I remembered the beginning.
Not everything at once.
It came in fragments.
A sky filled with unfamiliar stars.
A city that wasn't built on Earth as I knew it.
People walking beneath structures that seemed to touch the clouds.
And me.
Not as I was now.
Different.
Older.
Standing before a gathering of people who were terrified of something they couldn't control.
I opened my eyes.
The sanctuary had returned to motion.
Lena was still holding my arm.
"Ariana?"
I looked at her.
She was frightened.
I understood why.
I must have looked different too.
The light that had surrounded me was gone, but something remained beneath my skin. I could feel it moving through my veins like warmth.
"I'm here."
Lena exhaled.
"You disappeared."
"What do you mean?"
"For several seconds, you weren't here."
I looked around.
The others were staring at me.
The first generation.
The Architects.
Adrian.
Even my mother behind the glass.
Everyone looked as though they had seen a ghost.
I turned toward her.
She was crying.
"Mom?"
Her lips trembled.
"You remembered."
I nodded slowly.
"Not everything."
"Enough."
I stepped toward the chamber.
"What happened to me?"
She looked away.
"You were born with the memories."
"No."
I shook my head.
"You erased them."
Her eyes closed.
"Yes."
The word hurt more than I expected.
"Why?"
"Because they would have killed you if they knew."
"Who?"
She hesitated.
"The Council."
The Architect immediately interrupted.
"The Council no longer exists."
My mother looked toward him.
"You've been telling yourself that for centuries."
His expression hardened.
"You know nothing about what happened after the collapse."
"I know more than you think."
I looked between them.
"Stop."
They both became silent.
I was tired of being surrounded by people who knew pieces of my life while I was expected to accept whatever version they decided to give me.
"I want the truth."
My mother looked at me.
"Then you need to remember it yourself."
She placed her hand against the glass.
"Because nobody else can tell it without changing it."
The chamber suddenly flickered.
A memory appeared in my mind.
I was standing in a vast hall.
Hundreds of people surrounded me.
At the center stood a massive circular structure.
The same symbol appeared above it.
The symbol that had followed me all my life.
A man approached me.
He wasn't human.
Not completely.
His eyes were silver.
His skin carried faint lines of light.
He looked at me with sadness.
"You cannot stay."
I remembered my younger self looking at him.
"Where will I go?"
"Back."
"Back where?"
"To them."
He pointed toward a distant opening.
I saw Earth.
But it wasn't the Earth I knew.
It was younger.
Untouched.
Beautiful.
Then he said something that made my blood run cold.
"One day, they will forget you."
I asked him why.
"Because forgetting is the only way they can survive what comes next."
The memory shifted.
Fire.
The sky burning.
People running.
The First Civilization collapsing.
And me standing at the center of it all.
I wasn't afraid.
I was crying.
Someone placed a hand on my shoulder.
My mother.
She was younger.
Much younger.
She looked exactly as I remembered her from childhood.
Except she wasn't looking at me like a mother.
She was looking at me like someone saying goodbye.
"You have to go."
I shook my head.
"I can stop it."
"No."
"I can."
She grabbed my face.
"If you stay, they'll use you."
"Who?"
"The Architects."
The memory shattered.
I returned to the sanctuary gasping.
My mother was still watching me.
"They weren't trying to protect humanity from me," I whispered.
Her eyes filled with tears.
"They were trying to use me."
She nodded.
I turned toward the Architects.
"Is that why you built the Design?"
No one answered.
"Was it created to control the source?"
The oldest Architect finally spoke.
"Yes."
My chest tightened.
"And I was the source."
"Part of it."
I frowned.
"Part?"
He looked toward the chamber beneath us.
"The source existed before you."
"Then what was I?"
His answer came quietly.
"The first vessel capable of carrying it."
Silence.
I looked down at my hands.
The white light returned for a brief moment.
But this time, I didn't fear it.
I understood something now.
The power wasn't controlling me.
It was responding to me.
And beneath the sanctuary, the ancient consciousness was still awake.
Waiting.
Listening.
Remembering.
Then my mother suddenly looked toward the ceiling.
Her expression changed.
"What?"
She whispered one word.
"They're here."
Adrian immediately raised his weapon.
"Who?"
My mother looked at me.
"The ones who created the Council."
Ariana's heart stopped.
Before anyone could ask another question, every screen in the sanctuary came alive.
A single symbol appeared.
Then a message.
THE FIRST HEIR HAS REMEMBERED.
Another line appeared beneath it.
BEGIN THE SECOND AWAKENING.
The entire sanctuary shook.
And this time, the voice beneath the city didn't whisper.
It spoke so loudly that every living person heard it.
"Ariana."
I froze.
"Come to me."