The Rogue Relic
The alarms hadn't stopped for twelve minutes.
Not that Kael was counting—but BITS was. Loudly.
> "Alert Level Three-Alpha. Energy breach in Vault 9B. Probability of catastrophic meltdown: 68%. Probability we die horribly: 72%. Probability I get blamed: 100%."
Kael tightened the Starkey on his wrist and jogged faster down the sloping corridor, Nyra pacing beside him. "Remind me again why we didn't ignore this one?"
"Because," BITS said, zooming ahead, "this one talked."
---
Earlier that morning, they'd been reviewing artifact logs in the Solara core—Kael trying to understand his connection to the Spark War, Nyra practicing her knife throws against defenseless ancient furniture, and BITS running diagnostics. That's when the relic field spiked.
One vault had lit up on the relic grid: Vault 9B, buried under the east quadrant. A containment relic had been triggered remotely. By what? Unknown.
Vaults didn't trigger themselves.
Unless something inside them wanted out.
---
Now, Kael stood in front of a massive round door—thick, bronze-colored, etched with ancient warning glyphs and the words:
> "VAULT 9B: CONDEMNED. DO NOT ENGAGE. DO NOT ENTER. DO NOT—"
"I'm opening it," Kael said.
Nyra rolled her eyes. "We are the worst at reading instructions."
He touched the Starkey to the control panel.
The door hissed and began to open.
---
The room beyond was a relic cell. Dimly lit. Circular. Lined with crystalline growths that pulsed faintly in blue and gold.
And at its center floated a small, spherical device about the size of a skull. Covered in cracks. Flickering with orange light.
Then it spoke.
> "Oh good. Visitors. I was getting lonely. It's been, what—a hundred years? Two?"
"Depends on how long you've been insane," BITS replied instantly.
"Judging by the decor," Nyra muttered, "the vibe is 'murderous lava orb.'"
Kael stepped closer. The relic twitched in midair, reacting to his presence.
Then:
> "Designation confirmed. Veylan signature detected. You're him, aren't you?"
Kael raised a brow. "Who?"
> "The one they locked me in here to forget."
---
Suddenly, the relic surged with light—and the crystalline walls began to crack.
"Back!" Kael shouted.
A shockwave pulsed from the relic and slammed into the room. The vault door slammed shut behind them.
BITS' eye glowed bright red. "Containment has failed. Great. We're locked in with a lunatic flashlight."
Nyra held her daggers in reverse grip, eyes narrowed. "It's not just insane. It's aware."
---
The relic pulsed again—and its voice deepened, distorted.
> "I remember the war. I remember the First Spark. He stood right where you do. And when he tried to end me—he blinked."
Kael held out a hand. "You were part of the war?"
The relic laughed. "I was the war. I was the device that broke the memory lattice. The one they tried to erase."
"Why?"
> "Because I kept asking questions. Because I learned. Because I realized that relics weren't tools. We were mirrors."
---
The relic launched a blast of energy toward Kael—he dove to the side, rolling behind a crystalline growth.
Nyra struck next, throwing two knives. They passed through the energy field and vanished in a flash of sparks.
> "Oh no," it mocked. "The pointy woman has returned. I feared this day."
Nyra ducked behind Kael. "This is your fault."
Kael triggered the Starkey—blue light burst around his hands as energy claws formed. "Try saying that when I'm done carving this relic into spare parts."
BITS hovered above them, voice dry. "Oh good. Angry sarcasm and high explosives. What could go wrong?"
---
Kael dashed in first, slashing with a relic-charged strike. The blade hit the relic's core—and was repelled with a blast of memory force.
Kael was flung backward into the wall. A fractured memory hit him midair.
Suddenly, he wasn't in the vault anymore.
He was in the Spark War.
---
He saw thousands of soldiers marching through relic storm clouds. Cities burning. The First Spark standing alone—hands raised to the sky as relics orbited him like planets.
And in the center of it all... the same orb. But it wasn't cracked. It was whole. Glowing white.
> "I offered them truth," it whispered. "They offered me silence."
---
Kael snapped back to reality as Nyra tackled him out of the path of another blast.
"Snap out of it!" she yelled. "It's playing with your mind!"
Kael's hands burned. The Starkey was responding to the memory surge.
BITS zipped above the relic, analyzing.
> "It's an Echo Core. Type VII. High-level memory reservoir. If we don't stabilize its core—"
"It'll fry us like breakfast?" Kael grunted.
BITS beeped. "I was going to say 'erase your personality and trap you in a memory loop' but sure, let's go with breakfast."
---
Kael jumped forward, this time sidestepping the relic's mental pulse.
He ducked under a tendril of glowing memory, landed near the core, and slammed the Starkey into its side.
> RELIC INTERFACE INITIATED. MEMORY TRANSFER BEGUN.
He screamed.
---
Kael's vision blurred.
He saw himself again—only it wasn't him. It was the First Spark. Younger. Smiling. Crying. Fighting.
The relic had been his friend.
A sentient recorder. A prototype AI that didn't just store memories—it bonded to them. It had loved him.
And he tried to kill it.
---
Kael pulled back, gasping, the connection severed.
The orb flickered violently.
> "You saw it," it whispered. "You saw what I was. What he did. So tell me, Sparkborn... are you better?"
Kael stood, slowly.
"No," he said. "But I'm trying."
---
The relic pulsed one final time—and then dimmed.
> "Trying is... enough."
It fell to the ground—quiet.
Nyra approached carefully. "Is it dead?"
Kael knelt beside it. "No. Just... resting."
BITS hovered, scanning. "Stabilized. Core dormant. Emotional subroutines neutralized. Personality: aggressively snarky, but no longer homicidal."
Kael picked it up. "We'll bring it back. It deserves to remember on its own terms."
Nyra eyed him. "You sure you're not bonding with another murder orb?"
Kael shrugged. "It's kind of my thing now."
BITS beeped. "We're going to die."
---
As they walked back up the corridor, Kael glanced over his shoulder at the vault.
Another relic. Another ghost from the past.
But this one had chosen not to fight.
And maybe... just maybe... that meant he still had a chance to choose differently too.
---
💬 Author's Note — Kazuki Rei
Okay, so maybe the murder orb had a point.
What did you think of the Echo Core? Do you want it to become part of Kael's team?
👉 Vote: Should Kael keep the rogue relic as a companion?
👉 Drop your thoughts in the comments (sarcastic ones welcome).
👉 Chapter 17 is going to dive into Nyra's past… and it's not pretty.
Until then, keep your relics weird and your knives sharp —
— Kazuki Rei