The Memory Runner's Echo

Aleck gasped in short breaths as he knelt on the red earth, the weight of history crushing him like a storm. He had just witnessed another bout of devastation on Lyra, but this time itwas different. He didn't know how or why, but the echoes of the past—his past—sounded out louder and clearer. He had always been a Memory Runner, but now the harmonies within his chest hummed with a more savage strength. Memories he had thought were hidden beyond recovery were breaking to the surface, as waves upona reedy beach.

The ruins of a city that had been left behind were before him, the vestiges of a world lost amidst the chaos of war. He had seen this place before in visions that were transient—visionsthat had not been his own. The red ground stretched in all directions, andthe black sky above it seemed to pulsate with energy, responding to his presence.

Find it, Aleck," echoed a voice, not from beyond the world he knew but deep inside his own mind. He knew it. He had heard it many times.

With determination, Aleck stood up and went towards the center of the ruins, where there was a structure half submerged in the earth. Pushing the debris aside, his fingers encounteredthe cold shape of a metallic box. Ancient, covered with dust and lashedby the weather, it was. But uponcontact with his hand, a burst of consonance resonance filled the air.

The box creaked open, and what lay inside was revealed. Inside was a batchof strange objects—out of context in the world he knew. He pulled them outone at a time. A faded photograph of a smiling family, in clothes that did not fit. A wristwatch, hands frozen at 10:15. And on the bottom, a smallscribbled note: "We found a 1975 time capsule, but inside were objects from 2025."

Aleck's heart pounded faster as his brain spun. The items looked. familiar, like they had been from somewhere he had lived in the past. But this was not possible. The war had reducedeverything to nothing, including nostalgia for the past. Why wouldthese things be from a past he had yetto live?

He shook his hands over the note,reading it again for the second time. "We found a time capsule from 1975, but the objects inside were dated2025." The words printed in his mind as a command. But how? How didsomething in the future end up lodgedin a capsule that was planted evenearlier than he was born?

The tremor inside him intensified, and the world around him shook. In a moment of searing perception, Aleck realized the weight of a truth he never knew—these things, these memories, were not mere keepsakes. They were echoes. Echoes of a future not yet come. A future where, somehow, he was engaged.

His fingers trembled as he held the wristwatch. The harmonics resonatedwithin his body, as if the universe itself was trying to send a message. The future leaked between the cracks intime, shreds of an existence that had been lost, memories of things yet to be, but already seen.

The note—dated 2025—had to mean something. In his mind, there was a vision, and he saw a woman. Her face was clear, but the name eluded him. She looked like someone from his past, a loved one he'd had before, but also someone he'd never met. In the brief instant of understanding, Aleck saw his own future—a life of decisions, wars, and the futile exercise of clingingto memories that were meant to be lost.

Abruptly, the ground beneath him trembled, reminding him of the present. The hum of the harmonics shifted, sounding discordant as a freshwave of memories surged through him. The woman's face vanished, and a burning city stood before him, with the cacophony of destruction. He knew it was his own death coming—the cycle's end. Something was off, however. The memories weren't receding. They were piling up.

The reality hit him hard. The time capsule, the artifacts of 2025, were not just a clue. They were fragments of a larger puzzle. This war, this cycle of destruction, was half of a much biggerstory—a story yet to be told but one which was already weaved into his life.

The harmony sounds within him began to rise, no longer a whisper but a forcethat commanded, as if the universe itself was prodding him towardsmemory. Aleck closed his eyes andtook a deep breath. This was it; thiswas what he had waited for—the moment when all would converge.

He opened his eyes, Lyra's devastationfading as the outside world shifted. The war, the city, the devastation—all of that was gone, lost in the brightwhite light. Aleck was where hebelonged. It was here that it had begun. Aleck had already decided asmuch when this was completed; nowhe just needed to act upon it.

But before he could move a step forward, a figure emerged—a figure dressed in black, its face hidden in the creases of a hood. Aleck's heart wasracing as the figure reached out to him, offering a small glass orb. The orb pulsed with light, and when Aleck touched it, a deluge of memories washed over him. He was seeing the future. He was seeing the woman once more. He was seeing their child—his child.

And then, in an instant, it all made sense. The time capsule, the objectsfor 2025, the woman—this was the future he had chosen. He was a link in a chain, not bound by the time, but by the whispers of his previous lives. His duty, his purpose, was not to win the war but to make the memories of those who came before him endure, to keep them with him, and to ensure the future would not be forgotten.

The vision shifted once more, to a peaceful landscape. It was a future, a dream, where Aleck and the woman could build something new. The child they would have would carry the legacy of all that had been lost. In this future, the war on Lyra was history, no longer a threat. But the journey hadhardly ended.

Aleck stepped into the light, understanding that this was only the beginning of the journey. He was a Memory Runner, and this was merelythe start. The future was still unmarked, but it was now open to him, and he would carry its echoes with him, whatever the price.

Aleck

@Runner1

United Kingdom

Aleck has not written a story.