Chapter 62 The Echo Within
The Echoing Vale shimmered between realms—a sanctuary carved from memory and mercy. My flame kept it stable, a quiet heartbeat of light in a world still learning to breathe. The Eerie had begun to settle, shaping homes from mist and song, their forms growing steadier with each passing day.
But Milo lingered at the edge.
His shadow was restless, curling at his feet like smoke that refused to settle. He hadn’t spoken to me since the confrontation. He hadn’t spoken to himself.
Until now.
Milo wandered into the Vale’s heart, where the veil was thinnest and echoes strongest. Beneath a silver tree that pulsed with forgotten futures, he saw him.
The boy.
His echo.
Same eyes. Same voice. But colder. Sharper. Like a blade that had never been dulled by kindness. Milo dreaded this boy, and the boy knew it.
“You chose light,” the echo said. “I chose truth.”
Milo’s shadow flared. “You’re not real.”
“I was. Until she rewrote me.”
The echo stepped closer, his presence like a chill in the bones.
“You fear the void. But it’s part of you. You fear me. But I am you.”
Milo clenched his fists. “You’re a shadow.”
“I’m a possibility,” the echo said. “One you buried.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” Milo shouts. The echo repeats the same thing every time he comes here. With every word, it dug just a little bit deeper under my skin. It was affecting my balance, it affected my ability to stand strong, and the echo knew it.
The silver tree shimmered, and Milo was pulled into a vision.
He saw himself as the Voidborn’s heir—powerful, feared, alone. He saw Mo choosing someone else. He saw the world burning. He saw the echo—standing in the ashes, smiling.
“This is what you denied,” the echo whispered.
Milo’s shadow surged, ready to strike.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he stepped forward—and embraced it.
The vision shattered.
Milo emerged from the vision changed.
His shadow was steadier, deeper—not a weapon, but a truth. He found Mo at the Vale’s edge, watching the stars ripple across the veil.
“I met him,” he said. “My echo.”
I nodded. “And?”
“And, I think that he could be right. I am both Calyx and Void, they are a part of me,” Milo utters while continuing to look up at the stars
“Everyone has a choice, Milo, I can’t choose for you,” I add
“But you did, you chose to change and rewrite the prophecy you started this Mo” Milo shouts.
Back at the Flameborn camp, the others were less serene.
“I’m just saying,” Thess said, sharpening her blade on a rock that looked suspiciously like a councilor’s bust, “if one more Eerie stares at me like I’m a bad decision, I’m going to start making worse ones.”
“They’re not staring,” Kael replied, flipping through a spellbook. “They’re observing. There’s a difference.”
“Right. Observing. Like how Gerald observes my tent every night before chewing a hole in it.”
Gerald the goat bleated from atop a nearby crate, chewing on what might have once been a diplomatic treaty.
“He’s expressing himself,” Lira said, petting Gerald’s head. “Through interpretive destruction.”
“Speaking of destruction,” Zeke said, ducking as Quacknor dive-bombed a lantern, “can we talk about the duck? He’s been in a mood since the last veil pulse.”
Quacknor landed dramatically, fluffed his feathers, and pecked Zeke’s boot with righteous indignation.
“I think he’s sensing instability,” Ellira said, “Or he’s just mad we ran out of breadcrumbs.”
“Same,” Yuel muttered. “I haven’t had a decent pastry since we got here. This realm is beautiful, but it’s severely lacking in carbs.”
Narrin, ever the tactician, ignored the chaos. “Where’s Milo?”
“Brooding,” Kael said. “Probably near a tree. Or a metaphor.”
Milo returned to the group just as Gerald attempted to headbutt a portal stone into submission.
“I’m fine,” Milo said before anyone could ask.
“You look like you hugged a thunderstorm,” Thess said.
“I did,” Milo replied. “Sort of.”
“Did it hug back?” Yuel asked.
Milo hesitated. “Yes. And it was me.”
There was a pause.
“Okay,” Zeke said. “So, we’re just casually embracing our inner darkness now? Cool. Cool, cool, cool.”
I arrived, my flame casting a soft glow. “He met his echo.”
“Did you punch it?” Thess asked hopefully.
“No,” Milo said.
“Why?,” Thess muttered.
Milo said. “The void. The echo. It’s part of me. Hell Calyx is part of me. So what does that make me?”
“Seriously disturbed,” Kael mutters
“I’m with Kael on this one,” Talon adds.
Suddenly, the veil pulsed.
The sky above the Vale shimmered, and a ripple of unease passed through the Eerie settlements. The silver tree at the heart of the Vale flickered.
My flame flared. “Something’s coming.”
“Another echo?” Ellira asked.
“No,” I said. “Something older.”
Gerald bleated and ran in a circle.
Quacknor took flight, squawking like a war horn.
“Great,” Thess said, drawing her blade. “I just got emotionally stable. Now we’re doing this again?”
“Welcome to the Flameborn,” Yuel said. “We don’t do peace. We do plot twists.”
As the group gathered at the Vale’s center, Milo stood beside me.
“I can’t keep doing this,” he said.
“Not the time to doubt,” I replied. As we gathered to see what was coming for us next
“For whatever comes next, we need to stand together.”
The veil shimmered again.
And far beyond the horizon, something stirred.
Not an echo.
Not a future.
But a reckoning.
“Did you really think that I would allow this to happen. You can’t win, nor will you ever fully succeed. Welcome to the party, Emberleaf and Flameborn,” The eerie voice calls through the vale.
‘Why can’t they just tell us what they want and then we can make these little power plays happen so much quicker, ' Zeke says as he munches on the last of the chips.
“Hey, I didn’t get any of those,” Yuel growls, looking at Zeke.
“You snooze, you lose,” Zeke replies laughingly.