Location: Freehold Estate Ancestor's Library, Arvia Province | Mortal Realm, Doha
Time: Late Afternoon
The ancestor's library exhaled secrets like a dying breath—and yeah, that's exactly what it felt like. All thick with centuries of weight and this sharp, metallic taste of preserved power that kind of coated the back of your throat. Actually, it was more than that. It was like breathing in history itself, if history could suffocate you.
Jade stepped across the threshold, bare feet silent against marble so cold it burned through her callused soles. The floor gleamed under the soft pulse of eternal lamps—these crystals embedded in the walls that hummed with this faint, electric whine. Their light was dim and reluctant, like maybe they were afraid to reveal too much at once. Or maybe they'd just seen too much over the years and were tired of it all.
(Everything feels wrong today. Why'd they really bring me here?)
Obvious setup, the inner voice observed. Clinical. Detached. Positioning, timing, witnesses—all carefully orchestrated. Question is: setup for what?
The doors sealed behind her with a soft thud that sounded way too much like a coffin lid closing. Which was. Dramatic, sure. But accurate. Trapped her inside with Edvard and Saphira, whose shadows stretched long and twisted across the shelves like accusing fingers reaching for secrets they'd never earned the right to touch.
Gods, the place felt alive—really, genuinely alive. Every breath tasted of old paper and something sharper. Ozone, maybe, like the aftermath of a lightning strike. Or the charge that built before energy weapons discharged.
That last thought sent a chill straight through her bones.
Energy weapons? Where in the void did that come from?
Another fragment, probably. Slipping through the cracks in her mind like starlight through fractured glass. She'd been getting more of those lately—weird thoughts that didn't belong to a thirteen-year-old slave girl from Doha. Thoughts that tasted like metal and recycled air and something she couldn't quite name.
The library was vast—this cavern of knowledge carved into the very heart of the Freehold estate. Towering shelves of dark wood groaning under the weight of ancient tomes. Scrolls yellowed with age. Artifacts sealed in crystal cases that pulsed with faint wards. The air itself seemed to whisper with half-remembered incantations. Old knowledge pressing against the edges of consciousness like a persistent headache that wouldn't quit.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" Edvard's voice slithered through the quiet, smug as a satisfied predator.
He sauntered forward, ceremonial robes whispering against the floor, silver embroidery catching the crystal light like captured starfire. At twenty-one, he carried himself with that practiced arrogance of someone who'd never known genuine want. His gray eyes were shifty but sharp. Always calculating angles. Always searching for an advantage.
"Our family's legacy, cousin." He gestured around the library with theatrical pride. "Treasures that've elevated House Freehold for generations. And now..." His smile was all teeth and venom. "You'll have the honor of cleaning them."
Saphira lingered by the entrance like a sentinel. Blue eyes cold as winter frost. Arms crossed over her chest in this posture that spoke of barely contained anticipation. Nineteen now, she'd blossomed into a vision of noble grace—lithe and elegant, her black hair braided with threads of silver that matched her Inferno-tempered tier status.
But beneath that cultivated beauty lurked the same poisonous soul that'd orchestrated this moment.
"Don't touch anything valuable," she warned. Voice silk over steel. "We're watching your every move."
Watching, yes. But why?
(They want something to happen. They're waiting for me to...)
Pattern recognition confirms deliberate provocation, the voice noted. They're not here to supervise cleaning. They're here to witness something. Question is whether they know what they're actually risking.
Jade knelt beside the bucket of soapy water they'd provided. The rag in her hand was rough and damp, its coarse fibers scratching against her calloused palms like tiny reminders of the pits. She began with the lower shelves, wiping away dust that'd accumulated despite the preservation wards.
Maybe intentionally, actually, to give this "test" some semblance of legitimacy.
As she worked—movements deliberate and methodical—memories flickered unbidden. Not of Doha. Not of chains and beatings and whippings and starvation. But of sterile corridors bathed in artificial light. The hum of life-support systems cycling air through filtered vents. The cold precision of tactical briefings delivered in rooms that smelled of recycled atmosphere and ozone.
Federation fragments, they felt like now.
Pieces of a life she'd never lived but somehow knew better than her own reflection.
Her own voice, strong and scarred by a lifetime of command: "Eden perimeter status report."
A younger man's response, crisp and immediate: "Systems nominal, Commander. All sectors secure."
Eden.
The word tugged at something deep inside her chest. A planet hidden among distant stars, maybe. A rebellion's desperate refuge where hope'd taken root in impossible soil. But that didn't make sense. She was from Doha. Born here. Lived here her whole life. Hadn't she?
She shook her head sharply. Focused on the task at hand. But the voice persisted, stronger now. More insistent:
They're positioning you near something specific. The golden tome. Local legends claim it holds the source of this family's power. Could be a coincidence. Could be the trigger they're waiting for.
The shelves held wonders that'd make scholars weep with envy. Grimoires bound in dragon hide that whispered ancient incantations when candlelight hit their pages just right. Crystal orbs swirling with captured essences—Inferno's angry crimson, Torrent's serene azure, wisps of Voidshadow coiling like smoke in perfectly spherical prisons.
Each artifact hummed with barely contained power. Sealed behind wards that tasted of copper and ambition.
