"Ariana. Come to me."
The voice was no longer beneath the city.
It was inside me.
I froze.
The sanctuary around me trembled, but I barely noticed.
Every sound seemed distant. The footsteps of the First Generation. The shouting of the Architects. The alarms echoing through the corridors.
All of it disappeared beneath that voice.
Ariana.
I closed my eyes.
And suddenly, I was somewhere else.
I stood in a vast darkness.
There was no floor beneath my feet.
No ceiling.
No walls.
Only darkness stretching endlessly in every direction.
Then a single point of light appeared.
It was small at first.
A tiny golden spark.
But it grew.
And grew.
Until it became a massive sphere of light floating before me.
I stared at it.
"What are you?"
The light pulsed.
You already know.
I shook my head.
"No. I don't."
You have remembered.
Images flashed through my mind.
The ancient city.
The First Civilization.
My mother.
The Council.
The Architects.
The Source.
The collapse.
My own face reflected in ancient glass.
And then something I had never seen before.
Ariana.
Not the Ariana I knew.
A woman standing at the center of an enormous circular chamber.
Her hands were glowing.
Around her stood hundreds of people.
All watching her.
All waiting.
And behind her was something enormous.
Something alive.
Something made entirely of light.
I stepped closer.
"Is that me?"
The woman turned.
She looked exactly like me.
But her eyes were different.
They weren't blue-gray.
They were completely golden.
She smiled sadly.
You were the beginning.
My heart stopped.
"The beginning of what?"
Before she could answer, the vision shattered.
I gasped and opened my eyes.
I was back in the sanctuary.
Lena was holding my shoulders.
"Ariana!"
I looked at her.
Her face was pale.
"What happened?"
"I don't know."
That was a lie.
I knew something had happened.
I just didn't understand it.
The silver-haired woman approached us.
"You heard it, didn't you?"
I looked at her.
"The Source?"
She nodded.
"It has called you."
"Why?"
She glanced toward the floor.
"Because the awakening has begun."
A deep rumble passed through the sanctuary.
The ground shook violently.
Several of the ancient chambers flickered.
Then one of them opened.
A hiss of cold air escaped.
Inside was a man.
His eyes opened.
Golden light filled his pupils.
He sat upright.
Everyone went silent.
Then another chamber opened.
And another.
And another.
My blood ran cold.
"How many of them are there?"
The silver-haired woman looked toward the endless rows of chambers.
"Too many."
A sudden alarm screamed through the sanctuary.
The young man who had spoken to the machines earlier turned sharply toward the wall.
"They've breached the outer perimeter."
Adrian stepped forward.
"Who?"
The young man stared at the glowing symbols appearing across the wall.
"The Architects."
A metallic sound echoed through the corridor.
Then another.
And another.
The great doors at the far end began to open.
Slowly.
The Architects entered.
Their weapons were raised.
But they weren't looking at the First Generation.
They were looking at me.
The older silver-haired Architect stepped forward.
His expression had changed.
For the first time, I saw fear in his eyes.
Not anger.
Not confidence.
Fear.
"You shouldn't have remembered," he whispered.
I stared at him.
"Why?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he looked behind me.
At the awakening chambers.
Then he whispered something that made every person in the room go still.
"The Second Awakening was never supposed to happen."
The ground shook again.
This time, harder.
Cracks spread across the floor.
Golden light poured through them.
Lena grabbed my hand.
"Ariana…"
I looked down.
The light was moving toward me.
Not randomly.
It was following me.
Following my blood.
The Source inside me suddenly burned hotter than anything I had ever felt.
I fell to my knees.
A scream escaped my lips.
Images flooded my mind again.
But this time, they weren't memories.
They were warnings.
Cities burning.
People running.
The sky splitting open.
The Source spreading across the earth.
And thousands of people standing beneath a golden sky with their heads raised.
Then I saw myself.
Standing before them.
Not as a prisoner.
Not as a vessel.
As their leader.
I heard the same ancient voice.
The first awakening gave humanity memory.
The vision changed.
The second will give humanity choice.
My eyes opened.
The pain disappeared.
Silence filled the sanctuary.
I slowly stood.
The Architects were staring at me.
The First Generation were kneeling.
Even Adrian looked stunned.
I looked at my hands.
Golden light moved beneath my skin.
I could feel something changing inside me.
Something waking.
Something that had been waiting for thousands of years.
The Architect stepped backward.
"No…"
I looked directly at him.
"What happens now?"
His face lost all color.
"The Source doesn't belong to you."
I took a step forward.
"It never belonged to you either."
The lights throughout the sanctuary suddenly went out.
Every chamber opened at once.
Thousands of ancient eyes opened in the darkness.
And then every awakened voice spoke together.
"The Heir has returned."
The sanctuary doors slammed shut.
Something enormous moved beneath us.
And from somewhere deep below the city, I heard the Source whisper one final word.
"Choose."