"Who told you to wake me?"
The voice rolled through the chamber again, low enough that I felt it through the soles of my shoes.
I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know who it was talking about, what it meant by wake, or why something buried beneath a building in the middle of a ruined city knew my name.
The blue light beneath the broken floor continued to pulse. Two enormous eyes remained fixed on me through the opening, and the longer I stared, the more certain I became that whatever was beneath us wasn’t looking at the chamber.
It was looking directly at me.
Nyelle’s hand tightened around my arm.
"Don’t answer it," she whispered.
I glanced at her. "You know what it is?"
Her eyes never left the opening.
"No."
The answer was quiet, but something about it bothered me.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Before I could ask, the voice came again.
"You brought the key."
My gaze dropped to my right hand. Silver light moved beneath my skin, following the same branching pattern I had seen before.
"I don’t have a key."
The eyes narrowed.
"You carry one."
My fingers curled.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about."
"You were not supposed to be here."
I looked at Nyelle. She only shook her head.
"You were not supposed to wake."
A cold feeling settled in my stomach.
"Wake from what?"
For several seconds, there was no answer.
Then the voice said, "The world."
The blue light suddenly disappeared.
Darkness swallowed the chamber.
Nyelle tightened her grip.
"Veyric."
"I know."
"No. Listen."
I stopped moving.
Something was breathing beneath us.
Each breath was deep enough to vibrate through the stone. I felt it in my legs before I fully heard it, and for the first time I understood that whatever was below us wasn’t simply alive.
It was enormous.
The blue light returned.
This time, it came from the creature itself.
A massive shape shifted beneath the opening, and I finally understood why the creature that escaped had been afraid.
A portion of its face rose into view.
Stone covered it.
Not armor.
Stone.
It looked as though the ancient structure had grown around its body and become part of it. Blue energy ran across the surface, disappearing beneath layers of dark material that looked older than anything I had ever seen.
Nyelle whispered something.
"What?"
She swallowed.
"I’ve seen it before."
My stomach tightened.
"You’ve seen that?"
"Not here."
Her gaze moved toward the walls.
"On the walls."
I followed her eyes.
The silver lines suddenly made sense. They weren’t cracks. They formed patterns, and those same patterns appeared across the enormous figure beneath us.
"It was part of the structure," I said.
Nyelle shook her head.
"No."
She looked at me.
"The structure was part of it."
"You knew that."
"I suspected it."
"You recognized the pattern before I did."
"I’ve seen the symbol before, Veyric. That’s all."
"Where?"
She hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
"Nyelle."
"Not now."
Before I could press her, the creature moved.
The chamber floor rose.
A section of stone broke away, and a massive hand emerged through the opening. It was larger than my entire body, its fingers pressing against the stone as though the floor were thin soil.
The System appeared.
[ANCIENT ENTITY DETECTED.]
I stared.
For once, the System had given me something useful.
Then another message appeared.
[THREAT ASSESSMENT: UNAVAILABLE.]
"Of course."
Nyelle looked at me.
"The System doesn’t know how dangerous it is," I said.
Her face went pale.
"That isn’t what you should be worried about."
"What should I be worried about?"
She pointed toward the opening.
"It isn’t trying to attack us."
She was right.
The enormous hand remained still.
The entity was waiting.
Then its voice filled the chamber.
"Show me."
"Show you what?"
"Your hand."
Nyelle immediately grabbed my wrist.
"No."
The blue light around the entity brightened.
"Show me."
I looked down.
The silver glow beneath my skin had become stronger.
"What happens if I don’t?"
The chamber shook. A crack appeared in the wall beside me.
Nyelle pulled me backward.
"Don’t challenge it."
"I wasn’t planning to."
The crack widened.
Slowly, I raised my right hand.
The silver light spread from my palm to my wrist.
The entity went completely still.
Then it spoke.
"Impossible."
I lowered my hand.
"What?"
"You carry the unfinished path."
My stomach tightened.
"What does that mean?"
The System appeared.
[UNKNOWN COMPATIBILITY STRUCTURE DETECTED.]
Then:
[COMPARISON ATTEMPT.]
[FAILED.]
The entity spoke again.
"It is inside you."
"What is?"
"The error."
The word sent a chill through me.
I remembered the strange System messages, the incomplete analysis, the warnings, and my increasing compatibility.
"Do you know the System?"
The entity’s eyes shifted.
"You call it that."
My mouth went dry.
"You know what it is."
"I know what it was."
Nyelle looked at me.
"What does that mean?"
The entity slowly raised its head.
"You have awakened something that was buried because it was never meant to return."
"What?"
"The world."
The word echoed through the chamber.
Then its attention moved toward Nyelle.
"You."
She stepped backward.
"What about me?"
"You were not the one it called."
I looked at her.
