Keith Sterling's Arc

Chapter 6 of 8

Keith pressed both hands to his temples. The name sat somewhere behind his eyes, sealed shut. He pushed at the memory the way a man shoves a locked door. Nothing gave. Sweat ran down his neck. He tried again, and again. The name stayed buried, and he was no closer to the truth than before the rite. Lysandra sat still, her staff across her knees. The blind oracle had guided him this far, but even she looked uncertain now. Her white eyes turned toward him. "You cannot break your own mind by force," she said. "The spell hid the name inside a memory. Not a fact. A moment." "Then which moment?" Keith dropped his hands. "I've never met her. I don't know her face. How can I remember something that never happened to me?" "The trace came from your ring." Lysandra reached out and touched the signet on the altar. "The ring holds her magic. Her magic knows her own name. Hold the ring against the wound. Not the spell. The grief." Keith didn't understand. But he was out of other doors. He lifted the signet from the stack and closed it inside his fist. He shut his eyes. This time he did not push at the door. He thought of the ache instead. The empty nights. The years of wanting someone who accepted him whole. He let it hurt. The ring warmed in his hand. Behind his eyes, something shifted. Not a face. A feeling first. Warmth, and a voice he had never heard, laughing at something he could not see. He held the grief steady and did not grab at it. The memory came closer on its own. Then the door opened. Not the whole room behind it. Just a crack. Through the crack came the first sound of the name. A single syllable, soft, in that same laughing voice. It rang clear and then slipped away. Keith's eyes flew open. "I heard it," he said. His hand shook around the ring. "The start of it. One piece. It's real. It's in there." Lysandra's face did not lift. "One piece," she said. "The wall cracked. It did not fall." "But I reached it." Keith gripped the signet hard. "I know how now. The grief opens it, not force. I can go back in." "You can." The oracle set her hand over his fist. "But the memory guards the rest. Each piece will cost you more than the last. The spell buried her name inside your worst grief for a reason. To hear the whole name, you must walk through all of it. Every wound you own." Keith looked down at the ring in his fist. He had one syllable. He had a way in. He also knew what it would take to reach the end. He closed his hand tighter and did not let go.