They left the Bloodkin two days later with sand in their boots and warnings echoing in their ears.
The world beyond the Ashglass Expanse didn't wait for questions.
It simply moved forward, indifferent.
Kael's ember-seed had grown quieter, not weaker—like a predator settling down to watch, to listen. As they descended into the southern cliffs, where the land cracked open into scar-filled canyons and ash fog spilled like morning tide, Kael knew they were getting close.
To something old.
Something buried.
"City ahead," Lira announced. She wiped dust from her lensplate and squinted toward the horizon. "Looks like ruins, but I'm seeing movement. Blue arcs. That's tech. Or what's left of it."
"Another dead clan?" Aren asked.
Drex shook his head. "No. This isn't a clan city. This is pre-clan."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "You mean... First Age?"
"Older," Lira replied. "Maybe even Remnant-era."
The group descended slowly into what remained of a once-great metropolis. Towering spires lay collapsed like bones. Highways had buckled into tangled glass veins. And across everything—a silence that didn't feel natural. Not just quiet, but deliberate. As though the city itself had muted the world.
They passed faded murals carved into blackstone walls. Kael paused before one: a man with too many arms holding too many orbs. Above his head, a single line of text:
TO BECOME WHOLE, FIRST UNNAME.
Kael frowned. "Another seed message?"
"Could be," Drex muttered. "But it could also be madness."
—
The center of the city had survived collapse.
A vast atrium, shaped like a flattened sphere, with crystalline walkways suspended in gravity wells. Machines drifted here—half-alive, half-forgotten. They clicked and whispered, carrying data no one could read.
Lira reached for one.
It scanned her, buzzed, and turned away.
"Encrypted on an echo frequency," she said. "Someone locked this place with their mind."
"Can we break it?" Kael asked.
Drex shook his head. "Not unless you are them. Or related."
Kael felt something shift inside him.
"I can try."
—
The central platform was surrounded by circular glyphs, each pulsing faintly. As Kael stepped in, the ember-seed burned bright for a single moment—then stilled.
One of the glyphs opened.
The others lit up like constellations.
A voice spoke. It was neither male nor female—just… tired.
Welcome back, Carrier. Mindprint confirmed. Memory bridge unlocked. Proceed.
Kael took a shaky breath. "How am I recognized here?"
"Because," Lira said softly, "your blood isn't just from a forgotten family. It's from them. Whoever built this place."
"But I was told my family was insignificant."
Drex crossed his arms. "Then someone lied."
—
They followed the activated platform downward. Deeper and deeper into the earth, past walls carved with strange recursive symbols and rooms filled with dormant tech like slumbering gods. Finally, they reached a circular chamber made entirely of obsidian glass.
At the center hovered a fragment—a shard of impossible geometry. It twisted in ways the eye couldn't follow.
Kael stepped closer. His seed pulsed in response.
The shard spoke.
Echo-thread registered. Fusion pathway: seed variant. Echo instability: contained. Query: initiate echo retrieval sequence?
"What's an echo retrieval?" Kael asked.
Lira inhaled sharply. "That's... soul data. Memory stored in an echo form. If this is what I think it is, you're being offered someone's life."
Kael looked at the shard. "Whose?"
The shard answered.
Name: Arien Tal-Kael. Role: Founding Architect. Relation: genetic ancestor.
Kael staggered. "He has my name."
"Not just that," Lira said. "He is your name."
Kael reached forward.
"I accept."
—
A rush.
Not like the memory shard before. This was total immersion.
Kael fell into Arien's life.
He saw him building this city, wiring echoes into architecture, growing buildings from talent-seeds. He felt Arien's frustration, his brilliance, his loneliness. How the clans formed after his time—twisting his work into rigid systems.
Then came the experiments.
The Seed Project.
Arien had tried to preserve freedom of growth, to build a talent that chose its own path.
But others feared it.
He had hidden the seed, encoded his memory, and waited.
For someone to return.
—
Kael awoke gasping, hands trembling.
His body felt heavier. Not with pain—but with weight. Memory. Purpose.
"You okay?" Aren asked.
Kael nodded. "I saw everything. My ancestor… he tried to stop the collapse before it happened."
"Did he fail?" Drex asked.
Kael looked up.
"No. He hid the answer. And now… it's in me."
—
As they prepared to leave, the city responded to Kael's presence.
A door opened, revealing a device—a cube of layered energy, vibrating with compressed echoes.
Kael picked it up.
Legacy Core Acquired. Talent: Multi-Echo Bloom (Seed-Linked)
Lira whistled. "That's… incredibly dangerous."
"Why?" Kael asked.
"Because now you're more than a seed-bearer. You're a target. That core can activate dormant echoes in others. It can awaken talents. Or overload them."
"Then I'll use it carefully," Kael said.
Drex shook his head. "You don't get it, kid. There are people who'd burn cities for that. Entire clans who'd tear the world apart to control what you're carrying."
Kael's jaw tightened.
"Then let them come."
"I'm not hiding anymore."
—
As they climbed out of the city, the silence broke.
A storm approached—lightning made of colorless light.
"Echo Purists," Aren said, squinting. "They've found us."
Kael looked at the sky.
He wasn't afraid.
The city beneath had named him.
And now?
The world would have to answer.
---