Chapter 22: The Memory of the Tree
The door closed behind them like the ending of an era.
The chamber that held the Sixth Seal was silent. Not dead, but sacred. The walls were grown, not built. Roots pressed into the stone like veins of a forgotten body.
Seraph Zero stepped toward the center of the room and touched the floor.
The roots awakened.
What you see now, she said, is not history.
It is memory.
The ground beneath Abraham and Saral shimmered.
Light filled the chamber. Warm. Alive. No flames. No pain. Just golden threads of light weaving into vision.
They were no longer in the vault.
They stood in a vast open garden under a sky painted with green and gold. At the center of it, rising like a sun on earth, stood the Tree.
The Tree of Zion.
Its trunk was wide enough to shelter a city. Its branches curved like wings over hills and rivers. People walked under it barefoot, heads bowed in reverence, not fear.
This is what Zion was, Seraph Zero said behind them.
Before the Church. Before war. Before seals.
Saral's breath caught.
It was beautiful.
The Flame was born from this Tree, Seraph Zero explained. Not to purify, but to connect. Each person held a piece of it, like light from a shared candle. There were no weapons. No saints. Only voices and presence.
Abraham watched a child run to the Tree and place a hand on its bark.
The light answered.
And then, the vision changed.
The sky turned grey.
Armored men entered. Not with bows. With words. With scripture not written, but sharpened.
They said the Tree was too wild.
Too free.
They declared it unclean.
Seraph Zero stepped into the memory, watching her younger self kneel before the Church leaders.
They asked me to choose.
Cut the Tree.
Or be cut off.
And you refused, Abraham said.
She nodded.
So they erased me.
The Tree burned.
Its leaves screamed.
The Flame turned red.
And the world forgot.
The vision ended.
They were back in the vault.
The roots were still glowing faintly.
You were the first Seal, Saral whispered. And they named you Zero because you chose mercy.
No, Seraph Zero said. They named me Zero because I did not fit their number.
Abraham stepped forward.
Then it is time we stop counting.
The Ark in Saral's arms pulsed.
One final message.
Abraham.
He paused.
That was not Saral's voice.
Not Seraph Zero's either.
It came from within.
A voice of the flame itself.
Do you still believe in love?
He closed his eyes.
Yes.
Then choose it.
The room dimmed.
The Sixth Seal was now complete.
Abraham turned to Saral.
It is time to find the Seventh.
But she did not answer right away.
She was staring at something on the wall.
A symbol glowing softly.
A tree with seven branches.
And one missing.
The Seventh is not lost, she whispered.
It was hidden.
And it is not a person.
It is a place.
Abraham stepped beside her.
Then we go there next.
Where?
She looked at him.
The island where the Tree was born.
And where the world must decide what to become.
End of Chapter 22