Chapter 11: The Mental Cities

The ritual took an entire day to prepare.

In the central hall of the Sanctuary, the Watchers had arranged a circle made of memory fragments — objects stolen from dreams: a child's comb, a scratched record, a faceless photo, a letter that rewrote itself.

Orane explained to them:

— To understand what binds you to Klinik-13… to understand what the Father of the Void truly is, you must travel beyond reality. To the place where memories are no longer individual. Where humanity thinks as one. That is where the Mental Cities dwell.

Kelvin, standing inside the circle, clenched his fists.

— And if we don't come back?

— Then you'll never dream again. Not you… nor anyone around you. You'll become a well. A hole in the psyche. And others will fall into it.

Echo stepped into the circle first. He closed his eyes. His body lit up with a pale blue glow.

Lila followed, hesitating. She was trembling. She could feel the Entity inside her… stir.

Kelvin took his place. One last thought crossed his mind:

I want to know. Even if it breaks me.

Orane activated the Circle.

The world tilted.

They fell through a lightless space. Billions of whispers flowed through them: children's thoughts, the sighs of the elderly, the silent screams of those trapped in endless dreams.

Then, a ground.

A city.

But not like theirs.

Buildings made of broken clocks. Streets paved with tear-soaked newspapers. Statues of forgotten people, staring at the sky.

— Where are we? Lila whispered.

Echo answered, in a voice he didn't recognize:

— Mnemosyne, the City of Wounded Memory. First step. First mirror.

Kelvin looked around.

Each building pulsed with an emotion. He could feel shame, grief, fear… like scents in the air.

A child without eyes passed by, holding a stuffed animal that cried blood.

— This isn't real, said Kelvin.

— It is, said Orane, who had joined them in the form of an ancient memory. Here, everything that has ever been thought… exists.

They walked for a long time. Until they reached a tower of obsidian.

Inside, faces in the walls. Speaking endlessly.

"They stole my dreams."

"I never existed."

"I stayed in the white room. Three days. Three centuries."

Lila froze.

— Are those… the other subjects? From Klinik-13?

— Yes, said Orane. Fragments of them live here. They were never freed.

Echo approached a wall. He placed his hand on a face.

The stone opened.

An endless staircase descended into the void.

Kelvin felt his shadow shiver.

— We have to go down there?

— Yes, said Echo. The Second City is below.

They descended.

The Second City was called Nyxeria, the City of the Unspoken.

A place without light. Without sound. Everything was blurred. Undefined. Like the memory of a dream never told.

There, Lila collapsed to her knees.

Something was calling her.

— She… she's speaking to me.

Kelvin knelt beside her.

— Who is?

— The one inside me. Her name is Iskara. She's an Original Memory. Not born from a dream. Not born from a fear. But born from what humans never dared to think.

Echo turned to them. His eyes now burned with a violet fire.

— She was imprisoned. Because she was too vast. Too true. Humanity wasn't ready. So they cut her… scattered her into fragments. That's what Klinik-13 does. They capture those fragments, imprison them, program them.

Kelvin could barely understand.

— And the Father of the Void?

Echo whispered:

— He is what remains… when everything is erased. Living oblivion. The bottom of the pit. Where even shadows fear to go.

Suddenly, the city shook.

An invisible bell rang. Three times.

Orane stepped back.

— Someone… or something… has noticed us.

A wall of Nyxeria cracked.

A shape emerged.

Black. Massive. A silhouette of a man, but with arms too long, a smile too wide. Its body was made of forgotten failures.

It spoke.

"Leave her. She carries a voice that is not hers. She belongs to oblivion."

Kelvin stood tall.

— You won't take her!

The shadow reached out a hand. Reality twisted. Kelvin was thrown backward.

Echo stepped in front of Lila.

— Iskara, wake up. Use me.

A scream rang out.

Not a child's.

Not a human's.

The scream of a rejected memory.

Lila opened her mouth.

And Iskara spoke through her.

"I am the Before. I am what you chose to forget. But I have returned. And I remember you."

The shadow screamed.

And dissolved.

Nyxeria shook. Cracked.

Kelvin opened his eyes in the Sanctuary.

He was crying without knowing why.

Echo was asleep. Lila was bleeding from her nose. But she was breathing.

Orane, on her knees, whispered:

— She is the Anchor. And you, Kelvin… you are her blade.