The second knock came from beneath the street.
Not the doorway.
Beneath us.
The sound traveled through the pavement and up my legs, deep enough that I felt it in my ribs before I fully heard it. Nyelle’s hand tightened around my shirt, while the stranger raised his weapon and the man who had brought us to the surface took several careful steps backward. For once, none of us had anything to say.
Then another knock came from below.
The black circle in the middle of the ruined city rippled.
I stared at it, expecting something to emerge, but nothing entered the street and nothing climbed out of the darkness. The surface simply moved as though something had passed behind a sheet of glass, disturbing a boundary that should have been completely still.
Nyelle’s breathing became uneven.
"They’re still there."
I turned toward her.
"Who?"
She stared at the black circle.
"The people from the room."
The stranger stepped closer.
"Nyelle, what did you see?"
She looked at him, and whatever fear had been in her expression hardened into recognition.
"You were there."
"Yes."
"You weren’t alone."
His expression changed.
I saw it immediately.
"You knew."
"I knew there were others at the facility."
"That isn’t what she said."
I stepped between them, keeping my eyes on the stranger.
"You were there with them."
His jaw tightened.
"I was there to observe the facility."
"Observe what?"
"The structure."
"Who built it?"
"I don’t know."
"Who opened the door?"
"I don’t know."
Nyelle suddenly shook her head.
"No."
Everyone turned toward her.
She pressed her fingers against her temple and closed her eyes. Her breathing became heavier as she searched through the memory, and I could see the effort it was taking from her.
"I remember."
Her voice was barely audible.
"They weren’t researchers."
The stranger went still.
"What?"
"They wore the same clothes."
I frowned.
"What clothes?"
"White."
She opened her eyes, but she wasn’t looking at any of us anymore. She was looking somewhere far beyond the ruined street, somewhere only she could see.
"They weren’t studying the machine."
She swallowed.
"They were waiting for it."
A chill moved through me.
The stranger’s expression hardened.
"Nyelle, don’t force yourself."
She looked directly at him.
"You knew them."
He didn’t answer.
"You knew them," she repeated.
"I knew some of them."
"How many?"
He hesitated.
"Seven."
The number settled between us.
Seven.
I looked toward the black circle.
"Seven people opened the door?"
"No."
His voice was quieter now.
"Seven people prepared it."
"What happened to them?"
The stranger looked at Nyelle.
"She was there when it happened."
My stomach tightened.
"What happened?"
He turned toward the ruined city, as though the answer was somewhere among the broken buildings instead of inside his own memory.
"They activated the structure."
"And?"
"It responded."
"That tells me nothing."
His gaze dropped toward my right hand.
"It wasn’t supposed to respond to them."
The silver beneath my skin flickered.
"It responded to someone else."
I didn’t need to ask who.
Me.
Twenty-four years ago.
Before I could speak, Nyelle suddenly grabbed my arm.
"I remember another room."
"What room?"
"A smaller one."
Her fingers tightened around my sleeve.
"There was a door inside the first room."
The stranger’s face changed.
"Where?"
"I don’t know."
"Think."
"I am!"
Her voice cracked through the rain.
She closed her eyes again, forcing herself deeper into the memory. When she spoke, her voice had become quieter.
"I saw my mother carrying you."
My chest tightened.
"She was running."
"From what?"
Nyelle shook her head.
"I couldn’t see."
"Then what did you hear?"
Her eyes opened.
"Your mother was shouting at someone."
"Who?"
"I don’t know."
The stranger moved closer.
"What did she say?"
Nyelle stared at him for several seconds, as though the words were buried somewhere just beyond her reach.
Then she whispered them.
"She said, ’You promised me he would never know.’"
Silence settled over the street.
I looked at the stranger.
His face had gone completely blank.
"Who was she talking to?"
He didn’t answer.
I stepped closer.
"Who was she talking to?"
"I don’t know."
I watched him carefully.
He looked away.
That was when I realized something.
He wasn’t hiding information from us anymore.
He was hiding information from himself.
Or trying to.
A low vibration passed beneath the street, interrupting the silence. The black circle brightened, and blue light slowly spread through its center like something beneath the darkness had opened its eyes.
