"Veyric, come here."
I couldn’t move.
For several seconds, the corridor disappeared around me. There was only that voice, soft and familiar enough to reach somewhere inside me that I hadn’t visited in years, somewhere childhood had buried beneath everything that came after.
My mother’s voice.
I hadn’t heard it since I was a child, yet I knew it immediately. Not because I remembered every detail of it, but because some things seemed to survive even when the memory carrying them didn’t.
Nyelle’s fingers tightened around my shirt.
"Veyric."
I looked at her.
Her face was pale.
"You heard it too?"
She nodded.
The stranger stepped between us and the darkness.
"Don’t answer it."
My eyes remained fixed on the corridor behind him.
"That’s my mother’s voice."
"I know."
I looked at him sharply.
"How?"
He didn’t answer.
The voice came again.
"Veyric."
This time, it sounded closer.
The stranger’s hand moved toward the weapon at his side.
"Whatever you hear, don’t follow it."
"You said you’ve heard this before."
His expression tightened.
"Not exactly."
"Then what does that mean?"
"I’ve heard voices come from these structures before."
"That isn’t what I asked."
"I know."
The blue light continued spreading along the walls, turning the ancient carvings into moving shadows. Behind us, the corridor seemed to breathe with the light, expanding and contracting in slow pulses.
The stranger looked toward the silver markings.
"We need to move."
Nyelle didn’t release me.
"Where?"
"Forward."
I stared at him.
"Toward the voice?"
"It’s already behind us."
He was right.
The blue light had filled the corridor we’d come from, and somewhere inside it came the sound of slow footsteps.
One.
Then another.
Whatever was following us was taking its time.
As if it knew we had nowhere to go.
The stranger turned toward the wall and studied the silver markings. A moment later, a thin silver line appeared beneath his hand and ran downward until it reached the floor.
The System appeared.
[PATHWAY RESPONSE DETECTED.]
The stranger looked at me.
"The structure is opening something."
"Again?"
"Not for me."
My right hand began to burn.
I looked down.
The silver light beneath my skin was faint but unmistakable.
Nyelle noticed.
"It responds to you."
"Apparently."
The voice behind us came again.
"Veyric."
This time, it sounded frightened.
Not commanding.
Not threatening.
Frightened.
My chest tightened before I could stop it.
"Mom?"
The stranger spun around.
"No."
The word came hard enough to stop me.
Nyelle grabbed my wrist.
"Don’t."
I looked at her.
"What if it really is her?"
She shook her head.
"We don’t know that."
"But you heard her."
"I heard the voice."
"That doesn’t mean it isn’t her."
Nyelle’s eyes searched mine.
"Veyric, the thing in the chamber used my voice too."
I remembered the false Nyelle standing beneath the blue light, wearing her face but getting the smallest details wrong.
The wrong birthday.
The wrong smile.
The wrong person wearing a familiar voice.
My grip tightened around the pipe.
"You’re right."
The voice behind us changed.
The fear disappeared.
"Good."
A low sound passed through the corridor.
Almost laughter.
Nyelle stepped backward.
"It heard us."
The stranger’s expression hardened.
"Move."
This time, we didn’t hesitate.
The silver line beneath my hand brightened, and a section of wall shifted inward with a grinding sound. A narrow opening appeared, barely wide enough for two people.
We squeezed through.
The passage beyond was colder, and the stone beneath my feet felt strangely smooth. There were no blue lights here, only thin silver markings buried beneath the surface like veins beneath skin.
Behind us, the opening began closing.
The voice followed.
"Veyric."
I didn’t look back.
"Veyric, wait."
Nyelle was breathing hard beside me.
"Keep going."
"I am."
The voice became softer.
"You’ve forgotten me."
My steps faltered.
Nyelle noticed immediately.
"Don’t listen."
The stranger glanced over his shoulder.
"It’s trying to make you respond."
"How do you know?"
"Because these structures can react to memory."
I stopped.
"So you knew this could happen."
"I knew it was possible."
"And you didn’t think that was important enough to tell us?"
"I didn’t know it would happen to you."
"What do you actually know about this place?"
The stranger looked at me for several seconds.
"I know it can take things that belong to people and use them to get a response. Memories. Voices. Impressions. I don’t know exactly how."
Nyelle stared at him.
"Then maybe you should have started with that."
Before he could answer, another voice came from behind us.
My voice.
"Don’t trust him."
The stranger went still.
Nyelle looked at him.
The voice continued.
"He brought you here."
The stranger’s face tightened.
I kept my eyes on him.
"Did you?"
"No."
"You’re lying."
The stranger turned toward the sealed passage.
"It’s trying to divide us."
"Maybe."
I didn’t lower the pipe.
"Maybe it’s telling the truth."
Nyelle stepped between us.
"Veyric, the voice isn’t proof of anything."
