My name echoed through the darkness.
Ariana.
The sound wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
It reached inside me.
Past my skin.
Past my bones.
Past every memory I had ever carried.
The creature stepped forward.
I couldn't see its body clearly.
Every time I tried to focus on it, its shape changed.
Sometimes it looked human.
Sometimes it looked like a shadow.
Sometimes it looked like thousands of people standing together.
But its eyes remained the same.
Red.
Burning.
Watching me.
The golden-eyed girl tightened her grip around my hand.
"Don't listen to it."
I couldn't look away.
"Why?"
"Because it knows how to use memories."
The creature smiled.
"You finally remember."
I froze.
Its voice sounded like mine.
Not exactly.
But close enough to make my skin crawl.
"What are you?"
It tilted its head.
"I was here before you."
The woman who had brought us here stepped between us.
"Don't speak to it."
The creature laughed.
"You still pretend you can protect them."
The woman raised her hand.
Silver light exploded around us.
The creature stepped backward.
For the first time, it looked angry.
"You cannot keep them from me forever."
The woman didn't answer.
She looked at me.
"Run."
"What?"
"Run!"
The darkness exploded.
The golden-eyed girl pulled me backward.
We ran.
I didn't know where we were going.
There was no ground beneath our feet.
No walls.
No sky.
Only darkness filled with fragments of memories.
I saw cities.
Families.
Wars.
Births.
Deaths.
People I knew.
People I had never seen.
Entire civilizations appearing and disappearing around us.
The golden-eyed girl ran beside me.
"What is that thing?"
"I don't know!"
"You do!"
She stopped.
I stopped too.
She grabbed my shoulders.
"You saw the memory."
"So did you."
"I saw the first Heir."
"You saw the Source."
Her eyes widened.
"Then you understand."
"Understand what?"
"The creature wasn't the Source."
I looked behind us.
The red eyes were approaching.
Slowly.
"I know."
"No."
She shook her head.
"You don't."
She pointed at the darkness.
"The Source was the thing holding it back."
My blood ran cold.
"Then what is it?"
She whispered,
"The first thing humanity ever feared."
The darkness shook.
A voice answered.
No.
The woman appeared behind us.
"It was the first thing humanity created."
I stared at her.
"Created?"
She nodded.
"Before the first civilization."
She looked toward the approaching red eyes.
"Before the Architects."
"Before the Design."
"Before the Keepers."
"Before the Heirs."
She took a breath.
"Humanity created it."
The creature stepped closer.
"And then they blamed me."
Its voice echoed.
The woman looked at it.
"You became what they feared."
"No."
The creature smiled.
"They became what I was."
The words confused me.
"What does that mean?"
The creature pointed at me.
"You."
My heart pounded.
"You were created from the part of humanity they refused to acknowledge."
I shook my head.
"No."
"You were."
It pointed at the golden-eyed girl.
"She was created from what they hoped humanity could become."
The girl stared at it.
"And you?"
The creature smiled.
"I am what they became."
Silence.
The woman looked at me.
"That's the truth."
I couldn't breathe.
The First Hunger's voice echoed faintly from somewhere outside the memory.
Ariana!
I turned toward the sound.
"Rowan?"
The woman shook her head.
"You cannot hear them from here."
"But I heard him."
"No."
She stepped closer.
"The memory is using his voice."
I froze.
"What?"
She looked at the golden-eyed girl.
"It is trying to make you believe you are being rescued."
The girl stepped backward.
"Then who is calling us?"
The woman looked at the creature.
"Her."
The creature smiled.
I felt sick.
It had been using Rowan's voice.
My brother.
The person I trusted most.
I closed my eyes.
The voice returned.
Ariana.
This time it was Lena.
Please help me.
I opened my eyes.
"Lena?"
The woman grabbed my wrist.
"Don't."
"But she's in danger."
"No."
The voice came again.
Ariana, please.
I felt tears forming.
It sounded exactly like her.
The same fear.
The same desperation.
I almost stepped toward it.
Then the golden-eyed girl whispered,
"That's not Lena."
I looked at her.
"How do you know?"
"Because Lena doesn't call you Ariana."
I froze.
She was right.
Lena always called me Ari.
Only strangers called me Ariana.
The creature was learning.
But it didn't know everything.
I looked at it.
"You don't know them."
It smiled.
"I know enough."
"No."
I stepped forward.
"You know memories."
The creature's expression changed.
"But you don't know people."
For the first time, it looked uncertain.
The woman smiled faintly.
"Now you understand."
The creature roared.
The entire memory shattered.
I fell.
The golden-eyed girl fell beside me.
The woman disappeared.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then I landed on something hard.
Stone.
I opened my eyes.
We were back in the sanctuary.
Everyone was there.
Lena was kneeling beside me.
"Ari!"
I grabbed her hand.
"You're real."
She frowned.
"Of course I'm real."
I pulled her into a hug.
She laughed nervously.
"What happened to you?"
"I thought I'd lost you."
She held me tighter.
"I'm here."
I pulled away.
"Where's Rowan?"
She pointed.
He was standing across the chamber.
His blue energy was flickering violently.
But something was wrong.
His eyes were red.
