"Please, this time, don’t choose the one who looks like you."
Veyric couldn’t move.
The voice had come from inside him, but it hadn’t sounded like the child whose presence had haunted the chamber. It was younger, frightened, and painfully familiar. He had heard that voice somewhere before, perhaps in a dream or in a memory he had spent years learning not to question.
The blue line beneath his skin tightened.
"Veyric?" Nyelle reached for him.
He tried to answer, but the words caught in his throat. The white circle beneath his feet had begun to rise, forming a thin boundary around his body. Unlike the earlier markings, this one didn’t touch the floor. It hovered a few inches above it, following the rhythm of his breathing.
Their mother approached, but the small figure stopped her.
"Don’t cross it."
"Move."
"If you enter, the chamber will recognize you as the replacement witness."
She stared at him. "You know what this is doing?"
"I know what it did the first time."
Veyric turned towards the figure. "Then tell me how to stop it."
The figure looked at the circle.
"You can’t stop the selection after it has started. You can only refuse the identities it offers."
The phone displayed three faint shapes. Two were almost identical, while the third was smaller and had an incomplete outline.
\[WITNESS TRANSFER: ACTIVE.\]
\[RECOGNITION CANDIDATES: THREE.\]
\[PRIMARY SUBJECT: VEYRIC.\]
\[SECONDARY SUBJECT: UNRESOLVED.\]
\[THIRD SUBJECT: UNRESOLVED.\]
The names flickered, then disappeared.
Veyric looked at Nyelle. "Don’t answer anything it asks."
She nodded, but her attention remained fixed on the phone.
"There’s something I need to tell you," she said.
"Not now."
"It has to be now."
Her voice carried a certainty that made him stop.
"When I opened the door, I didn’t just see two boys. I saw three."
Their mother closed her eyes.
Veyric looked at her. "You remember?"
"I remember a third shape," Nyelle continued. "It was behind the other two. I thought it was someone standing in the corridor, but when I tried to look directly at it, I couldn’t see its face."
Eren stepped closer.
"What did it do?"
Nyelle swallowed.
"It held out its hand."
The black mark around Eren’s wrist contracted.
"And did you take it?" he asked.
"No."
The answer came quietly.
Eren looked away.
"I took the hand of the boy standing in front of me. I thought he was the one calling my name." She glanced at Veyric. "But I remember something else now. Before I reached him, someone behind the door said my name. Not Veyric. Not Eren. Mine."
The chamber trembled.
A faint sound travelled through the walls, like machinery beginning to turn after years without power.
Veyric felt the circle tighten around his chest.
"What did the voice say?"
Nyelle shook her head. "I can’t remember."
The small figure stepped towards her.
"Don’t force it."
She faced him. "You keep telling us what not to do. What did you do when the door opened?"
The question caught him off guard.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he looked at Veyric.
"I held the other side."
"Of the door?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
The figure’s eyes lowered.
"Because someone had to keep it from closing."
Eren laughed without humour.
"You were supposed to keep it open for me."
The figure flinched.
Veyric looked between them. "You knew each other?"
"I knew someone with his face," Eren replied. "I don’t know if it was him."
The small figure finally spoke.
"I remember a hand slipping through the door. I remember someone telling me not to let go. Then I remember Nyelle walking away with a child."
"Which child?" Veyric asked.
"I don’t know."
"Was it me?"
"I don’t know."
Veyric stepped closer, ignoring the circle’s resistance.
"Was it Eren?"
The figure’s expression changed.
"I remember the hand."
It raised its own hand, examining its fingers as though searching for a mark that wasn’t there.
"I remember holding it. But when I looked down, there was no one attached to it."
A new message appeared on the phone.
\[MEMORY CONFLICT DETECTED.\]
\[WITNESS RECORD: INCOMPLETE.\]
\[RECALL PRIVILEGE: REQUIRES SUBJECT CONFIRMATION.\]
The white circle beneath Veyric suddenly split into three branches.
One extended towards Nyelle.
Another reached Eren.
The third pointed directly at the small figure.
Veyric understood the problem now. The chamber wasn’t simply trying to identify which child had been returned. It was trying to establish who had witnessed the separation, and the answer might be different from the person who remembered it.
