Chapter 101: Chapter 101 – Darian’s Voice
As Lucien’s voice continued to come from the rusted device, the air inside the room grew even heavier. The Ashford seals on the stone walls stood like witnesses from a court that had stayed silent for years. Elara could feel the mark on her wrist burning. This burn was no longer only the call of the Root Facility. It was as if that facility was answering every word spoken in this room.
"Do not take the vessel to the Root Facility," the recording had said. "Because the thing waking inside Darian’s body is not Darian."
Kael did not move at all. But Elara felt something inside him break sharply. Darian’s name had always been an open wound for Kael. Now, instead of hope, a darker possibility had been placed inside that wound. Darian’s body might be alive. But if the thing waking inside it was not Darian, then this was not hope. It was something worse than torture.
Rowan’s face was white. "Is this recording old?"
Erynd immediately crouched beside the rusted device. He looked at the date marks on the edge of the screen, but most of the symbols had been erased. "An old recording format was used. But the device was triggered recently. It was set to activate when the gate opened."
Talon looked around. "So Lucien left this beforehand. Or someone used Lucien’s voice to push us into an even more complicated pit."
Rowan’s voice came low. "Lucien’s voice is not easy to imitate."
Kael finally spoke. "But it is not impossible either."
Rowan turned to him. A silent tension rose between them. Darian was in Kael’s eyes. Lucien was in Rowan’s. Both of them were looking through the shadow of their own blood, and Elara understood that if those shadows collided, the old cycle would begin again.
"We will listen to the recording until the end," Elara said. She drew her own line inside the room. "Then we will decide what to believe."
Lucien’s voice rose again through the static. "Rowan, if you are hearing this message, you probably do not trust me. You should not. In the Ashford line, trust is often broken in records before people even speak. I did not tell you everything. Because some gates can only be kept closed by someone who does not know."
Rowan’s jaw tightened. "Still the same."
Elara looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"He thinks half-truths are protection."
The recording continued. "Darian’s body was held at the Root Facility. Seren’s body too. But keeping a body and keeping a person alive are not the same thing. This is what they have done since the first ritual. They tried to operate emptied bodies with names, fires, and intentions. When Darian’s fire was taken, his body did not fully die. But it did not return either."
Kael took one step. "Turn it off."
Elara immediately turned to him. "Kael."
"I do not want to hear this."
"I know."
Kael’s gaze struck her. "No. Do not say that again. You do not know."
Elara approached him. This time, she did not leave distance. She did not touch Kael, but she stood directly before him, closing every direction he might escape through. "You are right. I cannot fully know what losing your brother opened inside you. I cannot know what it was like to live for years inside lies about him. But I know what they are trying to do right now. They will not break you with Darian’s voice, but with the possibility of answering Darian."
Kael’s breathing grew heavier. "What if there is really a piece of him left?"
Elara’s voice came lower. "Then we will find him. But not by losing you."
Kael’s eyes dropped to Elara’s lips for an instant. This time, there was more desperation than desire, but desperation could sometimes be more dangerous than desire. Elara could read the way he held himself back even from the tension in the muscles of his chest.
Kael spoke almost in a whisper. "Do not look at me like that."
Elara’s voice did not soften, but it did not break either. "How am I looking at you?"
"As if you are afraid of losing me."
Elara’s voice lowered. "Because right now, I am afraid of losing you not to Darian, but to the trap they built. I cannot help it."
A smile mixed with pain appeared on Kael’s face. "You saying that so attractively is a major problem."
From the back of the room, Talon spoke dryly. "Right now, all of us are becoming acquainted with different meanings of the word problem."
Elara did not take her eyes off Kael. Kael did not pull back either. But at last, he lowered his head very slightly. It was not defeat. It felt like a promise given to Elara.
The recording continued. "If Darian’s body wakes, do not call him with fire. If Kael must hear this, tell him. Let him not answer the thing that speaks with Darian’s voice. The answer is the door."
