I stared at the stranger.
His silver-lit eyes remained fixed on mine while the message on my phone sat between us. Nyelle’s fingers tightened around my hand, and she was staring at him too, but there was something different in her expression now, something closer to recognition than suspicion.
"What did it say?" she asked.
I lowered the phone.
"Someone says he’s the reason they were afraid of my birth."
The stranger’s shoulders stiffened.
Nyelle noticed.
"So it’s true?"
"No."
The answer came quietly, almost too quickly.
I stepped toward him.
"Then who is?"
"I don’t know."
After everything that had happened tonight, hearing those words again was starting to feel like a private joke the entire world had decided to share.
"You’ve spent three weeks following these symbols. You knew about the creatures, you knew about Nyelle, and you knew enough about the System to recognize what was happening to me. Now someone claims you’re connected to my birth, and you expect me to accept that you don’t know who they’re talking about?"
His eyes narrowed.
"Knowing that something happened isn’t the same as knowing who caused it."
"That sounds convenient."
"It isn’t."
Nyelle stepped between us.
"Then tell us what you do know."
The stranger looked at her.
"You’ve been speaking around this since we met," she continued. "You know about the symbols. You know about the creatures. You knew I had seen them before Veyric did. If you’re going to keep us alive, stop deciding what we’re allowed to know."
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then he stepped away from the metal door.
"I was here twenty-four years ago."
The words landed strangely.
"When?"
"Twenty-four years ago. When Veyric was born."
Nyelle’s fingers tightened around mine.
"I wasn’t part of the people studying what was beneath the city," he continued. "I followed someone who was. By the time I understood what they had found, the facility was already in trouble."
"What had they found?" I asked.
"Something beneath the city."
"The thing we saw?"
His expression hardened.
"Something connected to it."
Nyelle stepped closer.
"What kind of facility?"
"A research site."
"Researching what?"
"The structure."
"And the energy?"
"Yes."
Her eyes narrowed.
"And Veyric?"
The stranger looked at me.
"That was where everything changed."
My stomach tightened.
"You said I was born during an activation."
"I said the structure activated when you were born."
"What’s the difference?"
"The difference is that nobody there expected a newborn to be part of the response."
I stared at him.
"What did I do?"
"You were a baby."
"That isn’t an answer."
"No," he said quietly. "It isn’t."
Nyelle’s voice cut through the chamber.
"Then give him one."
The stranger looked at her.
"You were there too."
She went completely still.
"I was a child."
"I know."
"How old?"
"Six. Maybe seven. I can’t remember exactly."
Her face tightened.
"I don’t remember any of this."
"I know."
"Why was I there?"
"Your parents brought you."
"Why?"
"I don’t know."
Nyelle’s expression hardened.
"You knew my brother was involved. You knew I was there. Don’t tell me you know nothing."
"I know what I saw. I don’t know everything that happened before I arrived, and I don’t know what your parents intended."
"Then what did you see?"
The stranger looked toward the floor.
"When the structure activated, everyone inside tried to shut it down. They couldn’t. The energy ignored them."
His gaze settled on me.
"Then it reacted to you."
I looked at my right hand.
Nothing showed beneath my skin, but warmth still lingered there.
"What did it do?"
"It opened."
His voice dropped.
"Not completely. Just enough for something on the other side to respond."
Nyelle’s breathing changed.
"What responded?"
"I never saw it clearly."
"You heard it?"
"Yes."
"What did it say?"
The stranger looked directly at me.
"Your name."
The chamber seemed to lose another degree of warmth.
"What happened after that?"
"The facility collapsed."
"Everyone died?"
"Not everyone."
"Who survived?"
His eyes moved toward the metal door.
"I did."
Nyelle’s voice became quieter.
"My parents?"
He didn’t answer.
I looked at him.
"Were they there?"
"Yes."
"Did they survive?"
His expression tightened.
"I don’t know."
Nyelle looked down.
Her hand slowly slipped from mine.
Then she turned around.
"Then why do I remember the door?"
The stranger’s expression changed.
"You were brought into the lower chamber before the collapse."
"I was?"
"Yes."
"What did I see?"
"You saw Veyric."
Her face went pale.
"Why?"
"I don’t know what your parents wanted you to understand. I only remember you being frightened and asking about your brother."
Nyelle stared at him.
"What was I asking?"
"You kept asking why he was glowing."
She pressed a hand against her forehead.
"I don’t remember that."
"I know."
"Then how do you know what happened to my memory?"
"I saw you afterward."
Her hand lowered.
"What does that mean?"
"It means you remembered less than you should have."
