The Bastion roared.
As the alarms blared, the very structure shifted—corridors narrowed, floors twisted, and iron gates slammed shut behind Kael and his team. It was as if the fortress were alive, reshaping itself to trap them within.
Thorn fired a bolt into the chest of a charging warden. The enforcer staggered back, unfazed, before rising again with mechanical precision.
"They're not human!" he shouted. "These are memory puppets—constructed from erased identities!"
Kael clenched the crystal tighter in his palm. The warmth of his father's name still flickered inside, but it was fading—dying the longer it stayed separated from a vessel.
Merek placed a glowing seal on the ground. "This will buy us twenty seconds. After that, we run or die."
"Run where?" Lyra asked. "Every corridor is a maze!"
Kael closed his eyes, breathing steadily. He let the whispers of the Bastion flow into him—the voices of the nameless, the forsaken.
And then, he saw it.
Not with sight, but with instinct. A pulsing thread, weaving through the shadows, leading somewhere beyond the tombs.
"There's a hidden vault above us," Kael said. "A memory core. If we overload it, we can break the suppression field."
Merek raised an eyebrow. "And how do we reach it?"
Kael opened his eyes. "Up."
Climbing Through the Forgotten
They scaled forgotten scaffolds and broken chains that ran along the inner walls of the Bastion. Dust choked their lungs, and pale-blue ghost-lights drifted around them—fragments of erased souls clinging to what little essence remained.
One drifted toward Kael and whispered in a cracked voice:"I was Nirelle… please… remember me."
He whispered the name back. The ghost smiled and vanished.
Behind him, the crystal flared.
"I think that strengthened it," Lyra said in awe. "Every name we remember empowers the core."
Kael turned. "Then remember them all."
The Core of Memory
At the top of the Bastion, beneath a dome of warped glass and iron, pulsed the Memory Core—a massive sphere of light held in place by ancient bindings. Dozens of runes chained it to the floor.
Kael stepped forward, raising his hand. His father's crystal responded, glowing in tandem.
"It's connected to everything," he said. "This… is where the Order stores the stolen pieces of us."
A dozen enforcers burst through the upper levels.
"We're out of time!" Thorn yelled, blades ready.
Kael placed the crystal into the center of the core.
It screamed.
The chains shattered.
Light flooded the chamber—names, voices, faces, all returning in a storm of memory.
A Costly Escape
The Core exploded.
The Bastion cracked.
Stone collapsed as Merek raised a barrier around the team, shielding them from the worst of it. They dropped through the floor—landing in the ruins below, bruised but alive.
Kael stood slowly. The crystal was gone.
But in its place… was a voice.
"Kael?"
He turned. A man stood nearby—gray in the beard, eyes haunted but clear.
It was his father.
Karel Verrin.
Alive.
To be continue...