Kael’s face hardened again. "He warned me by name."
Rowan looked at the device. "This recording was left for me, but it is speaking to you too."
"Or someone who wanted to bring us exactly here knew what we needed to hear," Kael said.
Erynd looked more closely at the screen. "There is another layer beneath the recording. The audio file is not one piece. Part of it may be old, and part of it may have been added more recently."
Rowan’s gaze darkened. "Which part?"
Erynd’s fingers moved along the broken edges of the device. "I need time to solve that."
Talon looked toward the gray door. "Time is not one of the things the metal bugs are gifting us."
At that moment, one of the room’s walls trembled very slightly. Outside, something was probing the trace of the old passage. The mark on Elara’s wrist went cold again. Kael immediately moved toward the door. Rowan, however, looked at the glass tubes on the table. The red trace was glowing faintly, as if answering Kael’s fire.
Rowan’s voice sharpened. "There is not only a recording here. There is experiment residue too."
Elara approached the table. The rusted metal rings were very old, but some of the scratches were new. Inside the glass tubes were red, blue, and near-black residues. The freshness of the instruction carved beneath the Ashford seal made everything in the room look worse. Someone had used this passage room recently. And they had been waiting for them.
Rowan wrapped his bleeding hand with a cloth. Elara came beside him. "Let me see."
Rowan shook his head. "Elara, there is no need for this right now."
"You do not have to do this."
Elara looked at Rowan’s bleeding hand. "I know it is not necessary."
"And yet you are doing it."
"Yes. Because sometimes staying is necessary even when it is not required."
This time, Rowan did not object. Elara took his hand and tightened the bandage a little more. Beneath her fingers, Rowan’s pulse was fast. Rowan’s gaze stayed on Elara’s face. Kael was in the room, Talon was there, Erynd was there, and outside, devices were searching for them. Despite all of that, this small contact felt far too alive in the middle of the stone room.
Rowan spoke in a low voice. "When you touch me, thinking becomes difficult."
Elara continued tying the bandage. "Then stop thinking."
Rowan’s breathing changed. Elara lifted her head. The distance between them was very small. There was cold discipline in Rowan’s eyes, but beneath it, something more open, something hungrier, was moving.
"You should not have said that," Rowan said.
"Maybe you needed to hear it."
Rowan’s gaze dropped to her mouth. This time, it did not immediately flee. Elara did not pull back either. She knew Kael saw them. Rowan knew too. And yet Rowan’s voice still came very close to Elara. "I want to keep you away from my family’s lies."
Elara tied the end of the bandage. "Do not try to keep me away. Show me the truth."
For an instant, Rowan looked as if he might close his eyes, but he did not. "What if the truth hurts you?"
Elara’s thumb rested at the edge of Rowan’s bloody palm. "Then it will be cleaner than lies."
Kael’s voice came from near the door. "They are getting closer."
Elara did not let go of Rowan’s hand immediately. Her fingers remained on his bloody palm for one more second. Then she remembered the vibration coming from outside and slowly drew her hand back. Rowan gathered himself at the same time and stood. That small delay stayed between them like an unspoken sentence.
Erynd called from beside the device. "There is a coordinate at the end of the recording. But it is not directly the Root Facility. It says ’Northern underpass.’"
Talon immediately asked, "Is that good or bad?"
Erynd grimaced. "It may be less suicidal."
"That is the most optimistic sentence I have heard today."
Kael looked through the crack in the door. "There are two devices outside. One is scanning the passage, the other is waiting."
Elara lifted her wrist. The mark was not pulsing toward the north side, but toward the back wall of the room. "There is another exit here."
Rowan approached the wall with the Ashford seals. When he placed his bloody hand on the stone, one of the seals glowed weakly. But this time, the door did not open. Instead, writing appeared on the wall.
Intention not verified.
Talon’s shoulders dropped. "Even the door wants emotional honesty. I am tired."
Rowan’s face tightened. "My intention is clear."
