That night, Raka didn't sleep.
He sat on the floor of his room with his back against the wall. The oil lamp in the corner had nearly gone out, but he made no effort to relight it.
His mind was too full.
One sentence kept circling through his head.
**I may have killed my family.**
He didn't know where that memory had come from.
He also didn't know whether the vision had truly been the past or merely a trap someone had deliberately planted in his mind.
But there was one thing he couldn't deny.
He recognized the house in the vision.
His family's house.
He recognized the long table in the main room.
The window on the eastern side.
Even the scratch marks on the wooden pillar he'd made as a child.
If it had all been just a dream, why had it felt so real?
The bedroom door opened slowly.
Alya entered.
She was carrying two cups of tea.
"You haven't slept."
Raka shook his head.
"I can't."
Alya sat down across from him.
"Because of the vision?"
"Yeah."
Alya handed him the tea.
Raka accepted it.
For a while, they sat in silence.
"I want to go home."
Alya looked at him.
"To your family's house?"
Raka nodded.
"I need to know what really happened."
"What if your father really is hiding something?"
"That's exactly why I have to go."
Alya didn't answer right away.
"All right."
Raka looked at her.
"All right?"
"I'm coming with you."
"You don't have to."
"I know."
"Then?"
Alya looked at him calmly.
"I'm still coming."
Raka smiled faintly.
"You're always so stubborn."
"So are you."
From the corner of the room, Dimas, who apparently hadn't been asleep either, lifted his blanket.
"You two are perfect for each other."
Raka and Alya turned toward him at the same time.
"Shut up, Dimas."
Dimas laughed.
"I'm going back to sleep."
They set out before sunrise.
The journey from Sagara Valley to the Wira family's estate would take nearly two days on foot.
Raka could have taken a carriage, but he didn't want to attract attention.
Alya was still a fugitive from the kingdom.
If the royal guards found them together, their journey would end before they arrived.
The first day passed peacefully.
They crossed a small forest, a river, and several villages.
But the closer Raka got to his home, the heavier his heart became.
Every time he saw a certain road, old memories surfaced.
The great tree.
The stone bridge.
The hill where he used to play as a child.
Everything felt familiar.
Yet behind all those memories was something missing.
Like a page deliberately torn from a book.
Toward evening, they stopped at a spring.
Dimas sat on a rock.
"I've got a question."
Raka looked at him.
"What?"
"Why did your family seal your power?"
Raka shook his head.
"I don't know."
Alya was filling a bottle.
"And why did they separate you from Alya?"
"I don't know that either."
Dimas looked at Alya.
"Then what are you two actually looking for?"
Alya capped the bottle.
"The truth."
Dimas sighed.
"That's a dangerously vague answer."
Raka smiled thinly.
"Most truths are dangerous."
Night fell.
They made camp beneath a tree.
Dimas went to sleep first.
Alya kept watch.
Raka sat beside the fire.
"Alya."
"Yeah?"
"If my memory is right..."
Alya waited.
"...then my family may really have died because of my power."
Alya didn't answer.
"Then I have to know."
"We will."
"And what if I'm guilty?"
Alya stared into the fire.
"You can't change the mistakes of the past."
Raka looked at her.
"But?"
"What you can change is what you do after you learn the truth."
Raka nodded.
"I wish I could be as strong as you."
Alya smiled.
"I'm not as strong as you think."
Raka turned toward her.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm still afraid."
"Of what?"
Alya gazed into the darkness.
"Of my own memories."
Raka fell silent.
He understood.
The two of them were really doing the same thing.
Searching for the past while afraid of what they might find.
The next morning, they continued on their way.
When the sun climbed high, a royal carriage appeared from the opposite direction.
Alya immediately moved to the side of the road.
Raka watched the carriage.
Its crest was different.
It wasn't the royal crest.
It was the crest of the Wira family.
Raka stood.
The carriage stopped.
An old man stepped down.
Raka recognized him.
"Darma."
The man was the head butler of the Wira family.
He bowed.
"Young Master Raka."
"What are you doing here?"
"I was ordered to bring you home."
Raka stared at him.
"By whom?"
"My lord."
His father.
Raka fell silent.
Darma then noticed Alya.
His expression changed.
"Young Master..."
"I know who she is."
Darma lowered his head.
"Then you know how dangerous she is."
"That's exactly why she's coming with me."
Darma looked worried.
"You don't understand."
"I understand enough."
Raka stepped closer.
"Take us there."