The stranger nodded.
"Exactly."
I looked toward the silver line beneath my hand.
It was moving.
Slowly.
Forward.
The System appeared.
[PATHWAY ACCESS CONDITION DETECTED.]
A symbol formed beneath my palm.
One circle.
Then another.
Then a third.
The same pathway symbol we’d seen before.
Except this time, all three circles were glowing.
The System changed.
[PRIMARY PATHWAY: RESPONSE DETECTED.]
[SECONDARY PATHWAY: ACTIVE.]
[TRACE PATHWAY: LINKED.]
Nyelle looked at me.
"Linked?"
The stranger’s expression changed.
"What?"
I showed him the System.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he looked at Nyelle.
"Step away from him."
She frowned.
"Why?"
"The pathway wasn’t linked before."
"What changed?"
He looked at me.
"You two did."
The stone beneath us trembled.
A deep vibration moved through the walls.
The three circles brightened.
Then silver light moved from my hand toward Nyelle.
A thin line formed between us.
She stared at it.
"What is that?"
"I don’t know."
The line touched her wrist.
Nyelle gasped.
Her eyes went unfocused.
"Nyelle?"
I grabbed her shoulder.
Her body went rigid.
Then she whispered my name.
"Veyric."
"What?"
Her eyes weren’t looking at me anymore.
They were somewhere far away.
"I remember."
My throat tightened.
"What?"
"The room."
"What room?"
"The room where you were born."
The stranger stepped forward.
"Don’t."
Nyelle’s head snapped toward him.
"You were there."
He froze.
"What?"
"You were there."
"I wasn’t."
"You were."
Her voice had changed, thinner and younger, as though the memory had pushed the adult Nyelle aside.
She looked at him with sudden recognition.
"You were holding the door."
The stranger went pale.
I turned toward him.
"You said you weren’t inside."
"I wasn’t."
Nyelle shook her head.
"You were outside."
The stranger stared at her.
"Outside what?"
"The door."
The silver line between Nyelle and me flared.
She cried out and collapsed.
I caught her.
"Nyelle!"
The System flashed.
[MEMORY RESONANCE: UNSTABLE.]
[FOREIGN MEMORY SOURCE DETECTED.]
[ACCESS DENIED.]
The connection vanished.
Nyelle gasped and clutched my shirt.
"I saw you."
I held her upright.
"Me?"
She nodded.
"You were crying."
My chest tightened.
"And Mom was holding you."
The stranger stared at us.
Nyelle looked at him.
"She was screaming at you."
His face lost what little color remained.
"What did she say?"
Nyelle closed her eyes.
"She said..."
She stopped.
The corridor behind us went silent.
Too silent.
The voice had stopped.
No footsteps.
No water.
No vibration.
The blue light was gone.
The stranger slowly looked toward the sealed passage.
"Where did it go?" Nyelle whispered.
He stared at the pathway symbol.
"It stopped following us."
"Why?"
His eyes remained fixed on the three circles.
"Because it got what it wanted."
The System appeared.
[MEMORY TRANSFER DETECTED.]
My stomach dropped.
Another line followed.
[FOREIGN MEMORY FRAGMENT RETAINED.]
[ANALYSIS: INCOMPLETE.]
I stared at the message.
The stranger saw it too.
"What did you see?"
Nyelle slowly lifted her head.
"I saw the day you were born."
My grip tightened around her.
"What else?"
She looked toward the darkness behind us.
"I saw someone standing beside the door."
The stranger’s expression changed.
"Who?"
Nyelle shook her head.
"I don’t know."
"You said your mother was there."
"She was."
"Then who else?"
Nyelle looked at me.
Her expression had changed.
There was something in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.
Fear.
"I don’t think the memory belonged to me."
The stranger stepped closer.
"What do you mean?"
Nyelle swallowed.
"I remember seeing Veyric as a baby."
She looked down at her hands.
"But I also remember seeing him from somewhere else."
My skin prickled.
"Somewhere else?"
She nodded slowly.
"I was watching the room."
"From where?"
"I don’t know."
The stranger stared at her.
Nyelle closed her eyes.
"I could see Mom holding you. Dad was near the door. And the stranger..."
She stopped.
"What stranger?"
Her eyes opened.
"You."
The stranger didn’t move.
Nyelle’s voice became quieter.
"You weren’t holding the door."
I stared at him.
"Then where were you?"
He said nothing.
Nyelle’s gaze remained fixed on him.
"You were standing on the other side of it."
The stranger’s expression emptied.
I took a step toward him.
"What was behind the door?"
He didn’t answer.
Nyelle suddenly grabbed my arm.
"Veyric."
"What?"
Her eyes moved toward the darkness.
"I think something else was watching us."
The three pathway circles went dark.
And somewhere far beneath our feet, something opened its eyes.