I ran toward the darkness.
The passage narrowed around me, forcing my shoulders close to the stone walls while uneven ground made every step uncertain. My ribs protested with each breath, and my injured shoulder sent pain down my arm whenever I tightened my grip on the pipe, but the voice ahead mattered more.
"Nyelle!"
My voice traveled farther than it should have.
Then it came back.
Not as an echo.
As a whisper.
"Veyric..."
I stopped.
The voice had come from somewhere ahead.
It sounded exactly like her.
Not similar. Not close.
Exactly.
The slight strain at the end of her voice was there, along with the familiar way she shortened my name whenever she was frightened but trying not to let me hear it.
I forced myself forward.
The corridor was nothing like the building above. Dark stone formed the walls and ceiling, while thin silver lines ran through the rock in branching patterns. Every few seconds, a faint blue pulse traveled through them, briefly revealing details before darkness swallowed them again.
The temperature changed with every pulse.
Cold.
Then almost normal.
Then cold again.
The passage suddenly opened.
There was no floor ahead.
I stopped at the edge of a vertical shaft descending farther than I could see and looked down.
Something moved below.
For a moment, there was only darkness.
Then a pale blue eye opened somewhere near the bottom.
I stepped back and raised the pipe.
The eye disappeared.
A slow scraping sound rose from the shaft, like something dragging itself across stone.
"Please don’t make this difficult."
The words left my mouth before I could stop them.
A low vibration answered from below.
"Actually, never mind. That was a stupid thing to say."
The scraping stopped.
Nothing followed.
That was somehow worse.
I moved on.
The corridor widened into a chamber so large that darkness concealed the ceiling. Blue light beneath the floor provided enough illumination to reveal the walls, while the far edges disappeared into shadow.
Something stood in the center.
A door.
There was no wall around it, no visible frame, no structure connected to it.
Just a massive stone door standing upright in the middle of the chamber.
Its surface carried the same incomplete symbol I had seen in Nyelle’s apartment.
I approached slowly.
The closer I got, the warmer my right hand became.
A faint silver light moved beneath my skin, following the same branching pattern carved into the door.
I stopped.
The light stopped.
I moved forward.
It moved again.
My stomach tightened.
The System appeared.
[ANOMALOUS ENERGY RESPONSE DETECTED.]
Another message followed.
[STRUCTURE RECOGNITION ATTEMPT.]
Then:
[ERROR.]
I stared at the word.
The System had answers for things that shouldn’t have existed.
Now it couldn’t even tell me what I was looking at.
Another message appeared.
[ANALYSIS: INCOMPLETE.]
The blue light beneath the floor brightened.
The stone door shifted.
I raised the pipe.
The slab moved several inches to the side without making a sound.
Beyond it was another chamber.
Someone stood inside.
"Nyelle?"
The figure stepped forward.
Blue light caught the side of her face.
My grip loosened.
It was Nyelle.
Her hair was disheveled, her clothes were dirty, and a thin cut ran across her forehead, but she was standing.
Alive.
"Veyric."
That was her voice.
This time, I knew it.
I took half a step forward, then stopped.
Something was wrong.
Nyelle was injured. She was trapped underground. She had just heard me calling her name.
She should have been looking at me.
Instead, she was looking past me.
"Don’t move," she whispered.
"Why?"
Her eyes shifted toward the passage behind me.
"It followed you."
I turned slightly.
The corridor was empty.
The silver lines flickered.
A shadow crossed the far end of the passage.
It was too tall, too thin, and it moved against the direction of the blue light.
By the time I focused on it, it was gone.
I turned back.
Nyelle had stepped several feet toward me.
"Veyric, come here."
I didn’t move.
Her expression changed.
"Please."
The word landed strangely.
Nyelle had never called me like that.
Not when she was scared. Not when she needed help.
Even as children, fear made her bossier, not quieter.
I lowered the pipe slightly.
"What’s your birthday?"
She stared at me.
"What?"
"Your birthday."
"Veyric, what are you doing?"
"Answer me."
Her expression tightened.
"December third."
My stomach dropped.
Wrong.
Nyelle’s birthday was December seventh.
I stepped backward.
The woman in front of me smiled.
It was small.
Controlled.
Wrong.
"Veyric," it said.
The voice changed halfway through the word.
Nyelle’s voice disappeared.
Something deeper replaced it.
"Why did you ask?"
I raised the pipe.
