The bunker's bulb flickered, throwing long shadows across the metal walls as Tom placed his hand on the glowing interface projected by the [ Lore Archive ].
The small device shimmered with faint blue circuits, and then with a low hum, a holographic light unfurled in front of him like a scroll of mist.
Elior, Vera, Grace, and Rosario leaned closer. They couldn't see what Tom saw since they didn't had the lore. only the faint outlines of light reflecting off his face but his eyes, wide with focus, told them this was something deeper.
"Alright," Tom said quietly, almost to himself. "It's starting."
Grace leaned forward, her voice gentle. "You're the only one who can see it again, right?"
Tom nodded. "Yes. You guys can't see the visuals, but…. I'll try to tell you everything I can explain."
He blinked, and the holographic mist took shape. In front of him, he saw towering trees and emerald leaves swaying like waves. The sound of bells carried through the forest, and under a golden dawn-bright sky, he saw banners fluttering with strange symbols — Dael Kayef.
"The lore says.…" Tom began, watching the words shift before his eyes, "….the Carna Forest wasn't always a wild ruin. It used to be the royal garden of an ancient empire called 'Dael Kayef'."
Elior raised a brow. "Garden?"
Tom nodded, staring deeper into the vision. "I don't know, it says that. But not just any garden. It stretched across hundreds of miles. The Emperor, Hamish Kha made it with the help of something called the 'Spheres of Elmera.' They let him grow trees that could store memories, and flowers that could heal wounds by touch."
Rosario whistled low. "That is.… overkill for a garden."
Tom continued, his tone steady but reverent. "It was more than that. It was a spiritual sanctum. Every tree held a record of someone's life. When someone from the empire died, their memories were stored here in the garden. The people called it The Recoil Garden of Kayef."
Grace looked down, whispering, "That seems to be beautiful!"
Tom paused for a moment, the images shifting again now darker. The light dimmed as clouds of crimson smoke and fire rolled through the forest. The air grew heavy.
"Unfortunately…." Tom said, his voice quieter now, "the empire fell. It says they were destroyed by Se Goulb, another empire that wanted to seize their land. They were allied with the Shombhasa Empire. When Kayef fell and the Carna Forest.…" he exhaled, "it turned into a curse."
Elior leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "A curse?"
Tom nodded slowly. "Every soul that was recorded inside the trees lost their peace and became living tree monsters. The forest became haunted by echoes of their last moments like the world couldn't decide whether to remember them or let them rest."
The hologram flickered again. A figure appeared.
Ayoung woman with long silver hair and a golden circlet, wearing a pink bouffant gown, standing before the ruins of her home.
"Humaia Kha," Tom whispered. "The emperor's daughter. She was cherish, happy, caring, polite to everyone. Just to get murdered by someone close to herself."
Grace's eyes softened. "What happened to her?"
Tom stared at the flickering projection, his expression unreadable. "What I am reading reading right now is just a summary."
A long silence fell. The hum of the generator filled the room again, faint but constant.
Rosario rubbed his chin. "So you're saying.… Carna wasn't a ruin forest. It was a place where the past refused to leave."
Tom nodded. "Guess that is why it's connected to the Crescent Aurora Hive. Elior, you said their god's name matched the forest's?"
Elior's gaze turned thoughtful. "Yes. We Hive worshiped an entity called 'Sukarna' . A forgotten goddess of renewal. I wonder what is the connection there."
Vera, still silent till now, finally spoke. "If that's true, then she's no longer human. She's part of the land."
Tom turned back to the fading hologram — the image of Humaia dissolving into a thousand points of green light, scattering like fireflies.
"She's more than that," Tom murmured. "She's the reason this forest still breathes."
Tom leaned back against the cold wall, rubbing his palms together before exhaling. "Alright then," he said, his tone shifting lighter, as if to soften the heaviness of the tale. "Let's start from the beginning."
The others turned their attention to him again. Grace pulled her blanket closer, still pale but listening; Rosario crossed his legs, expectant; Vera sat with his back against the steel beam, eyes calm but curious; and Elior gave a small nod, signaling him to continue.
Tom smiled faintly. "Humaia Kha wasn't always that tragic figure wandering the ruins. Back then, she was just this overly gentle, flower-obsessed princess who could make even rocks grow leaves if she smiled hard enough."
Rosario chuckled. "A gardener princess? That's new in my lore knowledge."
Tom continued. "She'd spend hours in her garden. They said it stretched so far that birds got lost in it. Whenever she saw a wounded animal. Bird, fox, whatever. She would scoop it up and nurse it back to life. Even her servants used to joke that if she could, she'd plant lost people and hope they'd grow into friends."
Grace smiled weakly. "That is sweet."
"Sweet and naive," Elior added, tone dry but teasing.
Tom laughed lightly. "She even helped homeless travelers who wandered near the palace walls. You know, most royals would just send guards to drive them away but Humaia? She'd sneak them into her garden, hide them behind rose bushes, feed them leftover fruit."
Rosario smirked. "Sounds like she ran a charity in a flowerbed."
"She kinda did," Tom replied. "But, uh.… her family wasn't exactly the healthy royal family type."
Elior narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
Tom hesitated, then scratched his head. "Well, so…. according to the lore said her mother, Empress Arna and Humaia's older brother, Prince Harnes… kinda… uh… had a thing."
