3. Chapter 3: The Language of Scars

Ren discovers that the Scar of Oblivion — the black flame-mark on his palm — is a curse inflicted by the god-king Malveth to erase dangerous souls from history. Those marked forget themselves and are forgotten by others. Eiris reveals she is a Keeper — one of the few who can remember the marked. She has been tracking Ren for three years. But she will not say why she truly cares. The chapter ends with them forced to share shelter in a burned-out cathedral, where Ren wakes to find Eiris weeping silently in the dark, pressing her hand against his scar as if trying to give it back to him.