Then something crashed behind me.
I spun around.
The real Nyelle stood in the open doorway, one hand pressed against the stone frame. Blood ran down one side of her face, and her eyes were fixed on the creature between us.
"Veyric!"
I stared at both of them.
The false Nyelle stood several feet in front of me.
The real Nyelle was behind me.
Then the System appeared.
[IDENTITY CONFLICT DETECTED.]
Another line formed.
[ANALYSIS AVAILABLE.]
Then:
[ANALYSIS: INCOMPLETE.]
"Of course," I whispered.
The false Nyelle smiled.
The real Nyelle looked directly at me.
"Don’t listen to it."
The creature lunged.
I swung the pipe, but my injured shoulder gave way before the strike could land. It twisted around the blow and drove its hand into my chest.
I hit the ground hard.
Pain exploded through my ribs.
The pipe slipped from my fingers.
The creature stepped toward me as its face began changing. Nyelle’s features stretched and collapsed, skin rippling as something underneath forced its way out. Blue light filled its eyes.
I tried to move.
My body refused.
Then a hand grabbed my shirt and dragged me sideways.
The creature’s claws struck the stone where my head had been.
Nyelle pulled me behind her.
She was shaking.
But she stayed between us.
"Get up."
I looked at her.
"Are you real?"
She stared at me, then slapped me across the face.
Pain flashed across my cheek.
"Did that feel real enough?"
I blinked.
"Unfortunately."
"Good. Move."
That was Nyelle.
I pushed myself upright.
The creature watched us, its changing eyes fixed on Nyelle.
"There’s something you need to know," she said.
The creature tilted its head.
"What?"
Nyelle looked toward the stone door.
"This place wasn’t here before."
"That’s becoming a common problem."
"No."
Her voice dropped.
"You don’t understand."
The blue light beneath the floor surged.
The incomplete symbol carved into the door began to change. One line extended, then another, until the markings connected and the symbol became complete.
Every System message vanished.
A new one replaced them.
[ANCIENT STRUCTURE IDENTIFIED.]
Then:
[ORIGINAL FUNCTION: UNKNOWN.]
[ACCESS CONDITION DETECTED.]
Heat tore through my right hand.
Silver light moved beneath my skin.
The creature stopped.
Nyelle stopped.
Even the blue energy seemed to hesitate.
Then the System displayed:
[USER COMPATIBILITY: 4.1%.]
My stomach tightened.
It had increased again.
I hadn’t done anything.
At least, nothing I understood.
Nyelle stared at my hand.
"What is that?"
"I don’t know."
"You’ve been doing something."
"I haven’t."
"You touched the door."
"I didn’t."
Neither of us had an answer.
Then something struck the stone below us.
Once.
The impact traveled through the chamber.
Knock.
A second strike followed.
Knock.
The creature turned toward the sound.
Its expression changed.
For the first time, it looked afraid.
Real fear.
It backed away.
"What is that?" Nyelle whispered.
"I don’t know."
The creature suddenly ran toward the passage.
I raised the pipe.
Nyelle caught my wrist.
"Don’t chase it."
"Why?"
She pointed toward the opening beneath the door.
"Because that’s what it was running from."
The stone beneath us cracked.
A thin line appeared across the floor.
Then another.
Blue light spilled through both.
The cracks widened.
Something below shifted.
The chamber trembled violently.
Then two enormous shapes opened beneath the broken stone.
Eyes.
Not pale blue like the creatures outside.
These were deeper.
Colder.
They filled the darkness below like two distant moons.
The creature screamed from the passage and disappeared.
Nyelle stepped closer to me.
I couldn’t move.
The System appeared again.
I expected another warning.
Instead, a single line appeared.
[WHY ARE YOU HERE?]
I stared at the words.
The question wasn’t mine.
The System wasn’t answering me.
It was displaying something.
Something that had asked the question through it.
My skin went cold.
Then the voice came from beneath the floor.
It wasn’t Nyelle.
It wasn’t the creature.
It wasn’t human.
It was deep enough to vibrate through the stone beneath my feet, yet every syllable was clear.
"Veyric."
Nyelle’s fingers tightened around my arm.
The chamber went completely still.
The voice came again.
"Who told you to wake me?"
I looked at the System.
The message was still there.
[WHY ARE YOU HERE?]
For the first time since it had appeared, I wondered whether the System was actually speaking to me.
Or whether something else had been using it all along.