The room remained silent long after Khael had left.
Nobody moved toward the door. Nobody seemed to know what they were supposed to say. The anger that had filled the room only moments earlier had disappeared, replaced by something much harder to deal with.
Uncertainty.
Khael's words remained suspended in the room.
Cinderborn.
The name itself meant almost nothing to most of them. But the way he had spoken it had made it feel like something Earth should have known long before today. David finally broke the silence.
-Close the doors.
The security officers immediately moved. The massive doors of the conference chamber shut, separating the leaders from the corridors outside. The remaining personnel looked at one another across the table.
Nobody spoke. David looked toward the empty place where Khael had been standing.
-How much of that do we actually believe?
One of the representatives leaned back in his chair.
-It is still enough to make a decision.
Another shook his head.
-But not little enough to ignore.
David said nothing. His eyes moved slowly across the table.
Only a short while ago, they had been arguing about whether Earth should risk everything by helping a stranger's war.
Now the question had changed.
They were no longer discussing whether Earth should help the Rebellion. They were trying to understand whether Earth had already been involved in this conflict long before Khael arrived.
Veronica remained near the wall. Paul was still sitting where he had been when Khael left. He had barely moved. His hands rested against his knees. His eyes remained fixed on the table.
David noticed him.
-Paul.
Paul looked up.
-Yes?
-You heard everything.
-Yes, I did.
David studied him for a moment.
-What are you thinking?
Paul almost laughed. Not because anything was funny. Because he genuinely did not know how to answer.
-I absolutely don't know.
His voice was quieter than usual.
-I've spent the last few hours hearing that my great-grandfather may have been important to people I didn't even know existed. Then I was told I'm apparently important to an entire rebellion. Now I'm being told that the organization protecting Earth may have tried to destroy Earth because of something called Cinderborn.
He looked down at his hands.
-And I'm supposed to tell you what I'm thinking?
Nobody answered. Paul leaned back.
-I don't even know which part I'm supposed to believe first.
Veronica finally moved closer. She stopped beside him but did not touch him. That small distance between them seemed deliberate.
Paul noticed.
He didn't ask about it. One of the senior OPESTM officials opened a file on the table.
-We should verify the term.
David looked at him.
-How?
-Our archives. Historical records. Everything we've recovered about the MJC. Anything connected to the first contact, the attacks a hundred years ago, the negotiations afterward. If Cinderborn is an established classification, there should be something.
Another official shook his head.
-If the MJC intentionally kept it from us, our own records may not contain anything useful.
-Then we search anyway.
David nodded.
-Do it.
Several officers immediately began gathering the available records. Paul watched them. For some reason, the movement bothered him. Not because they were doing anything wrong. Because everyone suddenly looked as though they had a reason to be afraid.
And Paul was beginning to understand why. He stood.
-I need some air.
Veronica looked at him.
-I'll come with you.
Paul hesitated. Then nodded. They left the chamber together. Neither spoke as they walked through the corridor.
The facility had become strangely quiet. Soldiers were still moving through the halls. Officers were still receiving orders. Screens were still displaying information.
But the atmosphere had changed. People knew something had happened. They just didn't know what. Paul finally stopped near a large window overlooking one of the lower sections of the facility.
Veronica stood beside him. For a while, neither said anything. Then Paul spoke.
-I keep thinking about what he said.
-Cinderborn?
Paul nodded.
-And the part about them wanting to control me.
Veronica looked toward him.
-You don't know if that's true.
-I know.
He paused.
-That's the problem.
Veronica waited. Paul continued.
-If he's lying, then none of this matters.
-And if he's telling the truth?
Paul looked through the glass.
-Then everything matters.
The words sat between them. Veronica folded her arms.
-You know what bothers me?
Paul turned toward her.
-What?
-He didn't ask you to save Earth.
Paul remained silent.
-He asked you to leave it.
Paul looked away again. Veronica's voice remained calm.
-There's a difference.
-I know.
-Then don't forget it.
Paul finally looked at her.
-I said no.
-I know.
-I meant it.
-I know that too.
She stepped a little closer.
-But saying no today doesn't mean you have to stop thinking about it tomorrow.
Paul's expression tightened.
-I don't want to think about it.
-You don't get to choose that anymore.
