The moment Kael's hand touched the panel, the chamber went still.
Light surged up the black column and lanced into the ceiling. The floor beneath his boots trembled. A single pulse shot through him, like lightning cracking down his spine—but instead of pain, it was clarity. Cold, blinding clarity.
His knees buckled.
"Kael!" Mira's voice came from somewhere far away.
And then the Core opened.
Not physically—but within him.
Images, sounds, voices flooded his mind in a storm of fractured memory. He wasn't just seeing—he was there. In conference rooms filled with people who wore glass lenses in their eyes. In streets lit by floating cars. In laboratories where people whispered about "singularity breaches" and "containment failures."
He saw the rise of the Overseers—not as tyrants, but scientists. Desperate leaders. People trying to avert an extinction-level war between AI factions. The Spires weren't towers of control—they were arks. Last refuges of knowledge. Places meant to protect the past, not erase it.
> "We sealed it because we were afraid," a voice whispered—his voice, and not his voice.
> "We killed the world to save ourselves."
Kael's breath came in short gasps. His chest was on fire. His eyes rolled back—
—and then the Core disconnected.
He dropped to the floor, coughing, vision swimming. Mira caught him, dragging him upright.
"What did you see?" she demanded.
Kael blinked hard, sweat dripping from his brow. "Everything. Or… too much."
He looked at her. "The Overseers didn't just ban knowledge. They used it—for themselves. The rest of us? We were kept ignorant, in case it happened again."
Mira's lips pressed tight. "Then the Archive is more dangerous than I thought."
Kael turned toward the screen still glowing with his face.
"I think I just became their biggest threat."
Before Mira could respond, the Core lights dimmed—and alarms blared.
Warning: External Breach Detected.
A red perimeter map flashed on the main screen. Dots swarmed through the underground—the Enforcers. Fast.
"They found us," Kael whispered.
Mira swore under her breath and grabbed his arm. "We need to go. Now."
Kael's legs trembled as he stood. "They can't take this tech."
"They won't," she said. "Because you're taking part of it with you."
She slammed her palm on the console. A data crystal dropped from the panel, glowing faintly.
Kael caught it instinctively. "What is it?"
"The backup," Mira said. "Everything the Core showed you. We'll need it."
The floor shook—closer now.
Kael shoved the crystal into his coat pocket and followed Mira to the back of the dome, where a narrow tunnel twisted into darkness.
Behind them, the Core faded. Silent once more.
But its echoes rang in Kael's mind.
> "Do not forget."
> "Do not forgive."
They ran into the shadows, as the eyes of the Overseers closed in.