The trembling structure of light towered before them a monument caught between two wills:
The world's longing and the Architect's interference.
Its surface flickered uncontrollably, shifting between shapes that the world remembered and shapes the Architect tried to impose.
Aurelianth stepped closer to the boundary of the trembling plain, his golden glow steadying instinctively.
Immediately, the structure's stuttering slowed as though his presence alone coaxed it to breathe.
Lioren approached beside him, amber light forming a soft halo around them.
"It's reacting to us more clearly now," she murmured.
Solance, holding Aurelianth's hand tightly, stared up at the towering contradiction of memories.
His silver glow trembled.
"…I can feel two voices inside it."
Aurelianth turned to him gently.
"Can you distinguish them?"
Solance nodded slowly.
One hand pressed softly to his chest as he listened to the pulses inside the structure.
"…One is warm.
Soft.
Sad.
Like someone reaching out in the dark."
Lioren's breath caught.
"That must be the first caretaker."
Solance swallowed.
"…The other voice is...sharp.
Clear.
Cold.
Like something trying to erase all traces of warmth."
Aurelianth nodded.
"The Architect."
At the name, the entire plain shuddered.
The structure's surface flashed violently from gold to pale white as if rejecting the association yet unable to deny the influence.
Lioren stepped forward, touching Aurelianth's arm.
"Aurelianth...how is the Architect reshaping something this deep?
The world shouldn't let them in."
Aurelianth exhaled slowly.
"Unless the Architect hid a command here before the world awakened."
Solance's eyes widened.
"…Like a seed planted long ago?"
"Yes," Aurelianth whispered.
"A seed meant to erase or overwrite the existence of the first caretaker."
The structure convulsed again liquid light sliding upward violently like a wound reopening.
Lioren flinched.
"That's… not stable."
Aurelianth nodded.
"No.
The world doesn't want to obey the Architect's command, but it doesn't know how to resist yet."
Solance tugged at his sleeve.
"…Can we help it choose properly?"
Aurelianth cupped Solance's cheek gently.
"Yes, my love.
We can."
The trio approached the structure together.
As they neared, the world's heartbeat grew louder beneath the ground.
The other heartbeat the deeper, older one echoed faintly behind the trembling light.
Solance whispered:
"…They're close.
The first caretaker...they're somewhere inside."
Lioren pressed closer to Aurelianth.
"Then we go in."
Aurelianth nodded.
"We go in."
They stepped onto the trembling surface of the plain and instantly the structure reacted.
Light surged around them.
Waves of brilliance cascaded upward like a rising tide.
Two colors collided overhead:
Gold — warm, organic, yearning.
White — cold, strict, enforced.
The sky cracked with tension.
Lioren looked up, voice trembling.
"It's… fighting itself."
Solance clutched Aurelianth's hand tighter.
"…Can it hurt us?"
"No," Aurelianth said firmly.
Then after a breath:
"Well… not intentionally."
Solance made a tiny sound that wasn't quite relief.
Aurelianth pulled him close.
"But I'll keep you safe from anything that tries."
The world responded to his promise with a soft pulse under their feet.
The structure's trembling slowed a small sign of trust.
Aurelianth stepped forward until his hand touched the chaotic surface.
Light rippled outward from his palm shimmering gold dissolving unnatural white.
The Architect's influence recoiled like something stung.
Lioren gasped softly.
"You can push it back!"
Aurelianth shook his head.
"I'm not rejecting it...
I'm giving the world permission to choose."
Solance whispered:
"…And the world chooses you."
The ground pulsed again.
The structure brightened in warm gold for the first time.
A hollow appeared in the structure not smooth or perfect like the sanctuary's, but jagged, trembling, as if it were forcing itself open in desperation.
Lioren stepped closer, eyes wide.
"It's letting us inside!"
Aurelianth examined the hollow carefully.
"No.
It needs us inside."
Solance shivered.
"…Will the Architect notice?"
"Probably," Aurelianth murmured.
"But that won't stop us."
Lioren squeezed their hands.
"We go together."
Solance nodded.
"…Together."
They stepped into the hollow.
The light swallowed them instantly.
Inside, the world was incomplete.
Not barren.
Not void.
Incomplete.
Colors drifted in slow spirals like memories trying to glue themselves together without knowing the right order.
Fragments of shapes hovered weightlessly halves of objects, unfinished lines, echoes of landscapes that never had time to grow.
