The wind cut harder the farther east they traveled. It wasn't natural wind—too dry, too exact, like it had been left behind by a forgotten machine still trying to carry out ancient commands.
They moved fast.
Lirien soared ahead in wide arcs, scanning the shifting terrain. Kaela rode point, her posture tense, both blades strapped tight to her back. Kaelex moved with unnatural ease, as if her body had long since adjusted to the landscape—even if her mind was still catching up.
Reven stayed quiet, matching their pace, but his thoughts churned beneath the surface. He wasn't used to walking beside someone like Kaelex. She wasn't just a soldier. She was a living artifact. Every word she spoke carried centuries of weight, and every time she looked at him, it was as though she was measuring something deeper than he understood.
"We're getting close," she said, adjusting the grip on her scavenged cloak. "Another half-day, if we don't run into any warzones."
Kaela gave a dry laugh. "That's a luxury."
Lirien's voice came through on comms. "Contact. Perimeter zone. At least six figures—scouting pattern. Supreme movement. They've already reached the fields."
Kaelex's face shifted. "They're trying to reach the node first."
Reven quickened his pace. "What's there?"
She didn't look at him. "Command structure. Interface bridge. If they seize it, they can begin rewriting the system."
"And if I get there first?"
Kaelex met his eyes.
"Then it listens to you."
The glass fields weren't named for beauty.
They were a dead zone—flat, wind-swept, and covered in fused terrain that shimmered under light like fractured crystal. Each step cracked faintly. No echo. No insects. No movement. Just an endless plain of false stillness.
"Feels like walking on frozen blood," Kaela muttered, scanning the horizon.
They reached the outer perimeter by mid-afternoon. Lirien landed silently beside them, her face pale.
"There's a breach site ahead. Shielded entry point buried beneath the east ridge. And Reven… they've already opened it."
Kaelex stepped forward, analysing the terrain. "We need to go now. If they activate the bridge before you're connected, it locks to them permanently."
Reven adjusted his grip on the Flamecore at his side. "Then let's make sure that doesn't happen."
The breach site was massive—half sunken into the glass, ringed in shield towers spitting arcs of energy every few seconds. Reven recognized the configuration: Dominion-era. Reinforced. Modified by Supreme tech.
They'd fused the old world to the new.
"They didn't just find it," Lirien whispered. "They knew exactly where to dig."
Kaela knelt beside the crest of the ridge, drawing in the positions. "Multiple guards. Tactical positions. Drone relays. We try to rush it, we're ash."
Kaelex reached into her cloak and pulled a fragment of her capsule's interface—a curved chip etched with command script.
"I can mask us. Briefly. But once inside, it's on you, Reven."
He took the chip and looked her in the eye.
"Once I connect, what happens?"
Kaelex's voice softened. "The node will listen. And then it will ask what to remember."
That chilled him more than any weapon could have.
They moved.
The infiltration was surgical. Reven, Kaela, and Lirien passed through the energy fields under Kaelex's masking shield, ducking through flickering cover and echo signatures. One wrong step, one missed rhythm, and the whole site would have collapsed into lockdown.
But they made it to the inner ring.
The node sat beneath a curved tower of semi-transparent alloy, glowing with suspended data streams that pulsed upward like veins of light. Two Supreme officers stood at the interface dais, unaware of the approaching team—until Kaela struck.
Her first blade silenced the taller one. Lirien's feathers felled the second before he could scream.
Reven didn't hesitate.
He stepped to the node and placed both hands on the surface.
The Flamecore ignited.
So did the shard.
And so did the node.
Light exploded outward.
Code filled the air in a storm of golden glyphs. The ground trembled.
And then, everything went still.
A voice—not Echo—filled Reven's mind.
"Core access confirmed. Flameborn convergence protocol initialized."
He felt it flood into him. Memories. Systems. Control structures. Human names buried for generations. Locations. Dates. Directives. And one overriding question.
What shall be preserved?
Reven gritted his teeth.
"Truth."
The node pulsed.
"And what shall be forgotten?"
He hesitated.
Then whispered, "Nothing."
The system responded.
"Cycle Two fully engaged."
Kaelex grabbed his arm as the light dimmed. Her golden eyes were wide—not afraid, but something close.
"You just chose open memory," she said. "No filters. No control."
"I know," Reven said.
Kaela approached, wiping blood from her blade. "Was it the right call?"
Reven looked out over the horizon.
"I didn't come back to erase the world," he said. "I came back to remind it what it is."
And above them, the sky cracked open once more.