He looked at her for several seconds. She wasn't trying to convince him to go. She wasn't trying to convince him to stay either. She was simply telling him the truth. Paul lowered his eyes.
-I was finally starting to think things could become normal.
Veronica's expression softened.
-They still can.
Paul shook his head.
-Can they?
She didn't answer immediately.
-I don't know.
It was the first completely honest answer either of them had given that night. Paul looked at her. Veronica continued.
-But whatever happens next, I don't want you making a decision because someone frightened you into it.
Paul's eyes remained on hers.
-And if staying is the decision that gets me killed?
Veronica's expression changed slightly. She did not look away.
-Then we'll deal with that when we know it's true.
Paul looked back toward the window. Outside, Earth continued as though nothing had happened.
Lights, buildings, people. A world that had no idea that its name had just been placed inside a war spanning worlds it couldn't even see.
Paul quietly said,
-I wish I had never heard that name.
Veronica knew which one he meant.
-Cinderborn?
Paul nodded.
-I was happier not knowing.
Veronica looked at him for a long moment.
-Maybe.
Paul turned toward her.
-Maybe?
She nodded.
-There are things that are easier when you don't know them. But that doesn't mean ignorance would've protected you.
Paul said nothing. Veronica looked back through the window.
-And whatever Cinderborn means... you didn't become something different because Khael gave it a name.
Paul remained still. That sentence stayed with him. Because that was the part he couldn't escape. Whatever his great-grandfather had been. Whatever Earth had once been. Whatever the MJC believed Earth could become. None of it had started tonight.
The difference was that now Paul knew someone else was watching.
Back inside the conference chamber, the investigation had already begun. Old documents were being opened. Records were being compared. Historical reports were being pulled from archives that had not been accessed in years.
Most of them contained nothing useful. Some mentioned the MJC. Some mentioned the attack a century ago. Some contained fragmented records about Earth's earliest contact with the wider Megaverse.
But the word Cinderborn appeared nowhere. At least, not in the records they had found. One of the officers finally closed a file.
-Nothing.
David looked at him.
-Search again.
-We already searched the entire archive.
-Then search the restricted records.
The officer hesitated. Those records were not normally accessed without authorization. David noticed.
-You heard me.
The officer nodded.
-Yes, sir.
He turned back toward the terminal. A few seconds later, another archive opened. The room grew quiet again. The files began loading. Then the screen stopped.
An old document appeared. The officer leaned closer.
-I found something.
Everyone looked toward him. David approached.
-What?
The officer scrolled slowly.
-It's not the word Cinderborn.
-Then what is it?
The officer stared at the document.
-There's a reference to an old classification system.
David looked at the screen.
-Read it.
The officer hesitated.
-It's incomplete.
-Read what we have.
He began.
-The record describes certain developing civilizations as... potential high-risk evolutionary societies.
Nobody spoke. The officer continued scrolling.
-Most of the classification data is missing.
David's eyes narrowed.
-When was this recorded?
The officer checked.
-A little over a century ago.
The room became still. That was the same period. The same period as the attack. The same period when Earth had first been dragged into the attention of the MJC.
David stared at the screen.
-Anything else?
The officer shook his head.
-The rest was removed.
-By whom?
-I don't know.
David remained silent. Across the room, another official spoke.
-So Khael wasn't completely wrong.
David didn't answer. Because that was not what the evidence proved. It proved only one thing.
There had been something in Earth's history that someone had deliberately removed from the record. Whether it was Cinderborn or something else remained unknown. And that uncertainty was almost worse.
David looked toward the closed doors. Khael had arrived on Earth asking for Paul. He had left after being refused.
But he had also left them with something far more dangerous than a request.
A question.
What had Earth been a hundred years ago? And what was it becoming now? Far away from the facility, Paul stood beside Veronica beneath the quiet night sky.
He looked upward. For the first time in his life, the sky did not feel empty.
Somewhere beyond it were worlds he had never seen. People he had never met. Wars he had never heard of. And somewhere inside all of that...
His name had already become important. Paul looked down. He still had no intention of leaving Earth.
Not tonight.
But for the first time, he understood something that frightened him more than Khael's offer. He might not get to choose whether the war came to him.
It might already be on its way.
To be continued...