Ash Beneath the Spire
The monorail wheezed to a stop.
It wasn't a graceful arrival. The car skidded, sparked, then slammed into a broken station platform half-swallowed by sand and overgrowth.
Kael tumbled out with a grunt, Starkey clutched to his chest.
Nyra rolled beside him, already scanning the ruins with blades drawn. "No alarms. No movement. That's… suspicious."
BITS floated out of the car, coughing in binary. "The definition of a 'soft landing' now officially includes minor whiplash and emotional trauma."
They had arrived.
The Arkenspire towered ahead—what was left of it.
Once the center of Solara's knowledge network, now it stood fractured and crooked, like someone had bent the sky itself. Pieces floated around it—suspended midair by relic fields long untended. Lightning flickered through its veins. Wind howled between broken beams.
Kael looked up. "And we're… going in there?"
Nyra nodded. "That's where the Relay is. If the Starkey works, it'll activate the city's remaining archives—and maybe… the Core Mind."
Kael sighed. "We really need to start visiting nicer places."
---
The approach was eerie.
Dead terminals buzzed faintly. Ruined drones lay in heaps. Some still twitched, trying to reboot their broken directives.
At the base of the Spire, they found the door sealed.
"Relic lock," Nyra muttered. "No way to force it."
Kael stepped forward, pulled the Starkey from his jacket, and fit it into the port.
Light surged up the door's frame.
Then—a voice.
Soft, glitching, but still there:
> "ACCESS GRANTED. CORE KEY RECOGNIZED. WELCOME, INITIATE VEYLAN."
Kael froze. "Veylan?"
Nyra turned to him slowly. "That's your last name?"
"I… didn't know that."
BITS beeped. "This place knows you better than you do."
---
The door opened.
Inside, the Arkenspire was surprisingly intact.
Screens glowed softly in the dark. Gravity fields kept shattered staircases suspended midair, glowing faint blue. The walls pulsed with forgotten data, like veins still carrying old blood.
They moved upward carefully, stepping over debris and burned-out consoles.
Kael stopped at a window that overlooked what remained of Solara's inner district.
He saw broken statues. A collapsed cathedral. A great square cracked down the middle.
But he also saw something else.
Movement.
A flicker.
Nyra saw it too. "Someone's here."
---
They found him two floors up, in a shattered archive room.
A boy—no older than Kael—sitting in the middle of a relic data-ring, surrounded by floating pages of light.
He wore scavenged tech armor, hair silver-blonde, eyes sharp and oddly serene.
Kael stepped forward. "Who—?"
The boy didn't even look up. "You brought the Starkey."
Nyra pulled a dagger. "Who are you?"
The boy stood. "My name is Kesh. And I've been waiting a long time for both of you."
BITS beeped, "Nope. Nope. Not a fan of cryptic intro children."
Kael frowned. "You live here?"
Kesh nodded. "I was born here. After the Fall. My parents were archivists. I've spent my entire life studying Solara's remains."
Nyra looked him over. "Why are you waiting for us?"
Kesh finally smiled.
"Because you're not the first ones to try to fix what's broken. But you're the only ones with both keys."
He gestured toward the Relay core—an ancient monolith encased in glass and arcane circuitry.
"It needs two things to wake: the Starkey… and a spark."
Kael looked at Nyra. "Me?"
She nodded. "You're the spark."
---
They entered the Relay chamber together.
Kael stepped onto the platform. Nyra inserted the Starkey.
The tower responded instantly.
Energy surged through the floor.
The floating consoles lit up with ancient code.
Then—
The Relay spoke:
> "CORE RECONNECTING. SYSTEMS ONLINE. AI MEMORY REBOOTING."
A low hum built into a chorus.
Kesh watched, eyes wide. "It's working."
Kael clenched his fists. He could feel the city again—like something in him had just… clicked. A deeper connection.
Then the AI spoke again.
> "WARNING. EXTERNAL THREAT DETECTED. MALRIX SIGNATURE APPROACHING."
Nyra cursed. "She tracked us."
Kesh moved to a nearby panel. "I can lock down this floor. Give you time to escape."
Kael shook his head. "You'll get caught."
"I won't," Kesh said calmly. "I've lived in these walls longer than anyone alive. Just… finish what you came to do."
Nyra hesitated, then nodded. "We'll come back for you."
"You'd better," Kesh said, then smiled. "And bring snacks."
---
They ran back down the tower as it began to power up fully. Lights snapped on across the ruined city. Old towers lit like matchsticks in the dark.
Kael looked back once.
For the first time in centuries, Solara breathed again.
And Malrix was coming