Kael moved through the ruins of Sector 12-B with new purpose—though every step now felt heavier. The echo of his mother's voice still rang in his mind, a memory not from his own past, but from a buried layer of Pact history.
> "If your name is Voss… I'm sorry."
She had known this day might come.
Had prepared for it.
And she had failed to stop it.
Now, Kael was caught in the middle of a legacy he never chose, with a sigil growing in his blood and a pact made long before his birth tightening its grip around his fate.
---
The relay station collapsed behind him as the corrupted archive finally caved. Static ran through his Veil, and the voice of the system whispered low in his ear:
> Lineage confirmed: Echo Class - Mourning-borne.
Unique Trait: Dreamroot Affinity (Unstable).
Status: Watched.
Kael's jaw clenched. "Watched by who?"
No answer.
The Veil fell silent again.
Too silent.
---
Hours later, back within the outer Hollow, Sera met him on a fractured bridge over what once was a transport artery. Below, faint streams of corrupted Echo-energy pulsed through cracked pipes like blood through a dying body.
She turned at his approach and studied him closely.
"You saw something."
Kael didn't hesitate.
"I saw her."
Sera's posture shifted slightly. "Your mother?"
"She created the sigil," Kael said. "Or found it. She called it a seed. Said it whispered. Said it grew."
He tossed the corrupted data drive at her feet. "And that the Pact would kill her if they knew."
Sera didn't flinch.
"I already suspected."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "You didn't think to tell me?"
"I needed to know if you could find the truth on your own." She stepped closer, voice lower. "And now you have."
She reached down and handed the data drive back.
"We're not your enemies, Kael. But the truth we hide… it's not out of malice."
Kael's voice was hard. "Then why?"
"Because some truths infect."
---
Sera led him deeper into the Hollow—to a place even he hadn't been permitted yet. A vault sealed behind seven Echo-locks, each requiring resonance from a Pact Warden of different lineage.
When the doors opened, cold air and shadow spilled out.
At the center of the vault…
Lay a mirror.
Cracked.
Framed in bone.
And etched with the Mourning Sigil.
Kael's mark pulsed in response. His skin crawled.
"What is this?" he asked.
Sera didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she gestured to the mirror. "Look into it."
Kael stepped forward.
And saw—
---
Not a reflection.
A future.
He stood on a fractured battlefield, thousands of broken Pact masks littering the ground. Above him, the sky was split—one half darkness, the other bleeding light. In his hand was no blade—just silence made flesh.
And before him knelt the Harvester.
Laughing.
> "We were born from the same scream."
Kael staggered back, breathing hard.
"That's what the seed shows," Sera said quietly behind him. "Not a reflection of you. But what you could become."
Kael gritted his teeth. "So this is prophecy now?"
"No," she replied. "This is warning."
---
Sera walked to the edge of the chamber and opened a hidden panel.
Inside lay seven files—classified black-tier records.
She tossed one at him.
"Your mother wasn't the only one," she said. "Seven founders. Seven bearers. Each found a piece of the sigil. Each hid it."
Kael flipped the file open.
Names. Faces. Echo-profiles.
Six of the seven were marked as deceased.
But the seventh…
The image blinked onto his Veil.
A man in dark armor. Eyes the same shade as Kael's.
> Subject: Veyr Dallen.
Status: Missing.
Last Known Role: Co-Founder – Pact Division Omega.
Classification: Echo-Reaper (Black).
Kael's voice was dry.
"Who is he?"
Sera's expression turned grim.
"Your father."
---
Silence fell over the vault like a curtain.
Kael looked down at the image again.
This time, he felt the Harvester's voice not in his mind—but in his blood.
> "We were born from the same scream."
He understood now.
His existence wasn't a coincidence.
He was the product of a choice made decades ago.
A child born of the fracture.
A vessel.
Or a weapon.
---
Sera placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I told you that you were being watched. Now you know why."
Kael looked into the cracked mirror once more.
This time, the reflection grinned back.
He didn't flinch.
---