the last sovereign of infinity

The first black lantern ignited near the horizon.

Then another.

Then another.

Within seconds, the darkness spread across the gray plain.

Millions of extinguished lanterns awakened one after another, their flames burning black beneath the broken sky.

No heat came from them.

No smoke.

Only hunger.

Lucien released Caelum.

The moment between the brothers ended without truly ending.

There would be time for words later.

If they survived.

The golden-eyed child stared at the spreading darkness.

"It shouldn't be able to do this."

Aurel lifted his silver lantern.

Its flame had returned, but weakly.

"What changed?"

"Nothing."

The child shook his head.

"That's the problem."

Lucien looked toward him.

"Explain."

"This place was safe because it had no Road."

Another line of black flames ignited.

"It wasn't connected to anything."

"Then how did we enter?"

The child looked at him.

"You remembered it."

Lucien understood.

"We created a connection."

"No."

Lyra suddenly spoke.

Everyone turned.

Her face had gone pale.

She was staring at the ground.

"We created a Road."

Silver light appeared beneath her feet.

Tiny.

Faint.

But unmistakable.

A line.

It stretched from the doorway behind them to Lucien's grave.

The first Road ever born within the realm of the Uncarried.

The child looked horrified.

"No..."

Lyra stepped backward.

"It followed us."

Astrael drew his weapon.

"Then we cut the Road."

"You can't."

"Why?"

Lyra looked toward Lucien.

"Because it isn't made from stone."

The silver line brightened.

"It's made from remembrance."

Lucien looked at his grave.

He had remembered this place.

Caelum had remembered killing him.

Aurel had remembered burying him.

Together, they had done what Roads always did.

Connected people through memory.

Orion slowly raised a hand.

"So..."

"We saved ourselves into a problem."

Astrael glanced at him.

"Essentially."

"Good."

"Why is that good?"

"Because that's familiar."

The darkness above them moved.

Every joke died.

Something enormous pressed against the cracks in the gray sky.

No shape could be seen.

Only absence.

Where it touched the realm, pieces of the sky disappeared.

Not shattered.

Gone.

The golden-eyed child whispered,

"The Unremembered."

Lucien looked at him.

"That's its name?"

"No."

"What is?"

The child stared upward.

"What it is."

The Hollow Sovereign stepped beside Lucien.

"Something forgotten?"

"Worse."

The child shook his head.

"Something that was never remembered at all."

Silence.

Even Aurel looked disturbed.

The child continued.

"Before the First World..."

"Before the Roads..."

"Before anyone lit a lantern..."

"There were possibilities."

"Worlds that might have existed."

"People who might have been born."

"Choices that might have been made."

"Most never happened."

Lucien looked upward.

"And they became that?"

"No."

The child's voice became very quiet.

"One of them refused not to exist."

The darkness moved again.

A voice descended from beyond the broken sky.

Not loud.

Yet every Uncarried heard it.

You kept everything except me.

The black lanterns flared.

Millions of voices gasped together.

Lucien felt the accusation enter his bones.

The Unremembered spoke again.

You gave names to stars.

A crack widened.

Names to rivers.

Another.

Names to gods.

The black fire spread closer.

You remembered your dead.

Closer.

You remembered your mistakes.

Closer.

You even built a world for what you erased.

The darkness stopped directly above Lucien.

But no one remembered me.

Lucien raised the Lantern of Welcome.

Gold pushed against black.

Barely.

"You never existed."

The response came immediately.

Neither did your Roads.

Lucien froze.

Until someone imagined them.

The words struck harder than expected.

The child looked at Lucien.

Fear filled his golden eyes.

"Don't listen."

But the Unremembered continued.

Neither did your Houses.

The black flames trembled.

Neither did your Sovereigns.

A pause.

Neither did Lucien.

Caelum stepped forward.

"Enough."

The darkness ignored him.

You were created because another version of you became unbearable.

Lucien's Lantern flickered.

A replacement.

Another flicker.

A kinder lie.

Caelum grabbed Lucien's shoulder.

"Don't."

Lucien looked down at the golden flame.

Was that what he was?

The Sovereign had died.

His memories erased.

Lucien had awakened later.

A life constructed from what remained.

A second attempt.

A correction.

The Unremembered whispered:

You and I are the same.

The Lantern of Welcome went out.

Darkness swallowed Lucien.

"LUCIEN!"

Caelum's voice sounded impossibly distant.

Lucien stood alone.

No gray plain.

No companions.

Nothing.

Then someone appeared.

Himself.

Not Aurel.

Not the Sovereign.

Lucien.

Exactly as he was.

The reflection looked at him.

"Are you real?"

Lucien said nothing.

"What makes you Lucien?"

"My memories."

"Most were erased."

"My choices."

"Many belonged to someone before you."

"My name."

"Given after the Sovereign died."

Lucien's reflection stepped closer.

"So what remains?"

Lucien had no answer.

The darkness seemed pleased.

Then...

Something ridiculous happened.

A whistle sounded.

Lucien blinked.

Another whistle.

Badly played.

Painfully loud.

The darkness rippled.

