Darkness.
That was all I could feel.
No floor.
No walls.
No sound.
I tried to open my eyes, but there was nothing to see.
Then I heard breathing.
Slow.
Uneven.
Close.
I forced my eyes open.
The First Hunger was standing in front of me.
But something was different.
It wasn't enormous anymore.
It looked almost human.
Almost.
Its skin still carried those golden markings, and its eyes still burned with that unnatural light, but its face had changed.
It looked tired.
Old.
Lonely.
I pushed myself backward.
"You're inside my memory."
It nodded.
"No."
Its voice was quieter now.
"You are inside mine."
I looked around.
We were standing in a place I had never seen before.
A forest.
But it wasn't an ordinary forest.
The trees were enormous, their branches stretching into a golden sky. Strange flowers grew beneath them, glowing faintly in the darkness.
I recognized one thing.
The Memory Tree.
Only this wasn't the Memory Tree I had seen beneath Sanctuary Twelve.
This was the beginning of it.
The original.
"Where are we?"
"The first garden."
I stared at him.
"This place existed before the sanctuary?"
"Before your civilization."
He walked forward.
I followed cautiously.
"Why did you bring me here?"
"I didn't."
He stopped.
"You did."
I frowned.
"I don't understand."
"You opened the door."
"What door?"
"The one inside you."
I looked at my hands.
The golden light was still there.
"What happens if I close it?"
He turned toward me.
"Then humanity forgets again."
"And if I leave it open?"
"You remember everything."
"That doesn't sound dangerous."
He smiled sadly.
"Memory is always dangerous."
We continued walking.
Then I saw them.
Hundreds of people.
Living.
Laughing.
Running between the trees.
They looked human.
But something was different.
They had glowing marks on their skin.
Some had golden eyes.
Others had silver.
Children played near the river.
Women gathered fruit.
Men worked beneath enormous structures.
It was peaceful.
Beautiful.
I stared in disbelief.
"This was the First Civilization?"
"No."
The First Hunger looked at the people.
"This came before."
"Before humans?"
"Before the word human existed."
I looked at him.
"What were they?"
He didn't answer immediately.
"Us."
My heart skipped.
"Us?"
"You and me."
I shook my head.
"No."
"Yes."
He pointed toward a young woman standing beside the river.
I knew her face.
The first Heir.
She looked younger than she had in my memories.
She was laughing.
Beside her stood a man.
I recognized him too.
The First Hunger.
But he wasn't a monster.
He was human.
Or something close to human.
He had the same golden eyes.
The same markings.
But his face was gentle.
I stared at them.
"You knew her."
"She was my sister."
I turned toward him.
"My ancestor?"
"Yes."
I looked back at the two figures.
The first Heir touched his shoulder.
They were talking.
Laughing.
Happy.
Then the sky changed.
Dark clouds appeared.
The people stopped moving.
A massive structure descended from the clouds.
Not a spaceship.
Not a machine.
Something older.
Something alive.
The First Hunger's voice became distant.
"That was the beginning of the separation."
"What separation?"
"Between memory and reality."
The structure opened.
A wave of light spread across the land.
People began screaming.
Some fell.
Others changed.
Their glowing marks disappeared.
Their memories vanished.
I watched in horror.
"What happened?"
"The Source was divided."
"Why?"
"Because they were afraid."
"Of what?"
"Of themselves."
The First Hunger looked at me.
"They discovered that memory could shape reality."
My stomach tightened.
"If enough people remembered something…"
"It could become real."
I stared at the glowing forest.
"That sounds impossible."
"You have already done it."
I froze.
"What?"
"The sanctuary."
I remembered.
The golden barrier.
The symbols.
The visions.
The things that responded to my thoughts.
"You've been using memory without understanding it."
I looked away.
"So the Source isn't energy."
"No."
"It's memory."
"Not exactly."
He stepped closer.
"The Source is the place where memory, possibility, and reality meet."
I swallowed.
"And you?"
He looked toward the distant horizon.
"I was created when they tried to separate those things."
The vision changed.
The ancient people gathered around a massive chamber.
The first Heir stood in the center.
The Council surrounded her.
The same people who would eventually create the Design.
The same people who would erase memories.
The first Heir was holding something.
A glowing sphere.
The Source.
The Council leader spoke.
"We cannot allow them to remember."
The first Heir shook her head.
"You cannot control memory."
"We can control people."
"That is not the same thing."
The Council members activated the machine.
The Source screamed.
I felt the sound inside my bones.
The first Heir collapsed.
And beside her, the man who would become the First Hunger screamed.
His body changed.
Darkness spread across his skin.
His eyes turned completely gold.