The System appeared.
«[MEMORY CONFLICT: ESCALATING.]»
Another message followed.
«[FOREIGN MEMORY SOURCE IDENTIFIED.]»
I stared at the words.
"Foreign?"
Nyelle looked at me.
"What does it mean?"
"I don’t know."
The stranger’s eyes narrowed.
"Don’t access another memory."
"I wasn’t planning to."
The System displayed another line.
«[MEMORY SOURCE: EXTERNAL.]»
My stomach dropped.
"External?"
The man beside us stepped forward.
"Your sister’s memory isn’t the only thing being accessed."
I looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
He pointed toward the black circle.
"Something is using the connection from the other side."
Nyelle’s face went pale.
"Using me?"
"Possibly."
The stranger immediately moved toward her.
"We need to break the contact."
"How?"
"I don’t know."
The answer almost made me laugh.
Not because anything was funny.
Because somehow, every path we followed eventually led back to the same words.
The silver lines beneath us suddenly returned.
This time, they didn’t form pathways.
They formed symbols.
One appeared across the pavement, followed by another, and then another, until dozens of ancient markings spread through the ruined street. The patterns connected beneath our feet and extended toward the black circle, turning the entire area into something that looked less like a road and more like the surface of a buried machine.
The System began flashing.
«[MULTIPLE STRUCTURAL RESPONSES DETECTED.]»
«[PRIMARY PATHWAY: ACTIVE.]»
«[SECONDARY PATHWAY: ACTIVE.]»
«[TRACE PATHWAY: ACTIVE.]»
I stared at the three messages.
"All three."
The stranger looked toward the city.
"They’re connecting."
"To what?"
He didn’t answer.
The blue light inside the black circle expanded.
Something appeared within it.
A human silhouette.
Then another.
Then another.
Seven figures slowly emerged from the darkness, standing side by side on the other side of whatever boundary separated us.
Nyelle grabbed my arm.
"The people from the room."
I couldn’t move.
The figures were too far away for me to see their faces, but something about the way they stood made the memory feel real. One of them slowly raised a hand.
The same gesture Nyelle had described.
The same gesture from the room twenty-four years ago.
Then a voice crossed the street.
"It’s time."
The stranger stepped backward.
"No."
The figure continued.
"The key has returned."
Heat exploded through my right hand.
The silver beneath my skin flared so brightly that I had to shield my eyes.
The System appeared.
«[UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS ATTEMPT.]»
The figure raised its hand again.
The seven silhouettes remained completely still.
Then the System responded.
«[ACCESS DENIED.]»
The blue light violently collapsed.
The seven figures vanished.
The black circle closed.
For several seconds, there was only rain.
Then the old phone vibrated in my pocket.
I pulled it out.
One new message appeared.
«THEY DIDN’T OPEN THE DOOR FOR YOU.»
Another arrived before I could react.
«THEY OPENED IT BECAUSE THEY WERE AFRAID OF WHAT WAS ALREADY INSIDE.»
I stared at the screen.
Nyelle read the messages over my shoulder.
The stranger didn’t.
He was staring at the place where the seven figures had stood, his weapon hanging loosely at his side.
"What did they want?" I asked.
He slowly lowered the weapon.
"They wanted to know whether the child had survived."
My blood went cold.
I looked at him.
"What child?"
His eyes met mine.
"You."
The word seemed to hollow out the space around me.
Before I could respond, something moved beneath the street.
Not a knock this time.
A heartbeat.
Slow.
Heavy.
Familiar.
The same heartbeat from the underground chamber.
Thump.
The silver lines went dark.
Thump.
Every remaining light in the city disappeared.
Thump.
Somewhere beneath us, something whispered my name.
"Veyric."
The System appeared.
«[ORIGIN RESPONSE DETECTED.]»
I stared at the words.
Then another line appeared beneath them.
«[SOURCE: UNKNOWN.]»
For the first time since the world changed, the System didn’t display a warning.
It didn’t give me an instruction.
It didn’t offer an explanation.
It asked a question.
«[WHO WOKE YOU?]»