Ruler of Heat: One Man, A Thousand Thirsts-Chapter 39: The Memory Vault

The wind was quieter in the forest beyond the village — as if the trees themselves were holding their breath.

Rivan walked behind Selina in silence, his senses sharp, his body relaxed but ready. The sky above had turned a shade darker, and the twin moons peeked between branches, casting long shadows that seemed to move with them.

Selina hadn't spoken since they'd left the village. Her jaw was tight, her eyes focused on the path ahead. There was a tension in the air between them — not hostility, not attraction — something older, heavier.

Something unspoken.

"So... this vault," Rivan finally said, breaking the silence. "You sure it still exists?"

"It doesn't exist," Selina replied softly. "Not to anyone else. It was locked years ago — after the war."

"What war?"

She glanced over her shoulder. "The one nobody remembers. Because we buried it... along with the truth."

The path ended at a dead tree, its bark scorched and split down the middle like it had been struck by lightning. Selina placed her hand on its center. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then — a hum.

The tree groaned as ancient glyphs lit up across its bark in glowing violet.

A hidden staircase slowly unfolded beneath it, leading down into darkness.

Rivan raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess. Trapped? Cursed? Maybe rigged with libido mines?"

Selina smirked, the first smile she'd shown since they'd left. "No. Just painful memories."

They descended.

The deeper they went, the colder the air became. The walls were smooth stone now, etched with marks that pulsed faintly — like old memories flickering in and out of existence.

Finally, they reached a vast chamber.

Dozens of crystal pillars stood upright in a circle, each one swirling with hazy images inside — faces, moments, flashes of battle, passion, pain.

"This," Selina whispered, "is where memories are stored when they're too dangerous to keep in your mind."

Rivan stepped closer to one of the crystals. A flicker of a young girl — maybe ten — bleeding in the rain, her hands glowing with uncontrollable energy.

"That's... you?" he guessed.

She nodded.

"Why erase this?"

"Because they made me forget. I was too unstable. Too dangerous."

He turned to her, voice lower now. "And now?"

Her eyes gleamed in the faint violet glow. "Now I want to remember."

Rivan circled the memory pillar, watching the flickers inside. Each one moved like water: a child's scream, a hand reaching, a figure in the shadows with glowing red eyes. As he looked closer, the image twitched and snapped toward him—briefly locking eyes.

He stepped back. "That memory looked at me."

Selina didn't seem surprised. "Some memories evolve when sealed too long. They start... wanting out."

Rivan crossed his arms. "So which one are we here for?"

Selina moved to the far side of the room. There, nestled between two cracked columns, stood a crystal that pulsed darker than the rest — not violet, but blackened amethyst, almost bruised.

"This one," she said. "This is where they sealed what triggered the riots."

Rivan narrowed his eyes. "What did you do?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she raised her hand and pressed it against the pillar.

[Warning: Sealed-Class Memory Detected — Access May Disrupt Mental Stability]

[Override Protocol Locked — LustCore Safeguards Enabled]

The crystal shimmered, and then—

It cracked.

A low hum flooded the chamber. The temperature plummeted. Selina's eyes rolled back, and she collapsed.

Rivan caught her just before she hit the ground.

Her body trembled. Her lips whispered words he couldn't understand.

[Shared Link Engaged – Accessing Partner's Repressed Core]

Rivan's vision went white.

Then black.

Then something worse.

He saw through her eyes. A laboratory. Bright. Screaming. Fire on glass. Men in white coats shouting over alarms.

And at the center — Selina, thirteen years old, strapped to a table — eyes glowing, mouth open in a scream that cracked the walls.

"Shut it down!" someone yelled. "She's triggering the field!"

The scene shattered.

Rivan gasped, dropping to one knee.

The pillar now pulsed slower. Like a beast that had fed.

Selina stirred. Eyes open. Tears falling.

"I remember now," she whispered. "They didn't make me forget."

She looked up at him. "I chose to forget."