The machine continued.
The Council watched.
The First Hunger fell to his knees.
Then everything went dark.
I turned toward him.
"They did this to you."
He nodded.
"They tried to make me the container for everything humanity refused to remember."
My chest tightened.
"You were their experiment."
"I was their solution."
"What went wrong?"
He smiled bitterly.
"They succeeded."
Silence.
"You became the First Hunger."
"Yes."
I looked at him.
"Why did they call you that?"
"Because people fear what they don't understand."
He stepped closer.
"Every war. Every murder. Every betrayal. Every abandoned child. Every death that humanity refused to remember…"
His voice trembled.
"I carried it."
I couldn't speak.
"You carried all of it?"
"For thousands of years."
Suddenly, I understood.
The creature beneath the sanctuary wasn't simply evil.
It had been forced to carry humanity's darkness.
And then sealed away.
Forgotten.
I looked into his eyes.
"Why didn't you destroy humanity?"
He laughed softly.
"I wanted to."
My heart stopped.
"But?"
He looked at me.
"Then she came."
The first Heir appeared beside us.
She looked exactly as she had in the ancient memory.
She placed her hand against his face.
"You're not a monster."
He closed his eyes.
"I am."
"No."
She shook her head.
"They made you carry their darkness. That doesn't make it yours."
He opened his eyes.
"Then what am I?"
She smiled.
"Someone who deserves a choice."
The vision disappeared.
I was back in the darkness.
The First Hunger stood before me.
"She promised she would return."
"And she did."
"Yes."
He looked at me.
"But you aren't her."
I felt something tighten in my chest.
"No."
"You are different."
"How?"
"She was willing to sacrifice herself for humanity."
I waited.
"You are willing to make humanity face itself."
I didn't know whether that was a compliment.
Or a warning.
A crack appeared in the darkness.
Light poured through.
I could hear voices.
Lena.
Adrian.
My mother.
They were calling my name.
"I have to go."
The First Hunger nodded.
"But before you leave…"
He reached toward me.
I hesitated.
Then I allowed him to touch my forehead.
A rush of memories exploded through me.
Not his memories.
Mine.
My childhood.
Elara holding me.
Elara crying when she thought I was asleep.
Rowan watching from a distance.
The first time my power appeared.
The night my mother disappeared.
The night my memories were hidden.
But there was something else.
A memory I had never seen.
I was a child.
Maybe six years old.
Standing inside Sanctuary Twelve.
My mother was kneeling before me.
She held both my hands.
"Listen to me, Ariana."
I looked at her.
"If you ever remember this place, you must never trust the people who tell you that you're the only one."
"Why?"
"Because you're not."
She looked behind her.
Someone was standing there.
A man.
I couldn't see his face.
My mother whispered:
"He is the reason they are afraid."
The man stepped forward.
I saw his eyes.
They were not golden.
They were blue.
Familiar blue.
My memory shattered.
I screamed.
The First Hunger released me.
"What did you see?"
I stared at him.
"You know someone."
His expression changed.
"Who?"
"A man."
"Which man?"
"He was there when I was a child."
The First Hunger went completely still.
"What did he look like?"
"Blue eyes."
Silence.
Then his face filled with something I had never seen before.
Fear.
"Impossible."
"Who is he?"
He stepped backward.
"You cannot remember him."
"Why?"
"Because he was erased."
"From my memory?"
"From everyone's."
The darkness began collapsing.
The voices around me grew louder.
"Ariana!"
Lena.
"Ariana!"
My mother.
I reached toward the First Hunger.
"Tell me who he is!"
He stared at me.
Then he whispered:
"He was the first person to betray the Source."
The world shattered.
I opened my eyes.
I was lying on the sanctuary floor.
Lena was kneeling beside me.
"Ariana!"
I gasped for air.
She grabbed my shoulders.
"Thank God."
I looked around.
The First Hunger was gone.
The sanctuary was silent.
The Architects were frozen.
The First Generation were staring at me.
My mother stood several feet away.
Her face was pale.
I slowly sat up.
"Mother."
She swallowed.
"Yes?"
"There was a man."
Her eyes widened.
"Blue eyes."
She stopped breathing.
I stood.
"He was with you when I was a child."
She said nothing.
I stepped closer.
"Who was he?"
My mother's lips trembled.
Then, from somewhere behind us, a voice answered.
"I think she's finally ready to know."
Everyone turned.
A man stepped out of the shadows.
Blue eyes.
A familiar face.
And the same voice I had heard in my oldest memories.
Rowan.
But he wasn't alone.
Behind him stood someone I had never expected to see again.
Elara.
Alive.
And holding a silver key.