Cain's Forgotten Name

The storm hit at first light.

Wind howled over Tangier's rooftops as Evan's team approached the vault. Signal moved fast despite the climb, eyes fixed on the opening Juno had reported. Frost limped behind her, pale and sweating, his arm bandaged with what used to be Evan's shirt.

When they reached the stone threshold, the wind stopped.

Completely.

As if the vault rejected noise.

Lyra met them at the entrance. "You're late."

Signal stepped past her. "Is it active?"

Juno waited inside, beside the Ashglass.

"It's waking."

The ash no longer drifted.

It spun. Fast. Counterclockwise. A shape forming.

A face, almost.

Evan stared into it and felt like someone was watching through it.

Juno gestured for quiet. She placed her hand near the surface.

No contact.

Just presence.

The Ashglass responded.

A voice rang out — not loud, but sharp, unmistakable.

"You shouldn't have come back."

Signal whispered, "Cain."

The voice continued, not as speech, but thought made real.

"I left everything behind. I killed every version of me to stop this cycle. If you're hearing this, then Vellum lives. That means I failed."

Juno leaned closer. "What is Ashglass really?"

Cain's voice:

"Memory weapon. Not to destroy. To reveal."

The glass swirled again. Images flashed through the room — not holograms. Imprints.

First: a woman in a pale coat, standing before a wall of children in chairs. Each child bore a different face — one looked like Maya. Another like Frost. Another like—

Evan stepped back.

"That's you," he whispered to Signal.

Signal stared at her younger self in the image — wired, monitored, silent.

Cain's voice returned.

"I created you. I broke every law I believed in. You weren't supposed to remember."

Frost sat down, hard.

"I knew I wasn't first, but I didn't think…"

Signal knelt beside him.

"You're more than what she made."

"No," Frost muttered. "I'm exactly what she made. Just broken differently."

Maya examined the room. "This can't be it. A message, a memory? That's the big secret?"

Juno shook her head.

"It's not just a memory. It's a map."

The Ashglass pulsed. A new shape emerged: seven rings, nested.

At the center: a name.

One word, scrambled, then clear.

"Ellian."

Evan frowned. "Who's Ellian?"

Cain's voice again:

"The first."

Jerusalem. Pale Court Archives.

Halo moved like a ghost through the ruin. Systems were offline. Her pulse had stabilized.

She reached the sealed chamber.

Put her hand to the wall.

A DNA scan ran.

Green light.

Access granted.

Inside the chamber: a cryotube. Old. Cracked.

Inside it: a person.

Breathing.

Male.

Pale skin. No hair. Tattoos running down his neck like code.

His name engraved at the base of the tube:

Ellian.

Back in Tangier, the vault shook.

The Ashglass had gone dark.

Signal turned to Juno.

"We need to move. Cain left us a path, but we're not the only ones who saw it."

Lyra checked her scanner. "Power spike. Not from the glass. From something north. An old relay tower just reactivated."

Maya: "Someone's listening."

Evan nodded.

"Then it's time we start talking back."

Outside the vault, as they prepared to move, Signal spoke to Frost.

"Do you know Ellian?"

Frost's eyes were glassy.

"Only stories. He was Cain's final prototype. Shut down. Too unpredictable."

Signal: "Why?"

Frost looked up, voice low.

"Because he wasn't made to obey. He was made to choose."