Ariana couldn't breathe.
The words echoed inside her head.
She opened the source.
The platform beneath her feet continued glowing, but the sanctuary itself had become strangely quiet.
Too quiet.
No alarms.
No shaking walls.
No gunfire.
Even the people who had been running moments earlier had stopped.
Everyone was listening.
Waiting.
Ariana slowly removed her hand from the seal.
Nothing happened.
She stared at her palm.
"What did I open?"
The Architect didn't answer.
Ariana looked at him.
"I asked you a question."
He finally raised his eyes.
"The beginning."
"That's not an answer."
"It is the only answer I can give you."
Adrian stepped forward.
"You knew this would happen."
The Architect's jaw tightened.
"We suspected."
"You brought your people here knowing she might activate it."
"We came because the activation had already begun."
Lena frowned.
"Then why were you trying to stop her?"
"Because the source doesn't distinguish between those who seek it and those who fear it."
Ariana's expression hardened.
"You're still not telling me what it is."
The Architect looked toward the floor.
"Because I don't know."
That answer surprised everyone.
"You don't know?"
"No."
He took a slow breath.
"Nobody does."
Ariana looked toward the silver-haired woman.
"You said the first generation knew."
"We knew what it could do."
"Not what it was?"
She shook her head.
"We inherited the sanctuary. We didn't create the source."
Ariana looked around.
Then she noticed something.
The glowing symbols covering the walls had changed.
They were no longer random.
They were forming words.
Lena stepped closer.
"Can you read that?"
Ariana stared.
"I can."
The first line appeared.
THE SOURCE IS NOT A WEAPON.
Another line formed beneath it.
IT IS A MEMORY.
Ariana's pulse quickened.
The third line appeared.
A MEMORY OF WHAT HUMANITY WAS BEFORE IT BECAME HUMAN.
Nobody spoke.
Adrian slowly lowered his weapon.
"Before humanity became human?"
The Architect looked genuinely disturbed.
"That record was supposed to be destroyed."
Ariana turned toward him.
"Why?"
"Because if people discovered where they came from, they would stop believing what they've been taught."
Ariana stared at the inscription.
"Who taught them?"
The Architect hesitated.
"Everyone."
Ariana almost smiled bitterly.
"There's that word again."
The sanctuary trembled.
The inscription changed.
A new message appeared.
THE FIRST LIE WAS NOT THAT HUMANS WERE CREATED.
Ariana read the next line aloud.
"It was that they were created alone."
Lena looked at her.
"What does that mean?"
Ariana didn't know.
But she felt the answer approaching.
The floor beneath the platform began to separate.
A circular opening appeared.
Below it was a vast chamber filled with darkness.
Then something illuminated the depths.
Not golden.
Not blue.
White.
Pure white.
The light rose slowly until it filled the chamber.
Ariana felt an overwhelming pressure inside her chest.
Her knees weakened.
Lena caught her.
"Ariana!"
"I'm okay."
She wasn't.
She could hear whispers again.
Thousands of voices.
Different languages.
Different ages.
Different emotions.
All speaking at once.
She covered her ears.
"Make them stop."
The silver-haired woman looked frightened.
"What do you hear?"
"Everyone."
"What are they saying?"
Ariana closed her eyes.
Then one voice separated from the others.
Clear.
Calm.
Familiar.
Remember.
Ariana opened her eyes.
"I know that voice."
Her mother had spoken the same word years ago.
Not aloud.
In a memory Ariana had forgotten.
Ariana looked toward the chamber where her mother remained.
"She knew."
The Architect frowned.
"Knew what?"
Ariana didn't answer.
She suddenly remembered Elara.
A small house.
A rainy evening.
Her mother kneeling before her.
Her hands trembling.
Ariana had been young.
Maybe six.
Elara had held her face between both palms.
"Whatever happens, you must never let them take you beneath the mountain."
Ariana had forgotten that memory.
Or someone had made her forget.
The realization made her stomach turn.
Elara hadn't been afraid of Ariana discovering the truth.
She had been afraid Ariana would remember it.
Ariana looked at the Architect.
"Who erased my memories?"
He went silent.
That was enough.
"You did."
"No."
"Then who?"
The Architect looked toward the chamber below.
"The First Council."
Ariana's blood ran cold.
"The same people who created the sanctuaries?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because you were there."
Ariana stared at him.
"Where?"
"In the beginning."
The sanctuary fell silent again.
The Architect continued.
"Your bloodline didn't begin after the First Civilization."
He looked directly at Ariana.
"It began before it."
Ariana felt the world tilt.
"That's impossible."
"No."
He shook his head.
"That's the truth."
The white light beneath the sanctuary suddenly expanded.
Ariana felt something touch her mind.
A memory appeared.
Not from her childhood.
Not from her ancestor.
From somewhere much older.
Ariana saw herself standing beneath a sky filled with unfamiliar stars.
But she wasn't alone.
Around her stood beings that looked almost human.
Almost.
One of them placed a glowing hand against her chest.
Then Ariana heard the words:
You were never meant to inherit the source.
The vision shifted.
You were meant to become it.
Ariana gasped.
The memory disappeared.
She stumbled backward.
Lena caught her again.
"What happened?"
Ariana stared at her hands.
The golden light had changed.
Tiny threads of white were now moving through it.
The Architect stepped back.
"No."
Adrian looked at him.
"What?"
The Architect's face was filled with genuine fear.
"The source isn't waking."
He looked at Ariana.
"It's merging with her."
The white light beneath the sanctuary surged upward.
Ariana screamed.
And somewhere beneath the mountain, something ancient answered with a sound that shook the entire world.
The light swallowed Ariana completely.
For one terrifying moment, she couldn't hear anything.
Then the voices stopped.
Silence.
Ariana opened her eyes.
The sanctuary was still there, but everyone had frozen.
Lena.
Adrian.
The Architects.
The first generation.
Even the falling dust hung motionless in the air.
Ariana looked down at her hands.
The golden and white light had disappeared.
Then a voice spoke inside her mind.
"Now you remember."
Ariana's breath caught.
She knew that voice.
It wasn't the source.
It was her own.
And suddenly, she remembered everything.