
"You chose to forget me. You chose to abandon Lyria. You chose to run from the Crown."
Aru's teeth clenched.
"I didn't choose!" he shouted. "I was a kid! I didn't understand anything!"
The child stopped right in front of him.
Their chests almost touched.
The small voice whispered:
"And now you do."
Aru's breath froze.
Because behind the child—
behind *all* the memories—
a shape was forming.
Tall.
Regal.
Humming with rhythm.
A silhouette crowned with ten shifting rings.
The **Aural Monarch.**
Not a memory—
A presence.
Aru stumbled back as the tower of golden rhythm energy took shape, its shadow stretching across the entire Memoryfire plane.
The child turned without fear and looked up at the colossal silhouette.
Softly, almost lovingly, he whispered:
"You came."
Aru's lungs locked as the towering Monarch lowered its head, studying him with unseen eyes.
A voice, neither male nor female, slid into his mind:
**—We have been waiting for you, Aru—
—our stolen child—
—our created heir—**
Aru's veins turned cold.
"Created…?" he whispered. "What do you mean *created*?"
The child laughed—a small, bright, chilling sound.
"You really don't remember anything."
A golden ripple burst beneath him, lifting him into the air until he floated directly in front of Aru.
"I wasn't just your childhood. I was your *origin.*"
The Monarch lifted one massive hand, made of swirling glyphs and rhythm.
The child dissolved into particles of light—
—and reformed inside the Monarch's palm.
Aru gasped.
The Monarch spoke:
**—Return to us—
—accept the Rhythm you abandoned—
—become what you were made to be—**
The Monarch extended its massive hand toward Aru.
The light of the offer—
the command—
the destiny he never wanted—
poured over him like burning water.
Aru staggered back, shaking, tears slipping down his face.
"No… I'm not your heir. I'm not your weapon. I'm not—"
His voice cracked to a whisper.
"—I'm not the thing you built."
The Monarch's shadow pulsed.
The Crowned Child whispered from its palm:
"You can't run anymore, Aru."
Aru clenched his fists.
He felt something spark in his chest—
something fierce—
something real.
"I'm not running."
The Memoryfire reacted instantly—
waves of light rippled outward—
the Monarch's rings shuddered—
the child's eyes widened—
And Aru's rhythm ignited.
Not gold.
Not crown-shaped.
A new color.
A new pulse.
A new **beat**:
**Silver-black.
Sharp.
Defiant.
Alive.**
The Monarch recoiled.
Kairo jolted awake behind him.
Solace gasped, shielding his eyes.
Both stared at Aru like he had become a star.
The child whispered, stunned:
"What… did you do?"
Aru stepped forward, breathing hard.
"I didn't accept your rhythm." His voice shook with power.
"I found my own."
The Monarch roared so loudly the entire Memoryfire trembled—
—and the Chapter ends with Aru lifting his hand, facing both the Monarch and the child inside it…
**ready to fight the past itself.**