The Moon Spirit spoke inside Elara. "No. There is something he is hiding from himself."
Elara looked at Rowan. "The door wants more from you."
Rowan’s eyes turned to her. "What kind of more?"
Before Elara could answer, the door trembled again. One of the devices outside struck the stone wall. They were running out of time.
Kael spoke harshly from behind. "Rowan, whatever you are hiding, say it. This is a bad time to die with your pride."
Anger flashed across Rowan’s face. Then beneath that anger, something else opened. Quieter. More naked.
"I do not only want to protect Elara," Rowan said. "I want her to choose me and love me too."
The air inside the room stopped for an instant. Kael’s gaze hardened, but he did not speak.
Rowan continued. His voice was no longer calm, but it did not break. "I tried to suppress it. I was afraid of Seren’s shadow, of my family’s lies, of the old cycle repeating. But this is the truth. I want to stand beside Elara. Not for a debt. Not for a prophecy. I want her."
The line in Elara’s chest warmed. Perhaps the confession did not surprise her, but hearing it so openly was something else. Rowan had not said it like a demand. He had not placed it on Elara. He had simply left his own truth before the door.
Kael’s voice came low. "At least you finally said it."
Rowan looked at him. "You never stopped saying it."
A hard expression appeared at the corner of Kael’s mouth. "My problem was not saying it. My problem was thinking I had the right to reject her when I wanted and take her when I wanted."
That sentence turned Elara toward Kael. There was pain on Kael’s face, but he was not running from it. He had left his own truth before the stone too.
The writing on the wall changed.
Intention accepted.
The Ashford seal opened, and a narrow passage appeared in the back wall. This passage was different from the other one. It was colder. What came from it was not white light, but underground air. It carried the smell of old stone, metal, and frozen water.
Erynd quickly removed a small piece from the device. "I am taking the recording with us. Maybe we can solve which part is old and which part is new."
Talon moved toward the door. "And I am continuing to live, if possible."
Kael came beside Elara. "I do not regret what I just said."
Elara looked at him. "Which part?"
"That I once thought you were someone I could reject first and take back when I wanted." He paused for a brief moment. "And that I no longer hide that I want you."
Elara’s breathing slowed. "You are not hiding it anyway."
Kael’s gaze lowered with a dark warmth. "No. I am not hiding it anymore. But I am holding it back."
Elara’s voice was almost a whisper. "Keep holding it back."
Kael lowered his head. "Until you tell me to let go."
That sentence opened a dangerous place inside Elara. But the stone outside shook again. The devices were forcing the door.
Rowan stood at the entrance of the passage. When Elara looked at him, she felt that the truth he had just spoken still stood between them. Rowan did not look away. He had said that he wanted her, and now he was not retreating from those words.
As Elara passed beside him, she spoke in a low voice. "Wanting me to choose you is one thing. Forcing me into it is another."
Rowan’s gaze lowered to her. "I know."
"Do not forget that."
"If I forget, stop me."
A very small expression appeared on Elara’s lips. "Both of you say that too often."
Rowan’s voice lowered. "Maybe we are both too afraid of losing you."
Before stepping into the passage, Elara looked at both of them. "Then walk with your choice, not your fear."
Then they entered the passage. The narrow corridor was not long. But with every step, the pulse of the Root Facility became a little clearer. The mark on Elara’s wrist no longer hurt. Worse, it was adapting. As if it was learning to become a part of her body.
At the end of the corridor, there was a rusted iron door. There was no World Government symbol on it. No Ashford seal either. There was only one sentence carved into it.
Do not answer the fire.
Kael’s face tightened. Then a voice came from behind the door. Very low. Very tired. Very human.
"Kael?"
Kael’s entire body turned to stone. The voice spoke again.
"Brother, can you hear me?"
The mark on Elara’s wrist turned ice cold at once. And Lucien’s warning from the recording echoed in all of their minds at the same time.
The answer is the door.