"What is it talking about?"
"I don’t know."
The answer came too quickly.
"Nyelle."
"I said I don’t know."
"You’ve seen that symbol before."
"I told you, I’ve seen it."
"Where?"
She looked toward the entity.
"Before today."
That was the first thing she had admitted.
"Where?"
"I don’t remember."
"You don’t remember, or you don’t want to tell me?"
Her eyes met mine.
"I saw the symbol once when I was younger. I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t know it would matter."
"Where?"
She opened her mouth.
The entity answered for her.
"She carries a trace."
Nyelle went still.
"What trace?"
The entity didn’t explain.
Before I could ask, a distant sound came from the passage.
Footsteps.
I turned.
Blue eyes appeared one after another in the darkness.
Five.
Then seven.
Then more.
Nyelle’s breathing changed.
"How many?"
"Too many."
The creatures stopped.
Every one of them lowered its head toward the ancient being.
The entity looked toward them.
Then it spoke.
"Leave."
"Us?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Its eyes returned to me.
"Because they have smelled the error."
The creatures began moving.
Nyelle grabbed my arm.
"We need to go."
I didn’t argue.
I snatched the pipe from the floor and followed her toward the passage.
Three steps later, the entity spoke behind me.
"Veyric."
I stopped.
Nyelle pulled my arm.
"Don’t."
I looked back.
"When you find the one who sent you here..."
I waited.
"...ask them why they were afraid of your birth."
My blood went cold.
Nyelle stopped beside me.
For a moment, she didn’t breathe.
I looked at her.
She wouldn’t meet my eyes.
"You know something."
"I don’t."
"You reacted."
"Because that thing just told you someone was afraid of your birth."
"Why did that scare you?"
"It didn’t."
"You’re lying."
"Veyric, this is not the time."
Maybe she was right.
The creatures were already moving toward us.
If there was going to be a later, we would have to survive long enough to reach it.
The entity’s eyes closed.
"Run."
The creatures charged.
I grabbed Nyelle’s hand.
We ran.
We didn’t stop until the chamber disappeared behind us.
Only then did I realize she was still holding my hand.
She didn’t let go.
Neither did I.
The corridor seemed different now. The silver lines weren’t simply glowing anymore.
They were moving.
The patterns shifted as we passed, rearranging themselves across the walls as though the entire passage were changing around us.
Then one section changed completely.
A symbol appeared.
I recognized it immediately.
The same symbol from Nyelle’s apartment.
Except this time, it wasn’t incomplete.
I stopped.
Nyelle nearly collided with me.
"What?"
I pointed toward the wall.
Her face changed.
"That wasn’t there before."
The symbol pulsed.
My right hand answered.
Silver light moved beneath my skin.
Then the System appeared.
[PATHWAY RESPONSE DETECTED.]
Another message followed.
[DESTINATION IDENTIFIED.]
I stared.
[PROCEED BELOW.]
Nyelle read it over my shoulder.
"Below?"
I looked ahead.
The corridor ended at a stone staircase descending into darkness.
Neither of us had noticed it before.
Behind us, the creatures were approaching.
Nyelle looked at me.
"Tell me we’re not going down there."
"We don’t have another way."
"You could say that less confidently."
"I wasn’t being confident."
She gave me a tired look.
"You always say that when you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing."
"That isn’t true."
"When was the last time you knew what you were doing?"
I thought about it.
"Yesterday."
"The world ended yesterday."
"Exactly."
For the first time since I found her, something softened in her expression.
Then something moved at the bottom of the staircase.
We both saw it.
A figure stood far below.
Human-shaped.
Motionless.
Waiting.
Nyelle’s hand tightened around mine.
"Veyric."
"I see it."
The figure slowly lifted its head.
A faint silver light appeared where its eyes should have been.
Then a voice traveled up the staircase.
This one was human.
And I recognized it.
It was the same voice from the messages.
"Don’t come any farther."
I stared into the darkness.
Nyelle looked at me.
The creatures behind us were getting closer.
The stranger spoke again.
"If you want your sister alive, you need to trust me."
My grip tightened around the pipe.
I looked at Nyelle.
She looked back at me.
Her hand remained locked around mine, but neither of us moved.
I didn’t know whether the stranger was telling the truth, and for the first time since finding her, I couldn’t even be certain that staying together made us safer.
But she was beside me.
The creatures were closing in behind us.
And whoever stood at the bottom of those stairs claimed to know how to keep her alive.
I stepped toward the darkness.
Behind me, the creatures entered the corridor.
Ahead of me, the stranger raised one hand.
Then the System displayed a message I had never seen before.
[CAUTION.]
A second line appeared.
[THIS INDIVIDUAL IS NOT HUMAN.]
I stopped.
The stranger smiled.
And Nyelle whispered my name.