I froze.
"Rowan?"
He looked at me.
"Ariana."
I stepped backward.
The golden-eyed girl grabbed my arm.
"Don't."
Rowan smiled.
"Come here."
My blood turned cold.
"That's not you."
His smile disappeared.
"What?"
"Rowan never calls me Ariana."
The red glow in his eyes intensified.
Then his face changed.
Not physically.
Something behind his expression changed.
The First Hunger stepped between us.
"Move away from him."
Rowan's head tilted.
"Why?"
The First Hunger stared into his eyes.
"Because you're not the Keeper."
Rowan laughed.
It wasn't his laugh.
The sanctuary shook.
The first Architect immediately raised his hands.
"Everyone back."
Rowan's body lifted from the ground.
Blue energy exploded from him.
The red light inside his eyes spread across his veins.
Lena screamed.
"Rowan!"
The creature's voice came from him.
I found the Keeper.
The First Hunger's expression hardened.
"No."
The creature smiled through Rowan's face.
The last boundary.
Rowan's body twisted.
Blue energy erupted.
Then a massive crack appeared behind him.
Something was forcing its way through.
The golden-eyed girl stepped beside me.
"We have to stop it."
"How?"
She looked at me.
"We don't."
I stared at her.
"What?"
"Rowan is the boundary."
The First Hunger turned.
"She's right."
He looked at me.
"If we attack him, we weaken the boundary."
"Then what do we do?"
The First Hunger looked at the Source.
"It has to choose."
The Source hovered above us.
It was divided.
One half silver.
One half gold.
I understood.
It wasn't asking me to fight.
It was asking me to choose.
I stepped forward.
The golden-eyed girl followed.
"Together?"
"Together."
We reached for the Source.
The moment our hands touched it, the sanctuary disappeared.
We were standing in the first memory again.
The creature stood before us.
But this time, it wasn't attacking.
It was crying.
I stared.
"You can cry?"
It looked at me.
"I remember everything."
The golden-eyed girl stepped closer.
"What do you remember?"
The creature lowered its head.
"The first choice."
"What was it?"
It looked at me.
"They were afraid."
"Who?"
"Humanity."
"Of what?"
"Of themselves."
It pointed toward the first Heir.
"They created me."
The first Heir stood behind it.
"Why?"
"Because they needed somewhere to put everything they couldn't accept."
The creature's voice cracked.
"Every violent thought."
"Every cruel desire."
"Every fear."
"Every betrayal."
"Every memory they were ashamed of."
It touched its chest.
"They put it all inside me."
I looked at the First Hunger.
Then I understood.
"You were not born evil."
The creature looked at me.
"No."
"You became their rejection."
"Yes."
The golden-eyed girl whispered,
"And then they called you the First Hunger."
It nodded.
"They forgot why I existed."
The first Heir stepped forward.
"That's why I promised you a choice."
The creature looked at her.
"You promised to make me human."
"I promised to give you the choice to become whatever you wanted."
"But you died."
The first Heir's eyes filled with tears.
"I did."
"And they continued."
"Yes."
The creature looked at me.
"And then you came."
I swallowed.
"Why me?"
"Because you remember."
The golden-eyed girl stepped forward.
"And I imagine."
The creature nodded.
"And together..."
It looked toward the Source.
"...you can give humanity what I never had."
"What?"
"Choice without shame."
The memory disappeared.
I opened my eyes.
I was back in the sanctuary.
Rowan was on the floor.
The red light was gone.
He was breathing heavily.
I ran toward him.
"Rowan!"
He looked up.
His eyes were blue again.
"Ari?"
I hugged him.
He held me tightly.
"What happened?"
"You were possessed."
He pulled away.
"By what?"
I looked toward the Source.
"The thing humanity created when it rejected itself."
Rowan's face hardened.
"The First Hunger?"
"No."
I shook my head.
"Something older."
The First Hunger stood behind us.
His expression was strangely peaceful.
"Not older."
Everyone looked at him.
"First."
The word hung in the air.
The first Architect slowly lowered his hands.
"So that's what was behind the original memory."
The First Hunger nodded.
"The thing humanity created before they learned how to remember."
I looked at the Source.
"What do we do now?"
No one answered.
Then the sanctuary screens came alive.
A message appeared.
MEMORY THREE: UNLOCKED.
Another line appeared beneath it.
THE FIRST SIN WAS NOT CREATION.
I stared.
The next line appeared.
IT WAS REJECTION.
Then the final message.
AND HUMANITY HAS REMEMBERED WHO THEY REJECTED.
The screens went black.
Silence filled the sanctuary.
Then a sound came from far below.
A heartbeat.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The First Hunger looked toward the floor.
His face changed.
"What?"
He whispered,
"That's impossible."
"What is it?"
He looked at me.
"The thing beneath the original world."
My blood ran cold.
"You said the First Hunger was the first."
"I was."
"Then what is beneath it?"
He didn't answer.
The ground began to shake.
The golden-eyed girl grabbed my hand.
A crack opened beneath us.
And from the darkness below came a voice.
A voice that sounded exactly like mine.
I remember you.
I froze.
Then the voice whispered:
Because I was the first Ariana.