"Mother," he said. "What happens if the witness isn’t the person who remembers?"
She looked at the three branches.
"Then the procedure has no authority to complete."
"Can that happen?"
"It shouldn’t."
"But can it?"
Their mother hesitated.
"Yes."
The phone vibrated again.
\[WITNESS CONFIRMATION: REQUIRED.\]
\[PLEASE IDENTIFY THE SUBJECT WHO WAS LEFT BEHIND.\]
A voice came from the circle beneath Veyric.
"Don’t make me ask again."
It was his voice.
Not the frightened child’s voice from before. This one was older, deeper, and sounded exactly like him on an ordinary day.
Veyric stared at the floor.
"Who are you?"
"I told you already."
"No. You told me what you wanted me to believe."
A pause followed.
Then the voice said, "You always do that."
Veyric’s breathing became uneven.
The words brought back something small and ordinary: a boy sitting on the kitchen floor, refusing to eat because his sister had been given the larger portion. Someone laughing. Someone telling him to stop being difficult.
It was the kind of memory that should have meant nothing.
Yet the voice beneath him sounded like the boy who had complained.
Nyelle crouched beside the circle.
"Is that you?" she whispered.
The voice didn’t answer her.
"Nyelle," Veyric warned.
"I need to know."
The voice finally spoke.
"You brought him back."
Nyelle’s face tightened.
"I know."
"No. You brought back the one who could call you sister."
Her eyes filled.
"What does that mean?"
"It means he knew what you wanted to hear."
Veyric’s blue line flared.
"Stop talking to her."
The voice gave a quiet, almost familiar sigh.
"You’re still doing it."
"Doing what?"
"Standing between us."
Veyric looked at the small figure.
It had gone pale.
The voice continued.
"You were always better at that than remembering."
The white branches snapped together.
For an instant, Veyric saw three children standing in the chamber. One wore a white mark around his wrist. Another had a blue mark. The third stood behind them, holding the broken blue bracelet.
But the image was wrong.
The child with the white mark was looking towards the door, while the blue-marked child was looking at Nyelle. The third child wasn’t watching either of them.
He was looking at Veyric.
Then the vision disappeared.
Veyric staggered.
A message flashed across the phone.
\[MEMORY FRAGMENT RECOVERED.\]
\[SUBJECT IDENTIFICATION: CONFLICTED.\]
\[WITNESS IDENTITY: NOT VEYRIC.\]
He stared at the final line.
"What?"
Their mother leaned towards the screen.
"That’s impossible."
The small figure stepped backwards.
Nyelle looked from the phone to Veyric. "What does it mean?"
Veyric didn’t answer immediately. His thoughts were moving too quickly, but one detail had become impossible to ignore.
If he wasn’t the witness, then the chamber had never been trying to transfer the authority to him.
It had been trying to make him believe he was the one who could decide.
"Mother," he said slowly, "who was the witness?"
She looked at the message again.
"I don’t know."
Eren moved towards the phone.
"I do."
Everyone turned.
He raised his wrist. The broken circle around it had begun to glow, revealing a small white point at its centre.
"The witness wasn’t the one who watched us."
He looked directly at Nyelle.
"It was the one who remembered what happened after you left."
The phone screen went black.
Then a new recording began without anyone touching it.
A child’s voice spoke from the darkness.
Nyelle, don’t turn around.
A second voice answered.
Why?
Because the one you’re holding isn’t the one you came for.
The recording crackled.
Then came a sound Veyric recognized immediately.
A door closing.
And behind it, someone began to scream.
Nyelle stumbled away from the phone.
Their mother whispered something under her breath, but Veyric barely heard it. He was watching the small figure, whose expression had changed from fear to something far worse.
Recognition.
"What did you hear?" Veyric asked.
The figure slowly raised its eyes.
"I remember who was holding the door."
"Who?"
It looked at Veyric.
"You."
Before he could respond, the chamber’s white markings vanished.
Every light went out.
And in the darkness, Nyelle felt someone take her hand.
A child’s voice whispered beside her ear.
"Thank you for coming back."
Then another voice, standing on her other side, said:
"Why did you bring him instead?"