Location: Lazrith Core – The Forgotten Reactor
The Forgemother leaned against the edge of a rusted console, one synthetic eye glowing, the other long burned out. Her mechanical lungs hissed.
Yanis stood across from her, arms crossed, distrust clear in every breath.
> "You said there's a thirteenth fragment."
The Forgemother nodded.
> "Twelve were created to balance the Seed's force… but one was born outside the system. A fail-safe. A jailer."
> "A… jailer?" Yanis repeated.
> "One that binds the others. Buried in a Gate the King sealed with his own life. The Gate no one was ever meant to open."
She tapped the console.
A hologram flickered: a black Gate, pulsing beneath a frozen sea of ruins. Coordinates: Unknown. Labeled only:
> "GATE: XIII // ENTITY LOCKED // NO RETURN"
> "If Kael touches it," the Forgemother said quietly, "he'll remember what he truly was."
---
Meanwhile: Kael's Current Location – Hollow Echo's Edge
Kael sat alone, eyes closed.
But he wasn't resting.
He was dreaming. And the dream… was real.
He stood in a vast white garden filled with broken statues — each bearing his face. A voice whispered:
> "They named you Kael Riven. But before that… you had no name."
A hand reached out from one of the statues.
Kael gripped it.
Suddenly, a pulse hit him — his vision shattered into images:
A woman with silver eyes, screaming as a Gate closed around her
A baby born beneath a fractured sky, already glowing
Twelve warriors kneeling to a man who wasn't yet a man
A thirteenth throne, empty and waiting
Kael collapsed forward, gasping.
> [Memory Drift: Unstable]
[Seed Core Beginning Rewriting Sequence]
[Warning: Host Identity 63% Intact – Decline Detected]
He whispered to himself.
> "I'm Kael. I'm Kael Riven. I—"
But his voice echoed in two tones.
> "You are more than that. You are what came before."
---
Back at Lazrith Core
Yanis stared at the Forgemother.
> "If we destroy the 13th fragment…"
> "We erase the Seed," the Forgemother said, "and everything it remembers."
> "Including Kael."
> "Including the girl."
Yanis was silent for a long moment.
> "Where is this Gate?"
The Forgemother smiled bitterly.
> "Where else? Inside him."
---