Silver light swallowed everything.
There was no sky.
There was no earth.
There was no beginning or end.
Only countless streams of memories flowing together like rivers returning to a single ocean after wandering across the world for thousands of years.
Kael no longer knew where his body ended.
He no longer knew where the young man began.
Every heartbeat echoed through both of them simultaneously.
Every memory crossed freely between them.
The first flower planted beneath the World Tree.
The first child taught to read.
The first bell forged by trembling hands.
The first bird carved from ordinary wood.
The first promise spoken beneath silver branches.
The first tear shed when the Door opened.
The first sacrifice.
The last farewell.
Everything became one.
It didn't hurt.
It felt...
Complete.
The young man's voice echoed gently throughout the endless sea of light.
"This is what I protected."
Kael didn't answer with words.
He simply experienced another memory.
He stood beneath the World Tree during the very first spring after the Garden had been founded. Hundreds of people worked together across the valley. Some planted trees while others built homes from pale stone gathered along nearby rivers. Children chased butterflies through fields where nothing had yet been planted, laughing loudly enough to distract every adult nearby.
No one ordered anyone.
No kings stood upon balconies.
No armies marched through streets.
Everyone simply helped one another because tomorrow belonged to all of them.
Old Rowan quietly walked beside Kael.
His beard was much shorter then.
His steps carried youthful strength.
He stopped beside an empty patch of earth.
"What do you see?"
Kael's ancient self looked across the valley.
"I see a city."
Old Rowan smiled.
"I don't."
Kael looked at him curiously.
The old gardener knelt before the empty ground before gently placing one tiny seed into the soil.
"I see..."
He covered the seed with his weathered hands.
"...children who haven't laughed yet."
The words lingered.
Old Rowan continued smiling.
"I see friends who haven't met."
His eyes drifted toward the distant hills.
"I see families who don't know they'll become families."
He gently pressed the soil flat.
"I see songs nobody has written."
His gaze returned to Kael.
"And gardens nobody has imagined."
Silence followed.
Kael slowly understood.
Old Rowan had never planted trees.
He planted futures.
The memory dissolved into silver light.
Another immediately replaced it.
This time...
Kael stood inside a simple wooden classroom.
The Fourth Brother had somehow convinced twenty children that climbing bookshelves improved their reading ability.
It clearly did not.
The Stranger entered just in time to discover three students balanced upon the highest shelves while the Fourth Brother loudly insisted everything remained under control.
"It was his idea."
The children immediately pointed toward him.
The Fourth Brother looked genuinely betrayed.
"You promised."
One little girl crossed her arms.
"You promised extra dessert."
"I absolutely did."
The Stranger quietly removed his glasses.
"I have never been more disappointed."
The Fourth Brother lowered his head dramatically.
"In me?"
"In architecture."
The children burst into laughter.
Even Kael couldn't stop smiling.
The memory changed again.
The First Son patiently trained a group of young guardians beneath flowering trees instead of battlefields.
His lessons weren't about defeating enemies.
They were about protecting frightened people.
"The strongest shield..."
He calmly corrected a student's stance.
"...is the one raised before someone asks for help."
A teenage boy frowned.
"What if they never ask?"
The First Son smiled faintly.
"Then notice sooner."
The lesson ended.
Another memory appeared.
The Traveler quietly walked through endless gardens carrying watering cans in both hands while children secretly followed behind him pretending to be invisible.
They weren't.
The Traveler eventually stopped beside a tiny pond before speaking without turning around.
"If you're going to spy on someone..."
The children froze.
"...at least stop giggling."
The entire group exploded into embarrassed laughter.
The Traveler smiled.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear anything."
Another memory.
The Stranger reading stories beneath the World Tree while dozens of children listened with complete fascination.
"What happened next?"
A little boy leaned forward excitedly.
The Stranger calmly closed the book.
"Tomorrow."
Groans filled the Garden.
"You always stop there."
"Correct."
"That's mean."
"It encourages patience."
"It encourages suffering."
The Fourth Brother shouted from somewhere nearby.
"I agree with the children."
The Garden echoed with laughter.
The silver ocean surrounding Kael shimmered.
Thousands more memories continued flowing through him.
Not battles.
Not ancient secrets.
Life.
Simple.
Beautiful.
Ordinary life.
He finally understood why these memories had been hidden away.
Not because they contained dangerous knowledge.
Because losing them would have changed who he was.
The young man's voice returned.
"You understand now."
Kael nodded.
"I do."
"You remember why we fought."
Images of the burning Garden briefly flashed through the sea of light.
Children running.
Guardians bleeding.
The World Tree splitting beneath endless darkness.
Then...
The memories shifted once more.
Kael found himself standing inside the heart of the World Tree.
It resembled an enormous cathedral carved entirely from living wood. Endless silver roots climbed toward a ceiling where stars drifted through transparent branches. Rivers of glowing sap flowed through the walls like streams of liquid light.
At the center of the chamber...
A single throne rested upon intertwined roots.
Not a throne of gold.
Not a throne for kings.
It resembled an ordinary wooden chair carefully carved by loving hands.
The young man stood beside it.
"I refused to sit."
Kael looked toward him.
"Why?"
The young man smiled.
"Because gardeners don't rule gardens."
He gently touched the chair.
"They care for them."
Silence settled.
The young man slowly turned toward Kael.
"My time is over."
"No."
Kael instinctively stepped forward.
"You just came back."
The young man laughed softly.
"I never came back."
His body had already begun fading.
Tiny fragments of silver light drifted upward before becoming stars within the endless chamber.
"I was always..."
He placed one hand over Kael's chest.
"...the part of you that refused to disappear."
Warmth spread through Kael's entire body.
Every missing memory settled peacefully into its proper place.
Not overwhelming him.
Completing him.
The young man smiled one final time.
"You don't need to search anymore."
Kael slowly reached toward him.
The young man gently shook his head.
"You already found me."
His body dissolved completely.
Millions of silver lights entered Kael one after another.
The heartbeat of the World Tree echoed across existence.
Outside...
Old Rowan slowly looked toward the enormous trunk.
A gentle smile appeared.
"The reunion is complete."
The First Son quietly closed his eyes.
"I can feel him."
The Traveler nodded.
"So can I."
The Stranger's ancient book stopped turning its pages.
For the first time in three thousand years...
The book became completely blank.
The scholar looked at it in surprise.
Then smiled.
"It no longer needs to remember for him."
Deep within the heart of the World Tree...
Kael slowly opened his eyes.
The wooden chair remained before him.
Resting peacefully upon living roots.
No voice invited him to sit.
No prophecy demanded it.
Only silence waited.
Then...
A tiny green sprout pushed through the wooden floor directly beside the chair.
It was no larger than a blade of grass.
Yet Old Rowan's distant laughter somehow echoed through the chamber.
"Before worrying about ancient destinies..."
His familiar voice carried gentle amusement.
"...water the new plant first."
Kael looked at the tiny sprout.
Then...
For the first time in three thousand years...
The First Gardener smiled exactly as he once had.