NOVEL WEB Chapter 14: Ashen's Memory Trap
The trees thinned with every step Aaron took deeper into the Mourning Vale.
Leaves became sparse, the canopy faded, and even the wind fell silent—as if the forest itself held its breath.
At the center of a clearing, he finally saw him.
Ashen stood motionless, back turned.
Smoke curled around his feet, his body swaying faintly—like a marionette barely tethered.
> "Ashen!" Aaron called.
No answer.
Aaron stepped closer.
> "You ran," he said quietly. "Why?"
Still silence.
Only when Aaron was within arm's reach did Ashen slowly turn.
His eyes were wide—entirely white, empty.
---
🕯️ The Memory Prison
Without warning, the earth beneath Aaron pulsed.
Runes flickered in a glowing circle. The air chilled sharply.
A sudden pressure crushed his chest—
—and then, darkness.
---
He opened his eyes.
The forest had vanished.
He was inside a room built of ash, its walls shifting and flowing like smoke.
A mirror hovered in the center.
In the glass, he saw himself—much younger, no more than six.
Beside him, his mother smiled gently, lighting a flame on his open palm.
> "Do you feel that?" she whispered.
"That's not power. That's memory."
Aaron reached out—but his hand passed through the reflection.
Behind him, a voice echoed.
> "Memories are prisons when you don't know how to escape them."
Lucien's voice.
Aaron spun around.
Lucien stood calmly beside Ashen, who floated, suspended midair and surrounded by glowing glyphs.
> "What are you doing to him?!" Aaron demanded.
Lucien's gaze was cold.
> "Teaching him what you refuse to face. What you're too afraid to remember."
---
💀 The Revelation
Lucien waved his hand.
The mirror shattered.
Ashen's ash coalesced, shaping a living scene.
A small cage.
Inside, Aaron as a frightened boy, crying.
Outside, two children—a boy and a girl—burning alive.
> "You were there," Lucien said.
Aaron's breath caught.
> "No… I wasn't."
> "You were. You just chose to forget. Because remembering would break you."
Aaron dropped to his knees.
The ash tightened like a vice.
> "Ashen saw it. That's why he ran. He couldn't bear your burden and his own."
---
🔥 Aaron's Defiance
But then—a spark.
His flame ignited, small at first.
Flickering.
Growing.
Aaron rose.
> "Maybe I forgot. Maybe I was weak. But that flame—that fire—is mine. Not yours."
He slammed his palm against the ash-covered floor.
The world shattered.
---
Ashen collapsed from midair, gasping as the smoke exploded outward.
Lucien vanished into a swirl of cinders.
The forest returned—quiet and watching.
Aaron caught Ashen before he hit the ground.
> "I remember enough," Aaron said, eyes aflame.
"Enough to never run again."
Ashen looked up, tears silently tracing pale cheeks.
> "I saw what you hid," he whispered.
"And I still came back."
---
The two sat in silence.
Morning light filtered weakly through the blackened branches above.
Not all memories had to be pure.
Some… just had to be shared.