Chapter One: The Ashen Invitation

【Intermediate deduction: reveal the principal chain of action. Price—one treasured affection.】 【Deep deduction: reveal all branches and masterminds. Soul strength insufficient.】 “Do you erase facts,” Lain asked, “or feelings?” 【Facts remain. Emotional meaning is burned away. You will remember what happened, but not why it mattered.】 That was crueler than simple forgetting. A forgotten person could perhaps be known again. A remembered kindness stripped of all warmth became a tombstone. “Do I choose the memory?” 【The host may choose, or allow random extraction.】 He chose. At eleven, he had stolen his first silver coin. It bought medicine that carried his little sister, Mia, through a deadly fever. The result mattered.