Solance whispered:
"…It's so sad…"
Lioren reached out, gently touching a drifting piece of sky.
"It's trying to remember."
Aurelianth closed his eyes, listening to the pulses within the structure.
Two rhythms collided.
The warm heartbeat shy, wounded, desperate to be found called to him with fragile hope.
The cold cadence firm, controlling, emotionless pushed against it like a wall denying existence.
Solance pressed closer, trembling.
"…They're hurting the first caretaker…"
Aurelianth wrapped an arm around him.
"I know."
Lioren stepped in front of a ripple of white light as it flickered toward them.
"Back off," she growled.
Her amber glow flared soft but fierce.
The ripple dissolved.
The world stilled.
Aurelianth touched her shoulder.
"Well done."
Lioren's cheeks warmed.
"Whatever is trying to erase the caretaker has to get through me first."
Solance nodded vigorously.
"…And me second!"
Aurelianth smiled.
"And me last."
The structure pulsed as if emboldened by their unity.
More fragments drifted around them forming a path.
Aurelianth narrowed his eyes.
"It wants us to follow the memories the world can still access."
They followed the shifting fragments until they reached a central space a sphere of trembling light, pulsing in two colors:
Gold and White.
The collision point of memories.
Solance stared at it, breath trembling.
"…They're inside…"
Lioren whispered:
"The first caretaker…"
Aurelianth stepped forward and the sphere reacted violently.
White light struck outward like a blade, forcing the gold to shrink back.
Lioren snarled instinctively.
"Get away from them!"
Aurelianth raised a hand.
"Wait...the world is trying to show us the conflict."
Solance gripped his arm tightly.
"…What conflict?"
Aurelianth breathed in deeply.
"The Architect is trying to rewrite the memory of the first caretaker's death."
Lioren's eyes widened.
"Rewrite?
How?"
Aurelianth pointed to the white light.
"They're trying to turn their erasure into natural decay."
Solance gasped softly.
"…So no one knows they were removed…"
"Yes," Aurelianth said quietly.
"To make it seem like the caretaker vanished because the world outgrew them, not because someone forced them out."
Lioren shook with fury.
"That's awful."
Aurelianth nodded.
"Yes.
Because if the world believes that lie, it will stop searching for the caretaker's heart."
Solance stepped forward, silver glow brightening with courage.
"…Then we don't let it believe the lie."
Aurelianth held his hand.
"No. We don't."
The gold light trembled weak, pleading as if aware of their presence.
The white light surged as if trying to drown the gold before the trio reached it.
Solance cried out.
"…They're in pain!"
Aurelianth lifted both hands.
Gold exploded from his palms, washing across the sphere.
The gold pulse inside grew stronger.
Lioren stepped beside him, amber glow merging with his.
"Stay away from them," she growled at the white light.
The white responded violently lashing outward to reassert control.
Solance threw himself in front of Aurelianth and Lioren.
His silver light burst outward gentle, pure, unwavering.
The white light froze.
Aurelianth stared in awe.
"Solance...you stopped it."
Solance's glow softened shyly.
"…I just wanted to protect them…"
The gold inside the sphere brightened responding to Solance's instinctive compassion.
Aurelianth placed both hands on the sphere.
"Caretaker," he whispered,
"we hear you."
The gold trembled.
Solance touched the sphere.
"…We came because you asked…"
Lioren leaned close.
"We're here to help you remember."
The gold surged liquid light cascading down the sphere like tears.
A faint whisper slipped out, weak but unmistakably real:
find… my… heart…
Solance sobbed softly.
"…We will."
Lioren nodded fiercely.
"I promise."
Aurelianth's eyes softened.
"Show us where it is."
The gold pulsed...
Once.
Twice.
And then...
A single thread of golden light shot out from the sphere and embedded itself into the ground.
A path.
A direction.
A plea.
Solance clutched Aurelianth's arm.
"…It's leading us…"
Lioren touched the glowing thread.
"It's warm."
Aurelianth took both of their hands.
"And full of sorrow."
He pulled them gently.
"Let's follow the path to the heart of the first caretaker."
Behind them, the white light shrieked silently a tremor of panic as it felt its deception slipping.
The gold surged...
The world roared...
And the trio stepped forward into the path the forgotten caretaker lit for them with the last of their strength.