Darma was startled.
"You're going home?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I want to talk to my father."
The Wira family's estate stood atop a hill.
The building was large but not lavish.
Stone walls surrounded the grounds.
Watchtowers stood at every corner.
The moment Raka entered the gate, he felt something.
The seal on his palm throbbed.
Alya felt it too.
"This place..."
Raka nodded.
"There's something here."
They entered the main house.
Every servant bowed as Raka passed.
But their expressions were different.
Fear.
Not respect.
Raka stopped.
"Why are they looking at me like that?"
Alya answered softly.
"Maybe they know something."
Darma opened the door to the main room.
A man stood by the window.
He was around fifty years old.
His hair had begun to turn gray.
His face was hard.
Yet Raka knew him.
His father.
**Hendra Wira.**
Raka stopped.
It had been years since they had spoken as father and son.
Hendra turned.
His gaze fell first on Raka.
Then on Alya.
His expression changed at once.
"What is she doing here?"
Raka answered,
"She's with me."
"Send her away."
"Why?"
Hendra said nothing.
Raka stepped forward.
"You know about her."
Hendra didn't answer.
"You know about the soul exchange."
Still nothing.
Raka clenched his fists.
"You know what happened twenty years ago."
Hendra finally spoke.
"Raka, leave."
"Answer me."
"Leave."
"I have the right to know."
Hendra looked at him.
"You're not ready."
Raka laughed bitterly.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
He moved closer.
"For twenty years, everyone thought I had no power."
Hendra lowered his head.
"When the truth is..."
Raka pointed to his palm.
"...you were the one who sealed it."
Hendra closed his eyes.
Alya watched him.
For the first time, she saw something resembling regret on the man's face.
"It's true."
One sentence.
But it was enough to plunge the room into silence.
Raka stared at his father.
"Why?"
Hendra drew a long breath.
"Because if your power awakened, you would die."
"Why?"
"Because your body wasn't made to contain it."
Raka shook his head.
"I don't understand."
Hendra looked at Alya.
"And she can't be here."
Alya stepped forward.
"Why?"
"Because your presence will accelerate everything."
"What will?"
Hendra didn't answer.
Raka cut in.
"You always do this."
"Do what?"
"Hide the answers."
Hendra looked at his son.
"Because I'm trying to protect you."
"From what?"
Hendra fell silent.
"From yourself."
Raka stormed out of the room.
Alya followed him.
Dimas stayed behind with Darma.
They entered Raka's old bedroom.
The room had barely changed.
The bed.
The desk.
The bookshelf.
A small painting.
Raka stood in the middle of the room.
"I hate this place."
Alya looked around.
"Why?"
"Because everything feels like it belongs to me."
He touched the desk.
"But I don't feel like I know myself."
Alya walked toward the bookshelf.
A small book caught her attention.
She picked it up.
"Raka."
"What?"
"This."
Raka came closer.
It turned out to be a childhood journal.
He opened the first page.
His own handwriting.
**Today, Father said I'm different.**
The next page.
**I asked why. Father didn't answer.**
The next page.
**I met a girl. Her name is Alya.**
Raka froze.
Alya read along with him.
"This..."
They kept turning the pages.
**Alya said she'd come back.**
The next page.
**Father forbade me from seeing her.**
Then there was a blank page.
And finally, the last page.
The handwriting was different.
More frantic.
**Tonight, Father will seal something inside my body.**
Raka stared at the page.
"The date."
Alya checked it.
"Twenty years ago."
Raka closed the journal.
"Then I know."
"Know what?"
"That night..."
Raka held his head.
"You and I really did meet before."
They searched for the basement.
Darma finally showed them the way after Raka forced him to.
A stone door stood behind the library.
Raka pressed his hand against it.
The seal opened.
They descended.
The air grew colder.
Symbols covered the walls.
Alya stopped in front of an engraving.
"It's the same symbol."
Raka moved closer.
The engraving depicted two children.
One boy.
One girl.
Between them was a line connecting the two.
Beneath it were the words:
**Two vessels. One soul.**
Raka read it again and again.
"This doesn't make sense."
Alya touched the engraving.
A light appeared.
The room changed.
They saw the past.
A baby was carried inside.
Raka.
A woman carried in another baby.
Alya.
A mage stood in the center of a circle.
"If the power is divided, both children will survive."
Hendra stood beside him.
"And if it isn't?"
"They'll die."
Hendra looked at the two babies.
"Then do it."
