The silence of the library was not stillness—it was tension, pulled tight like wire.
Kael stood at the base of the spiraling central chamber, eyes fixed on the Wall.
It was a blank stretch of curved stone that had once seemed decorative, etched with symbols no one could read. But now, something buzzed beneath its surface—a faint hum that resonated in Kael's bones the moment he stepped close.
"This wasn't here before," he murmured.
"It was," Mira replied. "You just weren't ready to hear it."
The Wall pulsed. Light flickered beneath the stone like fireflies trapped in ice. Kael raised the data crystal, and as it neared the surface, the wall shifted—lines unspooling, rearranging into symbols, then words.
And then, a voice.
It was not a voice spoken aloud. It whispered straight into Kael's mind, threading into his thoughts like smoke.
"Knowledge lost is not knowledge dead. Memory lives in stone."
Kael stumbled back. "Did you hear that?"
Mira nodded. "The Wall is one of the last artifacts from before the Cataclysm. A memory core. It reads your mind, your fears… and it speaks only to those who can bear it."
Kael stared at it, breath catching. The surface shifted again, glowing symbols scrolling like a forgotten language rewriting itself. Images flickered across the wall—ghostly holograms dancing in midair.
A city. Towering and bright. Not Ashenfall, but something older. Cleaner. Beautiful.
Then fire.
A sky split by thunder. Satellites crashing like falling stars. Screams.
Kael gritted his teeth. His head throbbed.
"Stop," he hissed.
But the Wall didn't.
It showed men in suits—arguing in a room with curved glass walls, maps blinking on displays behind them. A word kept surfacing in red:
PROJECT ARKOS.
"Arkos?" Kael echoed.
Mira stepped forward. Her voice was low. "A myth. Some say it was a failsafe—a way to preserve knowledge after the fall. Others say it was the trigger. A superweapon. No one knows."
The Wall dimmed. The whispers slowed.
"The Arkos lies beyond the Ashen Wall. Only the Word-Bearer may awaken it."
Kael staggered back. His ears rang. Blood trickled from his nose.
Mira caught him before he fell. "You need to rest. You pushed too far."
"No," he said. "I need to know what it means."
Mira studied him. The flickering light cast deep shadows across her weathered face.
"It means the library isn't the end of the story," she said. "It's the beginning. And the world beyond Ashenfall… it's not dead."
Kael swallowed hard.
The Arkos. The Word-Bearer.
"Me?" he asked, voice barely audible.
Mira didn't answer. But her silence said enough.
He wasn't just a scavenger anymore.
He was a threat.
A key.
And maybe… the match that could light the next fire.