POV: Ren
Her fingers were warm.
Not in the way fire burned.
Not in the way Virelya's vines pulsed with life.
It was different. Like the warmth of a sun you forgot you once stood beneath—until it touches your skin again, and you remember what light used to feel like.
I didn't pull my hand away.
But I didn't hold hers either.
Astraea tilted her head. Her expression was gentle… but piercing.
"You still remember, don't you?"
I didn't answer.
She stepped a little closer.
"I can feel it. Beneath the layers you wrapped around yourself. All this metal. All this silence. You're still the boy who walked with me between broken worlds."
Still no reply.
She sighed softly, her voice brushing the air like feathers caught in gravity.
"You were never meant to stay in one place, Ren. You weren't meant to build a throne. You were meant to keep walking. You told me that once."
"That was before," I said quietly.
"Before you caged yourself?"
"Before I realized the multiverse doesn't want walkers. It wants kings. Or corpses."
Astraea frowned, her hand falling back to her side.
"You sound like you've given up."
"No. I've simply accepted what I am."
Her eyes flashed for a second—wounded.
"You built an empire because you were tired. You enslaved goddesses because you didn't want to feel. You made yourself invisible, even to the ones who loved you."
She stepped even closer now, nearly chest to chest.
"But not to me."
I held her gaze.
Unmoving.
Unflinching.
"You loved me too much," I said.
"I did."
"You almost destroyed me."
"I know."
"And now you've come back."
"To see if there's anything left of the one I lost."
Silence.
Even the air seemed afraid to breathe between us.
Finally, I asked:
"And what do you see?"
Her voice was quiet.
"A boy who's still building cages. But now you've locked yourself inside."
I looked away.
Not because she was right.
But because I didn't want her to see that she might be.
She reached up, fingers brushing against my cheek with reverence that felt older than time.
"You don't have to choose me," she whispered. "But don't lie to me."
"I'm not lying," I said.
"You're pretending," she replied.
"Is there a difference?"
She smiled sadly, then stepped back.
And that distance felt heavier than any threat.
"I'll stay near the edge," she said. "Until you decide whether I belong inside it."
Then she turned.
And walked away.
But even after she vanished into the misting lattice corridors…
Her warmth remained on my skin.
And that was more dangerous than any weapon.
POV: RenLocation: Sub-Root Level 0 – Memory Core (Hidden Sector)
No vines grew here.
No system functioned here.
No lights flickered here unless I willed them to.
This wasn't part of the empire.
This was older.
Deeper.
Beneath all the thrones, all the goddesses, all the dimension-stabilizing scripts, there was this:
A room without doors.
I came here only when silence failed me.
When stillness was not enough.
And tonight, after Astraea's hand had touched mine again—I came.
The walls were obsidian black, not reflective. Just endless. And in the center, suspended in null-light, was a single orb—pulsing softly. Like a heart that had no body.
No system could detect it.
No goddess could access it.
This memory had no timestamp. No origin.
Because it came from before there was a before.
I stepped toward it.
The orb stirred faintly, responding to my presence.
My fingers hovered near it. Not touching.
Because even I… wasn't sure I wanted to remember.
But I let the memory breathe.
Just a little.
A burning sky.A girl—not Astraea. Not anyone known. Silver hair stained in blood, eyes like fractured mirrors.My hands—too small. My breath—labored. A blade—falling.Her voice—"Run, Ren."A scream.A shatter.Then—Silence.
I pulled back.
The orb dimmed instantly.
And I stood alone again.
Even Astraea… didn't know that girl.
Because even she had been made after.
This was before gods.
Before empires.
Before I gave up being human.
And that girl…
The one who shattered to protect me…
I never found her again.
Never remembered her name.
Never even built a grave.
Only this.
A memory locked beneath reality.
Because some truths aren't buried to be forgotten.
They're buried…
To stop them from returning.
I left the chamber in silence.
The memory core sealed behind me.
No one would know I had visited it.
Not Selphira.
Not Astraea.
Not even the universe.
Because what came before the universe… was me.