Selina's breath came in shallow waves, her body still trembling on the cold floor of the vault chamber. Rivan remained beside her, one hand hovering just above her shoulder, uncertain whether comfort would help—or shatter her further.

"Selina," he said quietly, "what did you see?"

She didn't speak. Her hand lifted slowly, pointing to the blackened crystal, now pulsing faintly like a heartbeat made of shadow.

"I saw the moment it started," she said. "When I changed. When everything changed."

[Memory Sync Level 2 Initiated — Flame Pulse Signature Detected]

[Correlated Origin Located: Subject Selina, Age 13]

[Unlocked Ability Fragment: Heat Bloom – Passive Emotional Radiance]

Rivan's mind flooded with an overlay—an image of a younger Selina, standing in the center of a ruined lab, arms spread, flames spiraling from her spine like wings. Scientists lay unconscious around her. A dome of heat had melted steel beams. Her eyes? Pure white.

Selina clutched her chest. "That day, they were trying to awaken my core... artificially. They failed. I didn't."

"You overloaded the system," Rivan said.

"I became the system," she whispered.

The crystals around them pulsed harder, as if reacting to her energy. One shattered, sending a faint shockwave across the chamber. Rivan grabbed Selina's hand. "We need to go."

"No," she said firmly, pulling herself up. "We finish this. There's one more memory we need to see."

Rivan frowned. "Are you sure?"

She looked him straight in the eye. "The day I met you."

His heartbeat paused.

"What?"

She turned toward a smaller crystal tucked behind a broken arch. Unlike the others, this one didn't pulse. It glowed steady — soft gold, warm.

"This isn't mine," she said. "It's yours."

[Unknown Memory Detected – Origin: Rivan Cross, Pre-System Era]

[Do you wish to initiate co-recall?]

Selina extended her hand. "We're connected now. Let's find out how far that bond goes."

Rivan looked at her palm.

Then placed his hand into hers.

The moment Rivan's hand touched Selina's, the gold crystal ignited.

Not in fire, but in memory.

Light surrounded them, erasing the stone walls, the flickering crystals, even the cold beneath their feet. They floated—weightless, mindless—drawn into a space neither past nor present. A place built of pure recollection.

Then came the voices.

Children. Laughter. Screams.

And a name.

"Rivan!"

A young girl's voice.

The scene clarified.

They stood inside a ruined orphanage courtyard. Broken play structures, dust-covered toys. A boy—maybe seven—stood in the rain, bleeding from his temple, protecting a younger girl curled behind him.

Rivan.

Selina.

"You always protected me," the younger Selina whispered.

[Memory Core Match: Confirmed]

[Shared Origin Unlocked — Flame Pulse Synchronization Level: 34%]

"Why don't I remember this?" Rivan muttered, watching his younger self take a blow meant for her.

"They erased us both," Selina said. "You were taken. I was buried. But something brought us back together."

[Bond Upgrade Available – Would you like to evolve Shared Flame into a Permanent Link?]

[New Passive Ability Preview: Flame Echo – Shared pain becomes shared strength.]

Rivan looked at Selina.

"Do you want this?"

She didn't hesitate. "I need this."

He accepted.

The gold light consumed them.

Pain surged through his veins — not damaging, but searing. Like grief made flesh. Memories not of his own — heartbreak, loneliness, raw hunger for identity — laced into his.

They collapsed together in the real world, gasping, bodies tangled beside the golden crystal.

[Bond Upgrade Complete – Shared Flame: Permanent Tier Established]

[Flame Echo: Active]

[Selina is now immune to external memory tampering while bonded to you.]

She gripped his hand tightly. "If they come for us again..."

"They'll come for both," Rivan finished.

They sat in silence, bodies still touching, the heat between them no longer only physical — but forged in fire and memory.

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Coming Next: Chapter 40 – The Silent Hunter

Where someone from Rivan's forgotten past is watching... and he doesn't come with kindness.

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