Rosario blinked. "A thing?"
Tom coughed. "You know. Like…. a thing."
Grace's eyes widened. "..."
A mosquito passed before him.
Tom said, laughing awkwardly. "Apparently Emperor Hamish walked in one night. And...."
"Oh no," Rosario muttered, already covering his face.
Elior sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Classic royal bloodlines.…"
Tom nodded dramatically. "Well, when Hamish found out, the Queen and the Prince both, uh, decided it was better to 'end the play early,' as the lore puts it."
Vera raised a brow. "They killed themselves?"
"Yep," Tom replied, then quickly added, "Not funny, obviously, but the way the archive described the Emperor's face, I swear, even this AI narrator sounded traumatized. Wish, you would see it."
Rosario snorted, trying not to laugh. "You mean the Emperor's face when he walked in?"
"Yeah," Tom said, grinning despite himself. "Apparently, he just stood there like," He mimicked a stiff stunned expression, mouth half open, eyes bulging. "'Harnes? Arna?… wait.… what!'"
Grace burst into a stifled laugh despite her cough. "Tom! Stop, you're horrible."
Elior tried to stay composed but the corner of his mouth twitched. "You're making royal tragedy sound like a bad theater rehearsal."
Tom shrugged. "Hey, I'm just saying what I saw. But yeah, that event, the Empress and Prince's death broke the Emperor completely. And after that, Humaia's garden became her whole world. She spent all her time there, talking to plants, raising creatures, avoiding court and law life."
The group quieted again as the laughter faded. The air softened into a kind of melancholy warmth.
Tom's voice grew gentler. "She lost her family, her trust in people but she still kept helping others. She said once, 'If my garden grows, maybe the heart can too.'"
Grace lowered her eyes. "She sounds…. lonely."
Rosario nodded. "The type of person who tries to heal the world while hiding her own tragedy, ehm, I think.... we are couple of them...."
Tom smiled faintly, gaze distant. "Exactly."
Tom took a deep breath, leaning slightly forward as the glowing hologram flickered before him. "After her mother and brother's death," he began quietly, "the Emperor changed. Hamish Kha wasn't the same man anymore. He wasn't cruel, never was but he was…. afraid. Afraid that his daughter might fall to the same weakness. So, he raised her with care but also with walls. Humaia wasn't allowed to talk to men, especially of his age unless it was absolutely necessary. Not servants, not guards, not even the ministers who handled her education."
The light of the hologram shimmered across Tom's face as he narrated what he saw scenes of an aging Emperor pacing down the marble halls, his robes heavy with dust and guilt. "But he couldn't bear to see her cry," Tom continued softly. "Whenever she asked him why she couldn't go outside, why she couldn't speak freely, he'd always stop halfway through his anger. He'd say something like, 'Because the world doesn't deserve your kindness yet, my daughter.' Then he'd leave the room before she could argue."
The image shifted. A few carriages arrived at the palace gates. Their banners painted with black suns and serpents of gold. "Then one day," Tom said, "a group arrived at Dael Kayef. An organisation calling itself the Thirteenth Sect of Miracles. They said they were an alliance of scholars and mystics from the Shombhasa Empire. They brought gifts, knowledge, strange relics — and something that caught Emperor Hamish's interest: a charm said to blesses land and soil."
Tom described what he saw, it was men and women in long red cloaks embroidered with unreadable sigils. They bowed low before the Emperor. "Your Majesty," said their leader — tall, pale, eyes like wet glass — "we come bearing the mark of renewal. Allow us to bless your land, so Dael Kayef may never hunger again."
The Emperor's advisors protested at first. No foreign group was ever allowed to perform rituals inside royal grounds. But Hamish was curious and desperate. "You will receive our hospitality," he said finally, "and a place to rest for the night but your blessing that I must see with my own eyes."
Tom's voice grew quieter as the hologram projected the ceremony. The Sect members gathered in the center of the royal garden, Humaia's garden and knelt in a circle. Their chant was rhythmic, melodic, echoing like a heartbeat through the earth. At the center, they buried a small black charm made of glassy stone and bone-like carvings.
"The Emperor thought it was harmless," Tom murmured. "A gift, maybe even a blessing. He thanked them personally, even invited them to dine in the upper hall that night. There's a record of that meeting. It says they spoke for hours. The Sect members promised prosperity, safety, knowledge. Hamish offered them membership within the empire for a certain time, to share their studies."
The hologram flickered again showing the Emperor raising a cup of wine to toast the Sect leader, their smiles sharp and hollow.
"But what they left behind," Tom continued, "wasn't a blessing."
The next image was softer. Morning light filtering through the branches of Humaia's garden. "After the Sect departed, Humaia found the charm buried beneath the roots of her favorite tree. She thought it was a gift from her father's guests, something sacred. Every day, she went to that place to pray. She never missed a single morning."
Tom's tone turned distant, uneasy. "And every day she prayed there…. the garden grew more beautiful — greener, larger, wilder. Flowers bloomed overnight, animals returned from nowhere. The charm seemed to answer her."
The hologram dimmed slightly, and the projection froze on the image of Humaia kneeling among the flowers closing eyes, hands folded while beneath her, the faint red light of the buried charm pulsed like a heart.
Tom exhaled slowly, gaze fixed forward. "That was the first sign something was wrong," he said, voice low. "There was no one who noticed it."