A voice shouted from somewhere impossibly far away.

"LUCIEN!"

Orion.

Lucien almost laughed.

Another whistle shrieked.

"I BROUGHT SIX OF THESE!"

Lucien closed his eyes.

Of course he had.

The darkness cracked.

Orion's voice came through.

"YOU SAID THE GROUND SUPPORTS THE NECK!"

Lucien stared.

"What?"

Another voice.

Tomorrow.

"You promised the child you would return."

Astrael followed.

"You insult my carving."

Lyra.

"You tell me to keep drawing."

Cael.

"You gave me a home."

Caelum's voice came last.

"You are my brother."

The darkness fractured.

Lucien understood.

None of those memories belonged to the Sovereign.

They were his.

Small things.

Recent things.

Ordinary things.

His things.

Lucien looked at his reflection.

"You asked what remains."

The reflection waited.

Lucien smiled.

"Everything I've done since."

The reflection cracked.

Golden light erupted through the darkness.

Lucien opened his eyes.

The gray plain returned.

His companions surrounded him.

Orion stood several feet away holding an emergency whistle.

Astrael looked murderous.

"Never do that again."

Orion lowered the whistle.

"It worked."

"My ears are bleeding."

"Heroism has costs."

The Lantern of Welcome reignited.

Brighter.

The Unremembered recoiled.

Lucien lifted the lantern.

"You were wrong."

The darkness became still.

"I don't need to have always existed."

Lucien looked toward the millions of Uncarried.

"Neither do Roads."

"Neither do Houses."

"Neither does hope."

The golden flame grew.

"Something doesn't become meaningless because it had a beginning."

The black lanterns nearest him flickered.

Lucien took one step forward.

"And being forgotten doesn't make something unreal."

The golden-eyed child stared at him.

Understanding appeared slowly.

Lucien looked upward.

"You wanted someone to remember you?"

The darkness hesitated.

For the first time...

The Unremembered did not answer immediately.

Lucien lowered his lantern.

"Then stop hiding."

Caelum stared at him.

"Lucien."

The Hollow Sovereign whispered,

"Careful."

Lucien ignored them.

He looked directly into the darkness.

"If you want a place in memory..."

"Come where I can see you."

Silence.

Then laughter.

Not cruel.

Not amused.

Broken.

You would welcome me?

Lucien thought about the House With the Lantern.

Its rule had always been simple.

The door opened for the lost.

Not only the good.

Not only the innocent.

The lost.

"If you come without consuming anyone..."

Lucien held the Lantern of Welcome forward.

"...yes."

Every black flame across the gray plain stopped moving.

The Unremembered became utterly still.

The golden-eyed child whispered,

"No one has ever offered it that."

"Then perhaps someone should have."

The darkness above them began shrinking.

Slowly.

Painfully.

The cracks in the sky closed around it.

Something descended.

Not enormous.

Small.

A figure.

Bare feet touched the gray ground.

Black flames swirled around a body no taller than Lucien.

The darkness peeled away.

Everyone stared.

Lucien had expected a monster.

Instead...

A young woman stood before them.

Perhaps twenty.

Perhaps older than the world.

Her hair was black.

Her clothes were simple.

Her face held no features.

No eyes.

No nose.

No mouth.

Nothing.

Because no one had ever imagined what she looked like.

The Lantern of Welcome trembled.

Lucien approached.

The faceless woman did not move.

"Do you have a name?"

A voice emerged from nowhere.

No.

"Do you want one?"

Long silence.

I don't know.

Lucien smiled faintly.

"That's a start."

Behind the woman, millions of black lanterns began losing their darkness.

Not becoming gold.

Simply going out.

Returning to rest.

The golden-eyed child stepped closer.

For the first time, he looked at the Unremembered without fear.

Then his expression changed.

He looked beyond her.

"Wait."

Lucien followed his gaze.

The sky had closed.

The Unremembered stood before them.

Nothing should have remained above.

Yet one crack was still open.

Tiny.

Almost invisible.

Something watched through it.

The faceless woman turned.

Her entire body stiffened.

Fear radiated from her.

Lucien immediately understood.

"You weren't consuming the Roads to reach this place."

The woman slowly shook her head.

No.

"Then why?"

Her answer came as a whisper.

I was running.

No one moved.

Caelum looked upward.

"From what?"

For the first time in her impossible existence, the Unremembered reached toward another person.

Her fingers closed around Lucien's sleeve.

Like a frightened child seeking safety.

The remaining crack widened.

Beyond it...

There was no darkness.

There was light.

Endless white light.

And within that light stood countless silhouettes.

Perfectly still.

Perfectly identical.

Every one carried a lantern burning with colorless flame.

The faceless woman trembled.

From those who remember everything.

One silhouette stepped closer.

A white hand reached through the crack.

And every lantern in the realm of the Uncarried went out.

The golden-eyed child stared upward in horror.

"The First World didn't seal itself to keep something inside."

Aurel slowly raised his silver lantern.

"No."

His face had become deathly pale.

"We sealed it..."

The white hand pushed farther through.

"...to keep them out."