Kael sits at the edge of the dying fire.
Naia watches from a distance.Evan paces.
Iskra remains unconscious, twitching gently like a dream is chasing her.
Kael breathes deeply, hands pressed to the soil.
And whispers:
"Show me what I asked you to hide."
The world fractures.
His mind implodes inward like a collapsing star.
Not pain.
Worse.
Familiarity.
He's been here before.
He's the one who built this memory cage.
He stands in a corridor made of mirrors.
Each pane reflects a version of him:
A younger Kael, eyes wide with hope.
A battle-scarred Kaelith, blood dripping from his blade.
A Kael dressed in priest robes, whispering to something unseen.
A version with no face at all—just a glowing brand on his skull: ☼
And at the corridor's end: a black door with no handle.
No keyhole.
Just a palmprint.
His.
As he reaches for it, a voice calls out:
"Are you sure?"
Evan.
But not the current Evan.
This one's younger. Unbroken. Standing behind Kael with a trembling grip on a syringe.
"If you open it… you won't come back."
Kaelith turns, eyes blazing.
"That's the point."
Present Kael watches from the mirror's edge—just an observer to his past.
He sees it now.
He wasn't trying to escape.
He was trying to contain something.
Inside the Ninth Door…
Isn't a place.
It's a person.
The past Kaelith speaks softly, hand on the door:
"He's waking up again."
"If I don't lock him… he'll rewrite the entire world."
Evan's eyes glisten.
"Then let me do it. Let me carry it."
Kaelith shakes his head.
"Only the Door can hold a god."
The moment his palm touches the surface—
The corridor begins to shake.
A monstrous sound bursts from behind the black door:
A laughter made of thunder and static.
The mirror Kael stumbles back.
But the real Kael—the one remembering—steps closer.
Watching his past self open the Ninth.
And sees it.
The thing inside.
The Other Kael.
A version of him twisted by raw power.
No empathy. No restraint.
Only logic. Perfection. Control.
The Archivist Before It Was a Machine.
"We were the same," the Other Kael whispers.
"Until you wanted to save them."
"Now look what you've become."
"A fragment. A shadow of a Door."
Kaelith grabs the sides of the doorway.
"That's why I'm sealing you."
The Other smiles.
"Then I'll wait."
"And when you crack—I'll walk the world again."
The seal snaps shut.
Past Kael collapses.
Evan rushes in, injecting him with the compound.
The memory begins to blur, shatter, fade—
But not before Kael hears the last words of his past self:
"If I ever wake again…"
"Remind me why I forgot."
Kael gasps.
He's back by the fire.
His hands are shaking.
His voice—barely a whisper.
"I locked him in."
Naia kneels beside him. "Who?"
Evan steps forward slowly.
His voice is hollow.
"Kaelith locked away the Archivist…"
"Because he used to be it."
Silence.
Real.
Terrifying.
Even the wind seems to hold its breath.
Kael rises to his feet.
His shadow stretches unnaturally long.
The edges of his voice flicker with energy as he says:
"I wasn't just its tool."
"I was its origin."
"And I'm starting to remember how I built it."
From within Iskra's tiny body, a soft hum begins.
And a new voice speaks—
Not hers.
Not Kael's.
Something ancient.
Something proud.
"Then come, Kaelith."
"Come to the final lock."
"The Archivist is waiting."
Chapter 36 End