Darkness swallowed them whole.
There was no sense of time in the descent—just wind, weightlessness, and the sound of Rin's ragged breathing mingled with Kael's frantic shout. Then, abruptly, the fall stopped.
A jarring splash.
Cold.
They landed in water—icy, chest-deep, and silent like a grave.
Rin coughed violently, pushing wet strands from her face, gasping for breath as Kael surged up beside her. His hand reached instinctively for hers, gripping tightly. Not for control. Not for guidance.
Just to make sure she was still there.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, voice hoarse, eyes darting over her.
"No. Just… winded." She looked around, shivering. "What is this place?"
"Some kind of reservoir," Kael muttered, treading toward the nearest ledge. "There's structure to the walls. Stone. Reinforced." He helped her up first, then followed, dripping and breathless.
They sat in silence for a moment, side by side, both staring into the black pool below.
Rin hugged her knees to her chest. "I wasn't ready for that."
Kael let out a dry laugh. "Neither was I."
"You still reached for me."
"You screamed." He looked at her then, eyes dark but warm. "I wasn't going to let you fall alone."
Something in his voice made her chest tighten. She lowered her gaze.
"Thanks."
For a while, they just sat there, catching their breath in the echoing stillness. No whispers. No cryptic voices. Just the sound of water dripping from the ceiling and their soaked clothes clinging to chilled skin.
Then Rin's hand brushed something cold beside her.
A metal plaque. Half-buried in moss and grime.
She squinted, wiping it clean.
"Kael… it's a name."
He moved closer.
The inscription was faded, but readable: Reika Noctis. Watcher-Class. Nullified—Cycle 1430.
Kael frowned. "Watcher-Class? That's not a title I've heard in any noble court."
"Not of our world, maybe," Rin whispered. "But we've seen resurrection, manipulation of memory… what if Watchers are something else? Guardians? Fail-safes?"
Kael stood slowly, the wet strands of his hair slicked back as he turned to observe the walls more closely. Carvings stretched out in every direction—etched faces, half-erased stories. Some beautiful, others monstrous.
Rin rose too, her fingers brushing a mural. "These are... cycles. Generations. Lives lived and lost. Look—this one shows a girl with wings made of paper. And this one—someone pulling threads from a dying star."
Kael stared. "These aren't metaphors, are they?"
"No," Rin said softly. "They're records. Soul-weavers. Memory-binders. Watchers. It's a language of those who came before—people who didn't just cheat death. They ruled it."
Kael exhaled sharply. "Then this place—it's more than a lab."
"It's a mausoleum," Rin murmured. "For the ones who failed... or were buried to be forgotten."
Suddenly, a low hum began again—vibrating through the stone beneath their feet.
This time, it didn't come from a mirror.
It came from the water.
They backed away from the ledge just as something stirred beneath the surface. Not violently—no splash, no chaos.
Just a ripple.
Like something waking.
Kael reached for his sword, but the blade shimmered oddly in his grip—its edge distorting as though reacting to the air itself.
Rin's eyes snapped to the pool. "Do you feel that?"
Kael nodded, eyes locked forward. "It's like we're being watched again."
The ripple grew.
Then a shape emerged—faint, luminous, not quite flesh. A figure, female in silhouette, suspended just beneath the waterline. Her eyes opened—white and flickering, like old stars.
Rin stepped forward before Kael could stop her.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The figure didn't speak. But the air did.
"You trespass among echoes. But one of you... remembers."
Kael frowned. "What do you mean?"
The voice didn't answer him.
It focused on Rin.
"You were born with a thread. A scar of memory. Not yours, but woven through you. A legacy of ash and violets."
Rin's heart thudded painfully. "You mean… my dreams. The garden. The flames."
"Not dreams. Warnings. From the first anchor."
Before she could ask more, the figure began to fade, dissolving into light.
Kael grabbed Rin's wrist. "Come on. We can't stay here."
A passage opened to their left. No door this time—just walls that split silently, revealing stairs that wound upward.
But as they turned to go, Rin's eyes caught one last plaque beneath the waterline—barely visible.
It read: Elias Faelan. Guardian-Class. Status: Contained.
She didn't mention it to Kael.
Not yet.
Because deep down, something told her… they weren't just uncovering someone else's secrets.
They were beginning to remember their own.
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