Chapter 3: The Collector Of Forgotten Souls
1239 Words
Chapter Three
The Collector of Forgotten Souls
The blue light drew closer.
It drifted across the shattered sky with terrifying elegance, neither floating nor flying. It walked through the air as though invisible steps had been carved into the heavens long before the world was born.
Every eye in Aranth turned upward.
The city held its breath.
Children stopped crying.
Dogs hid beneath abandoned carts.
Even the wind fled.
Only the impossible blue lantern continued its silent approach.
Standing beside Mara on the cathedral steps, Elias felt an overwhelming weight pressing against his chest. Every instinct urged him to run, yet his feet refused to move.
"Who is it?" he whispered.
Mara's face had lost all colour.
"It is not someone."
Her voice trembled.
"It is something older than kingdoms... older than history... older than death itself."
"What is it?"
She stared at the approaching light with sorrow in her eyes.
"It is the Collector."
"The Keeper of Forgotten Souls."
---
The blue lantern stopped above the city.
Then...
Everything became silent.
Not quiet.
Silent.
The cathedral bells froze in mid-ring.
A baby cried without making a sound.
People screamed, yet no voice escaped their mouths.
It was as though silence itself had become a living force, swallowing every sound before it was born.
Then came a single footstep.
No one heard it.
Everyone felt it.
The earth trembled.
A second step followed.
The cracked sky rippled like disturbed water.
Then the figure emerged.
It descended from the heavens one impossible step at a time.
Its robe was woven from thousands upon thousands of weathered pages. As the pages fluttered, Elias realised each one bore a name.
Some names were clear.
Others had faded almost completely.
Some vanished even as he looked at them.
The figure's face was hidden behind a smooth black stone mask, empty of eyes, nose or mouth.
Yet somehow...
It was watching everyone.
In its left hand hung the blue lantern.
Within its flame floated countless tiny lights.
They shimmered like stars trapped inside glass.
"They're beautiful," Elias breathed.
Mara slowly shook her head.
"They're not stars."
"What are they?"
"They are memories."
"The last memories of people the world has forgotten."
---
The Collector reached the ground.
The instant its feet touched the cathedral square, every clock in Aranth shattered.
Tower clocks.
Pocket watches.
Hourglasses.
Sundials.
Every measure of time was destroyed in the same heartbeat.
Time no longer belonged to mankind.
The Collector slowly raised its lantern.
One tiny blue light drifted free.
It floated gently towards an elderly woman standing near the fountain.
She smiled peacefully, believing it harmless.
The light touched her forehead.
Her smile disappeared.
She looked around in confusion.
"Who am I?"
Her voice was small.
Fragile.
Lost.
Her daughter rushed forward, tears streaming down her face.
"Mother!"
The old woman stared into her daughter's eyes.
"I... don't know you."
Then something far more terrifying happened.
The daughter stopped crying.
She frowned.
"Who was I looking for?"
Within moments the crowd forgot the old woman completely.
People walked around her as though she had never existed.
She remained standing...
Alive...
Breathing...
But erased.
Not from life.
From memory.
---
Elias felt his stomach twist.
"No..."
"This isn't possible."
Mara's eyes filled with tears.
"The Collector never kills."
"It steals remembrance."
"And once the world forgets you..."
"You become a stranger even to yourself."
The Collector slowly turned towards Elias.
Though its mask had no eyes, he felt its gaze settle upon him.
The blue lantern blazed brighter.
Every light inside began circling wildly.
One suddenly broke free.
It shot towards him.
"Elias!"
Mara threw herself against him.
They crashed onto the stone pavement just as the blue light struck the cathedral wall.
The ancient stone did not explode.
It simply vanished.
Not destroyed.
Forgotten.
A section of the cathedral ceased to exist, revealing not another room...
But an endless abyss where reality itself had been erased.
Cold darkness stretched beyond imagination.
Looking into it made Elias forget his own age.
His childhood.
Even his mother's face began slipping from his memory.
Mara grabbed his shoulders.
"Don't look into the Forgotten Void!"
He tore his eyes away, breathing heavily.
Slowly, the memories returned.
But not all of them.
He could no longer remember the lullaby his mother had sung to him as a child.
It was gone forever.
---
Panic spread across Aranth.
Families ran through streets they no longer recognised.
Children wandered aimlessly, unable to remember their parents' faces.
Entire homes disappeared because no one remembered building them.
Roads ended in empty space.
Bridges dissolved into mist.
History itself was coming apart.
Reality was forgetting how to exist.
---
Mara seized Elias's hand.
"We have to leave. Now."
"Where?"
"To the only place the Collector cannot enter."
"The Royal Archive?"
She shook her head.
"No."
"The Library Beneath Memory."
Before Elias could ask another question, the ground beneath the cathedral split open.
Ancient black stone spiralled upwards, revealing a staircase descending into darkness.
A freezing wind rose from below.
Within it came thousands of whispers.
Some prayed.
Some begged.
Others repeated forgotten names over and over again.
Mara stepped onto the first stair.
"If we stay here..."
"There will soon be no one left who remembers this city."
---
Behind them, the Collector remained motionless.
It watched them descend.
Then, for the first time in ages beyond counting...
It spoke.
Its voice sounded like countless pages turning inside an endless library.
"The Witness cannot escape."
"The Hollow King already knows his name."
As those words echoed across the city, every candle reignited with blue fire.
Each flame bent towards Elias.
Not by the wind.
By recognition.
He had been marked.
---
Deeper and deeper they descended.
Time lost all meaning.
The walls were covered with millions of handprints pressed into smooth black stone.
Tiny hands.
Old hands.
Hands larger than any human's.
"Who made these?" Elias whispered.
Mara gently placed her fingers upon the smallest print.
"These belong to those the world forgot."
"They came here hoping someone would remember them."
"Did anyone?"
A single tear escaped her eye.
"No."
"They became part of the walls."
Elias instinctively touched the stone.
It was warm.
Then...
It beat beneath his hand.
Like a human heart.
He pulled away in horror.
---
At last the staircase ended.
Before them stretched an underground library beyond imagination.
Towering shelves disappeared into endless darkness.
Millions of ancient books glowed with a faint silver light.
Some whispered secrets.
Some softly wept.
Others screamed as though trapped in eternal nightmares.
At the centre of the vast chamber stood an elderly man clothed in silver robes.
His eyes were covered by a strip of black cloth.
Yet he smiled before either of them spoke.
"Welcome, Elias Varen."
Elias froze.
"You know my name?"
The old man nodded.
"I knew your name before your mother first whispered it."
"Who are you?"
The stranger bowed gently.
"I am the Bell Keeper."
"I hear tomorrow before tomorrow hears itself."
His smile slowly faded.
"For thousands of years, tomorrow has always spoken to me."
He lifted his head towards the darkness above.
"But tonight..."
His voice broke.
"For the first time since creation..."
"I hear nothing."
A violent tremor shook the endless library.
Books crashed from towering shelves.
The floor cracked beneath their feet.
Somewhere far below...
Something colossal had awakened.
And with every thunderous step...
It was climbing towards them.
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