NOVEL WEB Chapter 9: Chapter 7: The Fool and the Forgotten
Chapter 7: The Fool and the Forgotten
The sky above Backlund was split in half.
One part shimmered with the usual mist and gaslights.
The other was dimmer—subtly wrong—as if reality had been folded and badly ironed.
Eiren walked between them.
The coin in his pocket pulsed like a second heartbeat. The anchor Lyra left him.
He hadn't intended to arrive here.
But paths manipulated by gods are rarely straight.
He stepped through an alley that didn't exist on the map and out into a place no map should contain:
A gray-domed cathedral with no doors, no windows, and a pendulum made of ink swinging above.
A voice echoed inside his mind, not spoken—but revealed:
"He sits above the gray fog, and even the gods avert their gaze."
The Fool's Cathedral.
Klein's place.
Inside, it was impossible.
The interior was an endless clocktower.
Each floor suspended in space.
Each stairwell leading both up and down simultaneously.
And at the center: a long table, with cards floating mid-air.
Eiren blinked—
And suddenly, someone sat at the head of the table, as if he'd always been there.
A man in an archaic black robe, a top hat, and an air of gentle, cosmic disassociation.
His eyes shimmered like foggy glass.
"You've stepped onto a path that should not exist," the man said calmly.
"Tell me. Are you lost… or finally beginning to be found?"
Eiren didn't answer right away.
"You're… Klein Moretti."
The man tilted his head slightly, amused.
"Perhaps."
"And perhaps not."
"Identity is a coat we wear over something emptier."
He gestured for Eiren to sit. The chair materialized behind him.
"I need answers," Eiren said.
"Then be prepared to pay in truths."
A moment of silence.
The only sound was the pendulum above.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
"I'm being hunted by Velkaris," Eiren said. "Or watched. Or… maybe both."
"He watches all who remember what should be forgotten," Klein said, folding his gloved hands.
"You've stirred a current he buried long ago."
"Lyra."
The name echoed through the cathedral.
Candles extinguished themselves in response.
Eiren looked up sharply. "You know her?"
Klein's face grew still.
"I remember her prayer. Before she vanished."
"It reached even here. Past the domains of falsehood."
He rose, slowly, and retrieved a deck of ancient cards from the table. Tarot—but not entirely human in origin.
He drew one.
The Hanged Man.
"She traded her fate to buy you a moment of clarity."
"That moment is ending."
Eiren stood.
"She said he wasn't always a god. That he used to be—"
"Yes," Klein said.
"A man. A seeker. Like you."
"He ascended the Fake Pathway not to deceive the world… but to escape from himself."
"And now, you remind him of the self he lost."
Suddenly, Klein's voice grew sharper.
"You're not the first he tried to erase. But you might be the first who can erase him."
Eiren's breath caught.
"You're saying I can... kill him?"
Klein smiled—not with hope, but something colder.
"Gods are ideas. And ideas can be rewritten. Forgotten. Overwritten."
"But only by one who knows the truth."
He handed Eiren the tarot card.
The Hanged Man now showed Velkaris' mask upside down, with a mirror shattering behind it.
"You've begun to unravel him," Klein whispered.
"But tread carefully. Even the Fool only plays when the stakes are chaos and paradox."
"Leave now. The longer you stay, the more he sees."
The cathedral dissolved.
And Eiren was back on the misty streets of Backlund.
The tarot card still in his hand.
[New Quest: Unmask the God]
Collect 3 Lost Memories
Survive 2 Velkaris Interventions
Confront the First Mirror
Reward: Path of the Unwritten (Hidden Sequence Unlock)
Warning: Your mind is now marked with the Fool's Gaze. Blessing or curse—unknown.
Far above, in a mirror that had no reflection, Velkaris paused.
His mask trembled.
Just slightly.
End of Chapter 7