Aurelia couldn't move.
She stared into the darkness beneath the staircase.
Two pale eyes had opened below.
Watching.
Waiting.
Mother.
But it wasn't the woman Aurelia remembered.
The face that slowly emerged from the darkness was older.
Much older.
Her hair hung around her shoulders, almost completely white.
Her skin was pale.
Her hands were bound by thick metal restraints attached to the wall behind her.
Yet somehow, despite everything, she was smiling.
"Aurelia."
The sound of her name made Aurelia's heart twist.
"Mother?"
Rowan immediately stepped in front of her.
"Stay behind me."
Mother laughed softly.
"Still protecting her."
Rowan stiffened.
"You know me?"
"I know everyone who has ever stood beside her."
Lena moved closer to Aurelia.
"What is this place?"
Mother looked at her.
"The place where the first choice was made."
Aurelia stepped around Rowan.
"What choice?"
Mother's smile disappeared.
"The choice that created you."
Aurelia's breathing stopped.
"You created me?"
"No."
Mother shook her head.
"I created the conditions that allowed you to exist."
"That doesn't make sense."
"It will."
Mother looked toward the silver pendant in Aurelia's hand.
"Where did you get that?"
Aurelia held it up.
"The child gave it to me."
Mother's face changed.
Fear.
Real fear.
"You saw him."
"Yes."
"You spoke to him?"
"Yes."
Mother closed her eyes.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she whispered,
"Then we're already too late."
Rowan frowned.
"Too late for what?"
Mother looked at him.
"For the world you know."
Aurelia descended the first step.
"What does that mean?"
Mother's eyes remained fixed on her.
"The world above was built on one lie."
"What lie?"
"That Choice was destroyed."
Aurelia stopped.
"But it wasn't."
"No."
Mother looked at the pendant.
"It was hidden."
"Why?"
"Because your grandmother discovered what Choice could do."
Lena's expression hardened.
"Who is my grandmother?"
Mother didn't answer.
Aurelia stepped down another stair.
"Tell me."
Mother finally looked at her.
"Her name was Seraphine."
The name echoed through the underground chamber.
Lena suddenly gasped.
"I've heard that name."
Rowan turned.
"Where?"
"In the old records."
Aurelia looked at her.
"What did they say?"
Lena swallowed.
"They called her the First Mother."
Mother smiled bitterly.
"That was the name they gave her."
"Who are they?"
"The people who came after her."
Mother pulled against the restraints.
"The people who believed human beings could be improved by controlling their choices."
Aurelia's face tightened.
"And you?"
"I believed them."
Silence.
Mother lowered her head.
"I was young."
Aurelia stared at her.
"You helped them?"
"Yes."
The word came quietly.
But it hit harder than a scream.
"I helped them build this place."
Aurelia's voice trembled.
"You experimented on people."
"Yes."
"You erased memories."
"Yes."
"You separated children from their families."
Mother closed her eyes.
"Yes."
Aurelia's hands curled into fists.
"And you expect me to forgive you?"
"No."
Mother opened her eyes.
"I don't expect forgiveness."
"Then what do you want?"
"To stop what I started."
A deep vibration moved through the staircase.
Rowan looked around.
"The place is collapsing."
Mother shook her head.
"No."
She looked at Aurelia.
"It's waking up."
Aurelia stared at her.
"What?"
Mother pointed toward the darkness behind them.
"You thought the chamber was the center."
"It isn't?"
"No."
She looked beneath them.
"The chamber was only the lock."
Aurelia's stomach dropped.
"And what's below?"
Mother's voice became barely audible.
"The original room."
Lena stepped forward.
"What original room?"
"The room where Seraphine made the first choice."
Aurelia looked at the silver pendant.
"What happened there?"
Mother hesitated.
"She had three children."
Aurelia frowned.
"Three?"
"Yes."
"The golden-eyed girl."
"The red-eyed boy."
"And Choice."
Mother nodded.
"They were not born naturally."
Aurelia's eyes widened.
"They were created?"
"They were separated from one thing."
"What?"
Mother looked directly into Aurelia's eyes.
"Human will."
Aurelia didn't understand.
Mother continued.
"Seraphine believed that every person carried three forces inside them."
She lifted one finger.
"Memory."
A second.
"Consequence."
A third.
"Choice."
"She separated them."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To understand humanity."
Rowan shook his head.
"And she thought splitting people apart would help?"
"She thought she could control them."
Mother's voice broke.
"She was wrong."
Aurelia stared down the staircase.
