Sector 12-B was dead.
No lights, no motion—just long-forgotten ruins buried beneath layers of ash and silence. Kael stood before a half-buried structure, once a Pact relay station, now cracked open like a skull split by unseen hands.
The sky above shimmered with a haze of Dream-bleed, refracting light in impossible patterns. It was midday, but shadows moved like they had minds of their own.
He approached the shattered gateway and placed his palm against the embedded sigil.
> Echo Lock Recognized.
Accessing: Pact Archive – Memory Thread 017-A.
Warning: Mental Synchronization Required.
Anchor Drive Detected. Beginning Immersion...
The world around him cracked.
Then collapsed.
---
Kael gasped as his feet touched solid ground again.
But this wasn't Sector 12-B anymore.
This was the past.
The sky was clear. The buildings intact. The Pact's sigils glowed clean and uncorrupted on metal walls.
He stood in a simulated projection of the Archive's memory—a living recording layered with real emotion, sound, and Echo-resonance. He could feel the emotions of those who had once walked here, their thoughts bleeding into the walls.
And in the distance, footsteps approached.
---
A woman appeared from around the corner—tall, cloaked in crimson robes lined with Pact markings Kael had never seen before. Her face was uncovered, striking. Eyes dark as voidglass.
She didn't see Kael.
She wasn't really here.
This was her memory.
She moved quickly, her body tense, as if hunted. In her arms—something wrapped in cloth. She entered a chamber, sealed it behind her, and began speaking to an unseen recorder.
> "This is Warden-Captain Elira Voss, designation Alpha-Wake. Last surviving member of the original Riftguard team. I've breached the containment zone. I have the fragment."
Kael froze.
Voss.
Her name.
His name.
He whispered it aloud. "...Elira?"
The memory continued.
> "They called it a sigil. But it's not a symbol. It's a seed. It whispers when you touch it. Shows you things you've never seen—can't have seen. And it doesn't stop."
"I tried to destroy it. Burn it. Silence it. But it's alive. It wants to grow."
"The Pact doesn't know. Not yet. But if they find out what I've done—what I've seen—it won't be containment. It'll be execution."
She paused.
Then she turned slightly, and her voice changed—softer, worn by pain.
> "If anyone finds this… and your name is Voss… I'm sorry."
Kael's heartbeat slowed.
Elira's face turned toward the recorder fully now.
She looked just like—
His mother.
---
The archive glitched.
The world fractured.
The walls shook as a wave of Echo-energy surged through the memory. Kael staggered as the projection bled at the edges, corrupted by something external.
And from the shadows behind Elira…
A figure emerged.
Not human.
Tall. Cloaked in layers of shimmering black threads that moved like smoke. Its face was obscured, but its presence was undeniable.
And in its hand—
A mirror shard, pulsing with the same sigil that Kael had seen on the Harvester.
The Mourning Sigil.
The figure didn't move.
It merely watched Elira.
She turned, saw it, and her voice broke.
> "No… not here—"
The memory collapsed.
Kael screamed as he was hurled from the archive.
---
He landed hard on the cracked stone floor of the present-day relay station. His head throbbed. Blood dripped from his nose. His Echo was spinning wildly, trying to stabilize.
> Warning: Mental Overload Detected.
Anchor Integrity: 42%
Trait Mutation Triggered: Unknown Lineage Recognized.
---
The Veil of Null rebooted.
And Kael lay in the darkness, trembling.
Elira Voss.
His mother.
Not just a Pact Warden—one of its creators. One who had disobeyed their rules. One who had touched the sigil…
And unleashed something.
Now Kael knew why the Harvester could copy him so easily.
Because the seed of the Mourning Sigil lived in his blood.
And whatever the cloaked figure was—whatever pact had been made back then—
It wasn't over.
It had only just begun.
---
Kael rose to his feet slowly.
No more hesitation.
No more questions without pursuit.
He would find out what his mother had done.
He would learn what had been buried.
And if the Pact stood in his way…
Then they, too, would hear the silence.
---