Kael stood before the pillar as the blue light continued to rotate slowly above him.
The voice he had heard earlier did not return.
But something in the atmosphere shifted.
The chamber began to respond to his presence.
---
The inscriptions on the pillar began to realign.
Circular lines synchronized with the disc on his suit.
And in the center, a holographic projection emerged:
a codex.
Formed of vibrant symbols, spiraling and suspended mid-air.
Kael activated the translators.
Nothing worked.
Then, his LIGA disc blinked.
He remembered:
these symbols were not meant to be read.
They were meant to be felt.
---
As he focused, he began to understand.
The codex told the story of a mission long before his own.
Before the LIGA as he knew it even existed.
A name surfaced among the symbols, like a mental whisper:
"Arkana."
She was a time-traveling agent —
the first.
The one who never returned.
---
Kael saw images of her:
crossing eras, trying to seal portals that should never have been opened.
And finally… entering the very chamber he now stood in.
She never left.
But she had left behind the codex.
For him.