The ritual began.
Red energy poured from Raka's body.
White energy poured from Alya's body.
Then the two energies met.
An explosion.
Baby Raka cried.
Baby Alya cried.
Hendra shouted,
"Stop!"
But it was too late.
One part of the energy entered Raka's body.
The other entered Alya's.
Then...
A black shadow appeared.
Someone entered the room.
Bastian.
He was much younger then.
He carried a black stone.
"This ritual isn't over yet."
Hendra stared at him.
"Arman said it was enough."
"Arman doesn't decide that."
Bastian raised the stone.
Black light enveloped both children.
Alya jolted.
The vision ended.
Raka fell to his knees.
"Him."
Alya was breathing heavily too.
"Bastian."
They emerged from the basement.
Hendra was already waiting.
"So you finally saw it."
Raka looked at his father.
"You divided my power."
Hendra nodded.
"Why?"
"Because the power was too great."
"And Alya?"
Hendra looked at her.
"She was the second vessel."
Alya frowned.
"Why me?"
"Because your body could contain part of the energy."
"Who was my family?"
Hendra was silent.
Alya stepped forward.
"Answer me."
Hendra closed his eyes.
"Your name isn't Alya."
He opened his eyes.
"That name was given to you after the ritual."
Alya froze.
"Who am I?"
Hendra didn't answer.
"Who was my family?"
"People who died a long time ago."
Alya clenched her hands.
"Because of Bastian?"
"Because of the war."
Hendra looked at them.
"The two of you were part of the final experiment."
Raka shook his head.
"Experiment?"
"To create an heir capable of containing the power of the Flame Keeper."
Raka felt nauseated.
"So I..."
"Yes."
"And Alya?"
"She was the counterbalance."
Alya looked at him.
"Then why did my soul end up in Nadia's body?"
Hendra fell silent.
"Because someone forced the exchange."
"Who?"
Hendra answered quietly.
"Bastian."
Raka clenched his fists.
"Why did he do it?"
Hendra shook his head.
"I don't know his entire plan."
"You know part of it."
"Yes."
"Tell me."
Hendra drew a breath.
"Bastian believes that if your souls are reunited, the power of the Flame Keeper will become complete."
Alya asked,
"And then?"
Hendra looked at her.
"He can use that power to open the Seal of Arcapura."
Dimas, who had just arrived, froze.
"What seal?"
Hendra answered,
"The seal protecting something beneath the capital."
"What?"
Hendra didn't answer.
Raka stared at his father.
"What's beneath the capital?"
Hendra said,
"The first king of Arcapura didn't build this kingdom."
He paused.
"He built a prison."
The room fell silent.
"A prison for what?"
Hendra looked at them.
"For something that isn't human."
They didn't sleep that night.
The information they'd uncovered was too much to take in.
Raka sat in the library.
Alya stood in front of the window.
Dimas read through the notes they'd found in the basement.
"There's something strange."
Raka looked at him.
"What?"
Dimas held up a page.
"The name Nadia."
Alya immediately came over.
The name appeared on a list.
But not as a victim.
As the **third vessel**.
Alya froze.
"So this body was chosen."
Dimas nodded.
"And there's a date."
Raka looked at it.
It was the same date as the day Alya's soul entered the body.
"Then it was all planned."
Alya clenched her fists.
"From the beginning."
They later found a letter.
It had been written by Hendra.
It was addressed to someone whose name had been concealed.
**If the ritual fails, separate the two children.**
**Don't let them meet until they're twenty years old.**
**If either of them starts remembering, kill them before the power fully awakens.**
Raka read the final sentence again and again.
"Kill them."
Alya looked at him.
"Who wrote this?"
Raka turned the letter over.
There was a signature.
Hendra Wira.
Raka closed his eyes.
"My father."
Dimas said nothing.
Alya moved closer.
"Raka."
He didn't answer.
"Your father may have written that because he was afraid."
"That doesn't change anything."
Raka gripped the letter.
"He planned to kill me."
Alya looked at him.
"He also saved you."
Raka fell silent.
"If the ritual had failed..."
"I know."
"Then he's not as simple as we thought."
Raka nodded.
"And that makes him even harder to forgive."
Midnight.
Raka stood outside his father's room.
He knocked.
"Come in."
Hendra was sitting alone.
Raka entered.
"Father."
"Yes."
"I read the letter."
Hendra lowered his head.
"I know."
"Why?"
"Because I was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"Of losing you."
Raka fell silent.