"And where do I fit into this?"
Mother's eyes filled with tears.
"You were never supposed to exist."
Aurelia went still.
Rowan immediately turned toward Mother.
"Be careful."
But Aurelia raised a hand.
"No."
She looked at Mother.
"Let her speak."
Mother nodded.
"When the three forces were separated, something unexpected happened."
"What?"
"They resisted."
The ground shook.
Aurelia gripped the railing.
"The three refused to remain separate."
Mother continued.
"So Seraphine tried to destroy Choice."
"She failed."
"Yes."
"And then?"
"She discovered that Choice couldn't be destroyed."
Aurelia's fingers tightened around the pendant.
"It could only be transferred."
Mother nodded.
"Into another human being."
Aurelia's heart began pounding.
"No."
Mother whispered,
"Yes."
"No."
"You are that person."
Silence.
Aurelia couldn't breathe.
Rowan looked at her.
Lena slowly stepped backward.
Mother continued.
"You weren't created to become a weapon."
"Then why?"
"To become a person capable of choosing freely."
Aurelia laughed once.
It sounded broken.
"Then why did you imprison me?"
Mother's eyes filled with tears.
"Because I was afraid."
"Of me?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"Of them."
Aurelia looked upward.
"Who?"
Mother pointed toward the ceiling.
"The people who built the world above us."
Rowan's expression changed.
"You mean they're still alive?"
Mother nodded.
"Some of them."
"How?"
"They never needed to live forever."
Mother looked toward Aurelia.
"They only needed their ideas to survive."
Aurelia suddenly remembered the golden-eyed girl.
The red-eyed boy.
The forgotten people.
The First Hunger.
The countless records.
The experiments.
It wasn't random.
It had been built.
Generation after generation.
A system.
A belief.
A machine made from people.
Aurelia looked at Mother.
"And what happens now?"
Mother's expression became serious.
"Now they know you've awakened."
Rowan looked toward the staircase.
"Who's they?"
Mother answered with one word.
"The Council."
Aurelia frowned.
"The Council?"
"The people who have been watching you from the beginning."
Her blood went cold.
"Watching me?"
"Yes."
"Since when?"
Mother stared at her.
"Since before you were born."
The lights suddenly came on.
One after another.
All the way down the staircase.
Aurelia looked below.
The stairs stretched impossibly far.
At the bottom stood a massive black door.
And carved into it were hundreds of names.
She recognized some.
Rowan recognized others.
Lena stepped closer.
Then she froze.
"What?"
Aurelia looked at her.
Lena pointed at the door.
Her finger was shaking.
"My name."
Aurelia followed her gaze.
There it was.
LENA.
Beside it was another name.
ROWAN.
Then another.
AURELIA.
But beneath Aurelia's name was something else.
A date.
A date from years before Aurelia had been born.
Aurelia stared at it.
"That isn't possible."
Mother closed her eyes.
"It is."
Rowan stepped closer.
"What does the date mean?"
Mother whispered,
"The day your life was chosen."
Aurelia's heart pounded.
"My life wasn't chosen."
Mother looked at her.
"That is what I wanted you to believe."
Aurelia stared at her.
"Why?"
"Because if you ever discovered that someone had chosen your life for you…"
Mother's voice trembled.
"…you would spend your entire life trying to prove them wrong."
Aurelia's eyes narrowed.
"And did it work?"
Mother smiled sadly.
"No."
Aurelia looked toward the black door.
"Open it."
Mother's expression changed.
"You don't want to go inside."
"I do."
"You don't understand what waits there."
"Then I'll understand when I see it."
Rowan stepped beside her.
"We're going together."
Lena nodded.
"Together."
Mother looked at all three of them.
For the first time, she smiled.
"Then perhaps there is still hope."
Aurelia reached the bottom of the stairs.
She placed the silver pendant against the black door.
A click echoed.
The enormous door began to open.
Cold air rushed past them.
Inside was a circular room.
At its center stood a single chair.
And sitting in that chair...
was a young woman.
Aurelia stopped breathing.
She knew that face.
She had seen it in her dreams.
She had seen it in old photographs.
She had seen it every time she looked into a mirror.
The woman slowly lifted her head.
Her eyes met Aurelia's.
Then she smiled.
"Hello, Aurelia."
Aurelia couldn't speak.
Rowan whispered,
"Who is she?"
Mother answered from the staircase.
"The woman who made the first choice."
The woman in the chair stood.
And Aurelia finally understood.
She wasn't looking at a stranger.
She was looking at herself.