The tiny wisp of light — Echo — rested against Solance's chest, blinking faintly like a star trying to remember how to shine.
Its glow was small, trembling, but warm enough to make the forest lean in as though listening.
Solance held it carefully, his silver light curling around it like a protective cradle.
Lioren stepped closer, voice barely above a whisper.
"Does it… hurt?"
Solance shook his head.
"…Not hurt.
Just… tired."
Aurelianth knelt before the wisp, his golden glow casting soft lines across the mossy clearing.
"It's been trapped for so long," he murmured.
"Even breathing again must feel overwhelming."
The wisp flickered in agreement.
Solance's hand trembled slightly.
"…They're so small…"
He swallowed, emotion gathering in his voice.
"…But I can feel how big they once were."
Aurelianth touched Solance's back gently.
"That greatness is still inside them."
The wisp brightened, a tiny pulse of gratitude that warmed Aurelianth's fingertips.
Lioren crouched, amber glow deepening.
"Aurelianth...what should we do now that we've freed them?"
He looked at the flickering wisp, felt the ancient presence trembling inside it, and spoke softly:
"We help them remember themselves."
Solance nodded slowly, carefully lifting the wisp in his palms.
Echo brightened just enough to cast a small halo around Solance's fingers.
Aurelianth leaned closer.
"Echo...can you hear me?"
The wisp flickered once.
Lioren inhaled sharply.
"That's yes, right?"
Solance smiled softly.
"…It's yes."
Aurelianth touched his fingertips together, thinking.
"You must be weak after so long alone," he said gently.
"But you're safe now.
We want to help you recover.
Can you tell us what you need?"
The wisp trembled...
A faint pulse.
A soft dimming.
A flicker like a tiny heartbeat.
Solance's eyes widened as Echo's emotion brushed against his mind.
"…They're… trying to speak."
Aurelianth swallowed.
"Let them.
Even one word is enough."
The wisp brightened...
Dimmed...
Brightened...
Struggling to shape sound.
Then, softly, gently,
barely audible :
"…warmth…"
Solance gasped.
Lioren pressed both hands to her mouth.
Aurelianth froze.
The tiny voice echoed through the clearing like the world's first whisper.
Solance held Echo closer to his chest, silver glow enveloping the wisp like a soft blanket.
"You want warmth?" he whispered.
The wisp pulsed weakly.
"…warmth… safe…"
Aurelianth felt something inside his chest ache.
This being, older than the Architect, older than the Arbiter, older than the world's laws all it wanted was a gentle place to rest.
Lioren sat beside Solance and reached out her amber light.
"Here," she whispered.
"Take some of mine."
The wisp drifted closer to her palm, touching her skin like a sigh.
A small glow spread from Lioren's fingertips into the wisp's faint body.
Echo brightened barely, but enough to glow like a newborn flame.
Solance smiled softly.
"…They like you."
Lioren's voice warmed.
"Well, they're very welcome here."
Aurelianth joined them, cupping his hands over theirs.
Golden warmth flowed around the wisp, soft and steady.
Together gold, amber, silver, their lights formed a small cocoon of safety.
Echo pulsed inside it, growing more stable by the second.
A soft sound escaped the wisp a tone closer to a hum than a word, but full of feeling.
Aurelianth murmured:
"They're relieved."
Solance nodded, eyes shining.
"…They were afraid no one would hear them again."
Lioren tightened her hands.
"But we did.
And we won't leave them."
Echo trembled with gratitude, soft particles of light drifting up like tears dissolving into air.
The forest shifted around them branches leaning closer, leaves shimmering, the earth warming beneath their knees.
It wasn't just reacting to the trio.
It was reacting to Echo.
Aurelianth noticed immediately.
"This is the first time the world has responded to something other than us."
Solance blinked softly.
"…Because Echo is part of the world's beginning…"
Lioren looked around in awe.
"Does that mean...the world remembers them?"
Aurelianth shook his head slowly.
"No.
But the world missed them."
The ground glowed faintly beneath Echo, as if trying to soothe a long-forgotten wound.
Solance's glow flickered gently.
"…Can you speak again?" he whispered.
The wisp shimmered.
A pause.
A strain of effort.
Then, quiet as soft wind brushing petals :
"…cold… long…"
Solance's breath broke.
"Oh...they were alone… for so long."
Echo pulsed again.
"…forgotten…"
Aurelianth's fists tightened.
The Arbiter.
The Architect.
Something between them.
Someone erased this being.
And the world itself felt that absence as a wound.
Aurelianth touched the wisp gently.
"You're with us now," he whispered.
"You're not forgotten anymore."
Echo brightened again a warm, trembling light that filled the clearing.
The world breathed.
Leaves rustled like a quiet choir.
Soft particles of light drifted between the trees, circling the trio and the wisp in gentle spirals.
Lioren looked up, awe shining in her eyes.
"The world is… welcoming them home."
Solance smiled through tears.
"…It missed its caretaker."
Aurelianth nodded slowly.
"But the world isn't just welcoming them.
It's changing for them."
As he spoke, the clearing floor rippled soil shifting into soft moss, small flowers blooming in tight spirals around Echo.
Lioren gasped.
"It's trying to comfort them."
Aurelianth stood, hands glowing.
"We need to take Echo back to the sanctuary."
Solance frowned.
"…Will they be safe there?"
Aurelianth nodded.
"Yes.
The sanctuary is connected to the world's heart.
Echo will recover faster there."
Lioren rose with them.
"And they'll feel less alone."
A faint whisper echoed from the wisp:
"…home…"
Solance's voice trembled.
"Yes," he whispered.
"We'll take you home."
The world responded with a soft pulse the path ahead glowing, guiding them back toward the sanctuary.
Aurelianth took Solance's free hand.
Lioren took the other.
Together with the ancient wisp glowing between them they stepped onto the path.
The forest bowed, branches lowering gently as if honoring the return of a forgotten guardian.
Aurelianth whispered to Echo :
"We'll help you remember everything."
The wisp pulsed faintly.
"…together…"
Solance's eyes shone.
"Yes.
Together."
And as they walked deeper into the world still being created, a distant presence stirred one that had been waiting for Echo's awakening.
But for now, only the path, the sanctuary, and the pulse of a recovering ancient soul mattered.
The world had given them its first gift.
And now, they carried its first sorrow and its first hope.