Hendra continued.
"That night, when the ritual failed, your power began destroying your body."
"And you divided it."
"Yes."
"Into Alya."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you kill me?"
Hendra looked at his son.
"Because I'm your father."
Raka laughed bitterly.
"Sometimes I don't know if you really love me."
Hendra looked wounded.
"I was never good at being a father."
"That's true."
"But I never stopped trying."
Raka looked at him.
For the first time, he saw the man not as the head of the family.
Not as the person who had sealed his power.
But as a frightened father.
"I can't forgive you yet."
Hendra nodded.
"I don't ask you to."
"But I want to know everything."
"I'll tell you."
"Start from the beginning."
Hendra drew a breath.
"All right."
Hendra told him everything.
About Arman Darsa.
About the research into the Flame Keeper.
About Bastian.
About the ritual.
About the two babies who were separated.
About Alya's family.
And about a prophecy.
**When the two halves of the soul meet again, the closed door will open.**
But there was one part Hendra didn't know.
Who had made the prophecy.
And what would actually emerge from the seal.
Raka listened until he had finished.
Then he asked,
"Did I really kill my family?"
Hendra immediately shook his head.
"No."
Raka was silent.
"The vision wasn't a memory."
"Then what was it?"
"A memory forced upon you."
"Who created it?"
"Bastian."
Raka clenched his fists.
"Why?"
"To make you open the seal."
Morning came.
Raka left the house.
Alya was waiting in the courtyard.
"How did it go?"
"He told me everything."
"And?"
Raka looked up at the sky.
"Most of it."
"Most of it?"
"There are still secrets."
Alya smiled faintly.
"Then our journey isn't over."
Raka nodded.
He looked at his palm.
The seal was still there.
But now he no longer saw it as a curse.
He saw it as a part of himself.
"Alya."
"Yeah?"
"I want to open the seal."
Alya frowned.
"Why?"
"Because I've been afraid of what's inside it all this time."
Raka clenched his fist.
"If I keep being afraid, other people will keep controlling my life."
Alya looked at him.
"Then I'll help you."
Raka smiled.
"But slowly."
Alya nodded.
"Slowly."
Dimas arrived with a bag.
"Good. Because I don't want to die today."
Raka laughed.
But suddenly, the symbols on their hands began to glow.
All three of them stopped.
Alya clutched her chest.
Raka did the same.
They felt something.
A pull.
As if someone were calling to them from far away.
Then a voice sounded inside Raka's head.
**Come home.**
Raka froze.
Alya had heard it too.
"Raka."
"I heard it."
Dimas stared at them.
"What?"
Raka looked toward the capital.
"It's awake."
"Who is?"
Raka answered quietly.
"The thing behind the seal."
Far beneath the capital of Arcapura, an ancient chamber began to tremble.
Old stones collapsed.
Dust filled the air.
In the center of the chamber stood a black door.
For hundreds of years, it had never moved.
But that morning...
A crack appeared.
Then another.
A voice came from behind the door.
Not a human voice.
Not an animal's voice.
Something older.
Deeper.
Darker.
A hand slowly emerged through the gap.
And the voice whispered:
"My child..."
Aboveground, every royal mage felt the same energy.
Bima rose from his chair.
His face had gone pale.
"The seal."
A mage asked,
"What's happening?"
Bima looked toward the capital.
"The seal is beginning to open."
In the courtyard of the Wira family estate, Raka and Alya stood facing each other.
They still didn't know what truly awaited them in the capital.
They didn't know who was calling them.
They didn't know that their journey wasn't merely about reclaiming Alya's body or unlocking Raka's power.
They were heading toward something that had been waiting for hundreds of years.
Something that might be the reason their souls had been separated.
Something that might be the reason they had finally been brought together again.
Raka gripped his sword.
"Let's go."
Alya nodded.
They left the Wira family's estate.
Dimas followed.
Behind them, Hendra stood before the gate.
He watched the three of them grow smaller in the distance.
"I hope I'm not too late."
In his hand was an old pendant.
A pendant that had once belonged to Alya.
A pendant holding one final secret.
On the back of its surface was a tiny inscription:
**If they come back together, don't let them reach the capital.**
Hendra stared at the words.
Then he tore them away.
"I'm sorry."
He looked in the direction his son had gone.
"This time, I choose you."
And for the first time in twenty years, Hendra Wira left his home.
He followed them.
Because he knew...
the war he'd spent all these years trying to prevent had finally begun.