The passage behind the chamber sloped downward at a gradual but deliberate angle. This wasn't natural erosion or makeshift collapse—it was built, cut with purpose into the foundation of the earth. The stone underfoot had a strange elasticity, soft enough to absorb their steps, hard enough to carry weight no human structure should've survived.
They walked in silence for a long time.
Kaela finally broke it.
"Do you trust it?" she asked.
Reven glanced at her. "Echo?"
She nodded.
Reven's eyes remained forward. "I trust the knowledge. Not the intent."
"Meaning?"
"Whatever it was programmed for, it still thinks like a system. It's not guiding me because I deserve it. It's guiding me because I fit."
Kaela didn't reply. But she stayed close.
Lirien landed behind them as the tunnel widened into a circular antechamber. The walls were lined with inactive consoles—stripped, ancient. Symbols flickered faintly beneath layers of dust. There was power here. But not awake.
Reven stepped forward and ran a finger along one of the walls. The shard at his side pulsed in response.
Lirien tilted her head. "Same frequency?"
"Lower," Reven said. "It's… older. Dormant."
Kaela approached the far end of the chamber, where a raised platform overlooked a narrow descent, almost like a stage above a pit.
"That looks like a lift."
"It is," Lirien confirmed, crouching near a panel. "Manual override. Looks like it hasn't been used in… decades? Centuries?"
Kaela raised a brow. "Still working?"
Lirien smirked. "Want to find out?"
Without waiting, she jammed the tip of her talon into the panel. Sparks hissed. The floor beneath the platform shuddered, then groaned as the platform slowly descended into shadow.
Reven stepped aboard first. Kaela followed with a low breath, blade loose in her grip.
They dropped into silence.
The air below was different.
Not stale but still.
Like nothing had breathed it in a hundred years.
The platform stopped in a vast cavern lit by slow-turning machinery. Everything here was ancient but alive. Huge data towers rose into the black above, their surfaces coated in lines of soft green light. Pillars carved from memory stone formed a perimeter, and at the very centre sat a sealed capsule, coffin-like. Suspended by nothing.
It glowed. Reven stepped toward it, chest tightening. The Flamecore at his side began to spin.
Kaela touched his arm. "Another Core?"
"No," he said. "Something else."
Lirien flew a low arc overhead, circling the capsule. "It's tethered. Biometric locks. Might be… someone."
Reven felt his jaw tighten. "Another Flameborn."
Kaela took a step back. "Alive?"
"Kept," Lirien said. "In stasis."
Then the air shifted.
A light at the top of the chamber flickered, then solidified into a holographic field. A female face appeared, pale and angular. Not Echo. Something sharper.
"You have entered Preservation Site 4-D."
"Authorization: Provisional. Bearer: Confirmed."
"Reintegration protocol… paused."
Kaela turned to Reven. "Paused?"
The voice continued.
"Subject 03: KAELEX — contained. Status: locked. Consciousness: fragmented. Memory: restored in fragments."
Reven took a half-step forward. "Kaelex?"
The capsule hissed.
Steam rose.
A single pulse of energy spread through the floor. The room darkened.
Then the coffin opened.
Inside was a woman.
Human—or close. Her skin bore faint traces of silver, her veins glowing softly in the dark. Her hair was black, long, unkempt. She breathed—slow, but steady.
Kaela drew her blade. "Is she—"
Reven raised a hand.
The woman's eyes opened.
Golden. Burning.
Not with fire.
With recognition.
"Flamebearer," she whispered. "You're late."
Then she collapsed into unconsciousness.
They worked fast.
Lirien stabilized her vitals, hooking into what was left of the capsule's systems. Kaela watched the lift platform for movement.
Reven knelt beside the new arrival.
She looked no older than thirty, but her presence felt heavier, denser. Her aura, if that word still had meaning, pressed against his like heat on skin.
Echo's voice stirred faintly in the back of his thoughts.
"You found her. The first attempt. She was built to lead. You were built to endure."
Reven exhaled. "And now we're both awake."
Kaela looked back. "What now?"
Reven stood slowly, eyes fixed on the still-glowing capsule.
"Now we find out what else they buried."