Beneath the Heartlight
The smoke hadn't settled.
The Arkenspire's walls were cracked and humming with residual energy. Kael stood in the Relay chamber, sword sheathed but still glowing faintly. Nyra was quiet. BITS floated near a console, tapping into data lines with low, thoughtful beeps.
Kael's hands trembled—not from fear, but from something else.
The Starkey had changed.
When he touched it now, he felt not just power — but intent. As though the city itself had been waiting for him.
Nyra knelt beside one of the fractured walls. "This chamber's unstable," she said. "But it opened something."
Kael blinked. "What do you mean?"
She stood, brushing dust from her armor. "The floorplate under Malrix—it shifted. There's a corridor beneath. A buried level."
BITS chimed in. "Ohhh! Secret underground zone unlocked. Cue dramatic lore music."
Kael forced a grin. "Lead the way, maestro."
---
The corridor was narrow and curved, clearly older than the Arkenspire itself. Its walls were etched with sigils Kael didn't recognize—glyphs that pulsed faintly as he passed.
Nyra ran her fingers across the stone. "This predates the Relay Network. Maybe even the first Conduits."
Kael nodded. "Feels like walking through someone else's memory."
BITS scanned the path. "Warning: low oxygen levels, high relic density. 83% chance this place has been sealed for centuries."
"Still safer than another tea party with Malrix," Kael muttered.
---
They reached a massive sealed door.
It bore no lock, no handle. Just a glowing indentation — the same shape as the Starkey.
Kael stepped forward without hesitation.
Nyra caught his arm. "Are you sure?"
"No," he said, "but it's calling."
He pressed the Starkey into the slot.
The door vanished.
---
Inside, the air was thick. Heavy. Charged.
The chamber stretched wide — a vault, but not like the others. This one pulsed with a golden-white glow, radiating from a suspended crystal platform in the center.
Floating in the air were dozens of relic cores, orbiting the central spire like satellites. Some cracked, some whole, some whispering in half-formed words.
Kael stepped forward and gasped.
The central pillar displayed a familiar crest — his. The Veylan sigil.
"I don't understand," he whispered.
BITS hovered nervously. "I think… this is where they made you."
Nyra stared at the relics. "Kael… this isn't just a vault. It's a forge."
Kael looked around. "They used this to create Conduits."
BITS pinged again. "More than that. It's the Conduit Forge. Primary core. Genetic seeding base. Personality matrix lab. Oh my relic."
Kael touched the edge of the platform.
Images flashed through his mind:
> A lab full of glowing tubes…
A young boy, asleep in a containment pod…
A voice saying, "He will hold the spark. He must."
He recoiled, gasping.
Nyra grabbed him. "What did you see?"
"My beginning," Kael said quietly. "This is where I was made."
---
They moved deeper into the forge.
On a far wall, they found a record—one of the last logs left behind. BITS translated it from corrupted data:
> "Project Veylan entered final phase before the breach. Of the nine prototypes, only one responded to relic synchronization. We initiated the Spark Trial. Result: full integration. Subject reclassified as Alpha."
Nyra's voice trembled. "You're the only one who survived."
Kael looked at her. "That means I was… alone. From the start."
BITS added quietly, "That means you were the best of them."
---
Suddenly, a low chime echoed through the chamber.
Kael turned. "What was that?"
BITS pulsed red. "Movement. Outside."
Nyra drew a blade. "Malrix?"
BITS scanned. "No. It's someone else."
A voice echoed from the corridor behind them.
"I told you I'd find you again."
They turned.
It was Kesh.
But something had changed.
His eyes glowed faintly.
And he held another Starkey.
Kael stepped forward slowly. "Kesh… what are you doing here?"
Kesh smiled. But it was a little too calm. Too clean.
"I'm here," he said, "because you weren't the only project