The words hung there.
"Someone took my memories?"
"I don’t know if they were taken."
"But you said I remembered less than I should have."
"Yes."
"Who did it?"
"I don’t know."
She stared at him.
"You keep saying you don’t know."
"Because sometimes that’s the truth."
Nyelle turned toward the markings covering the wall.
"The door."
"That was one of the things you remembered."
"And the symbol."
"Yes."
Her voice dropped.
"That is why I’ve been dreaming about it."
"Yes."
She turned toward me.
"I should have told you."
I didn’t answer immediately.
"I tried," she said.
"When?"
"Before the blackout."
My attention sharpened.
"You knew something was wrong before today."
"I knew something was happening. I didn’t know it would become this."
She looked down.
"I was afraid that if I told you about the dreams, you’d ask questions I couldn’t answer."
"You’re my sister."
"I know."
"Then you should have trusted me."
Her eyes dropped.
"I was trying to protect you."
She swallowed.
"And I was scared."
I reached for her hand.
She let me take it.
Then the floor vibrated.
The stranger immediately turned toward the metal door.
A low pulse travelled through the chamber. The red light above the door flickered once, twice, then changed.
Red became silver.
My right hand warmed.
The stranger stepped between me and the door.
"Don’t touch it."
Nyelle moved beside me.
"Why?"
He looked at my hand.
"Because it isn’t reacting to the room."
His gaze returned to the door.
"It’s reacting to him."
"How do you know?"
"Because I’ve seen it happen before."
"With me?"
"No."
He hesitated.
"With someone else."
"The person with the abnormal path?"
His face tightened.
"Yes."
"What happened to him?"
"He opened a door like this."
"And?"
"He came back alive."
I waited.
"That isn’t the answer."
"No."
"What happened to him?"
His eyes darkened.
"He wasn’t the same."
"In what way?"
"He could no longer distinguish his own thoughts from the voices coming from below."
Nyelle stared at him.
"Where is he now?"
"Gone."
"Dead?"
"I don’t know."
She shook her head.
"You keep saying that."
The stranger met her gaze.
"Because I don’t know."
"No. Sometimes it’s what you say when you don’t want to tell us something."
For the first time, something like regret crossed his face.
Then he nodded.
"You’re right."
"There are things I haven’t told you," he said.
Nyelle folded her arms.
"Then tell us now."
He looked at the door.
"I don’t know where that man went after the last activation. I only know that he stopped being himself."
"And you think that could happen to Veyric?"
"I think it could."
His gaze shifted toward me.
"That is why I told you not to come here."
The metal door clicked.
Once.
Then again.
The stranger’s head snapped toward it.
"We need to leave."
I didn’t move.
"You said the door wasn’t supposed to open yet."
"It wasn’t."
"Then why is it opening?"
His eyes met mine.
"Because you changed the sequence."
The handle moved.
Nyelle grabbed my arm.
"Veyric."
The door opened a fraction.
Cold air spilled through the gap, carrying whispers—hundreds of them, perhaps thousands, layered over one another until they became a low, living murmur.
Then one voice separated from the others.
I knew it immediately.
My mother’s.
"Don’t let him open the door."
I stopped breathing.
Nyelle’s eyes widened.
She had heard it too.
I turned toward the stranger.
"How did you know that was her?"
He said nothing.
"You’ve heard that voice before."
His jaw tightened.
"Yes."
"When?"
He looked toward the opening.
"Twenty-four years ago."
Nyelle moved between us.
"What did she say back then?"
The stranger looked at her.
"The same thing."
My stomach dropped.
"About me?"
"Yes."
The chamber shook hard enough to send dust cascading from the ceiling.
The door opened another inch.
Silver light spilled across the floor.
The System appeared.
[ANOMALOUS STRUCTURE DETECTED.]
I stared at the message.
Another line appeared.
[COMPATIBILITY: 4.1%]
The same number.
Then the final message appeared.
[ACCESS CONDITION: ONE LIVING KEY.]
Nobody spoke.
I looked at my right hand.
Silver light was beginning to glow beneath my skin, following the veins upward from my palm.
Nyelle moved closer until her shoulder touched mine.
"What does that mean?"
I stared at the door.
"I don’t know."
For once, the words weren’t coming from the stranger.
They were mine.
He was staring at me now.
Not at the System.
Not at the door.
At me.
And this time, he made no attempt to hide what was in his eyes.
Fear.
The voice beyond the door whispered my name again.
"Veyric."
I stared into the narrow opening.
The voice came once more.
Closer.
Clearer.
And this time, it sounded exactly like my own.