Jade's rag moved over their surfaces carefully. Breathing shallow. Heart hammering against her ribs like a war drum counting down to battle. The dust came away easily—too easily, as if it'd been placed there recently rather than allowed to accumulate naturally over time.
(This is all wrong. None of this makes sense. Why bring me here? Why now?)
Edvard paced with calculated restlessness. Boots echoing softly against the marble. Pretending disinterest while glancing at Saphira with subtle nods that spoke volumes. Conspiracy lived in every gesture. In every shared look. In the way they positioned themselves between her and the exit.
"Remember, cousin," he said, pausing near a pedestal in the center of the room with this deliberate casualness of someone following a well-rehearsed script. "This is your chance to prove your worth to the family. Your chance to show that even a Voidforge can serve some useful purpose."
His emphasis on the last words dripped with mockery.
"Touch nothing but dust and grime."
The pedestal.
There it sat under a dome of shimmering wards—the golden tome that featured in whispered legends and servants' gossip. Even from across the room, it called to her with an almost physical pull. Its cover gleaming like molten sunlight. Etched with runes that seemed to shift and writhe when she wasn't looking directly at them.
The source of House Freehold's prosperity, some claimed. Touch it and fortune'd flow. Defile it and ruin'd follow.
Movement patterns suggest they want you to approach it, the voice observed. Professional detachment. Classic misdirection technique. They'll claim you damaged it, use it as justification for whatever they've got planned next.
Her rag slowed its careful progress across an ancient spell focus.
Why else'd they bring her here—to this most sacred space—if not to create an excuse for violence? She was a Voidforge. Powerless, worthless, an embarrassment to the family name. What threat could she possibly pose to their precious artifact?
Unless. That was the point.
Saphira's laughter cut through the tension like a blade through silk. Light but laced with anticipation. "Look at her, Edvard. Like a hungry dog circling scraps. Pathetic."
Pathetic.
The word hit like a physical blow. Echoing through years of abuse. Whips in the pits. Starvation's constant gnaw. Old Man Zhek's final sacrifice, bleeding out in chains while she watched helplessly through the bars. But instead of breaking her, it fed something deeper—this spark that wasn't magic but pure human defiance, raw and unbreakable.
Good. Channel that anger. You'll need it for what's coming.
Hours crawled by—or felt like it, anyway—in that timeless vault where shadows danced with preserved light and knowledge pressed against the walls like a living thing. Her arms ached from the repetitive motion. Sweat beading on her forehead despite the cool air. Mixing with dust to form gritty streaks that stung her eyes.
The cleaning'd become mechanical, meditative almost, if not for the constant awareness of watching eyes and the electric tension that seemed to build with each passing minute.
Edvard and Saphira grew restless as the work progressed. Their whispered conversations becoming more urgent. More pointed.
"She's not taking the bait," Saphira hissed through teeth clenched in frustration.
"Patience," Edvard replied, but his voice carried its own edge of impatience. "The trap's set. She just needs the right... encouragement."
Here it comes, the voice warned. Whatever they've planned, they're moving to the next phase.
Edvard cleared his throat with theatrical authority. "The pedestal next, slave. It's absolutely filthy." His voice carried the weight of command. Of noble privilege. Expecting instant obedience. "Clean it. Thoroughly."
There.
The command that sealed whatever fate they'd prepared for her.
Jade approached the pedestal with measured steps. Rag dripping steadily onto marble that'd probably cost more than most people earned in a lifetime. Her reflection wavered in the ward's shimmer, distorted and strange. Making her look like some creature caught between worlds.
Which, maybe she was.
Up close, the tome's presence was overwhelming—actually, genuinely overwhelming. The runes weren't just decorative. They moved. Flowed. Told stories of power and sacrifice in this language that bypassed the mind and spoke directly to something deeper. The golden cover seemed to pulse with its own heartbeat, synchronized with something in her chest she'd never noticed before.
Don't touch it directly, the voice urged. Unusual intensity. But observe everything. Those symbols... they remind me of quantum entanglement patterns. Circuit diagrams. Technology disguised as magic.
Quantum.
Another impossible word, but it unlocked a flood of memory. Laboratories filled with humming machinery. Scientists in pristine white coats bending over devices that could bend reality itself. Warm eyes behind protective goggles as a familiar voice spoke words that changed everything:
"The soul transfer protocol's experimental, Jayde. But if it works..."
Soul transfer.
The phrase exploded through her consciousness like a detonation. Staggering her backward. She stumbled, her hand brushing against the ward's surface. Not intentionally. Not deliberately. But contact nonetheless.
The effect was immediate and catastrophic.
A spark leaped from the barrier to her skin—electric fire racing up her arm like lightning through copper wire. The sensation was indescribable. Not quite pain. Not quite pleasure. But something that rewrote her nervous system's understanding of both concepts.
"What're you doing?" Edvard snarled, stepping forward with sudden alarm.
But it was far too late for intervention—way, way too late.
The ward flickered like a dying flame. The tome's golden radiance intensifying until it bathed the entire library in warm, impossible light. Jade's vision blurred as memories crashed through her mind in torrents. Not fragments now. But complete cascades of another life. Another death. Another desperate sacrifice.
The Federation. SN1098. The rebellion that'd cost everything.
Lawrence's betrayal, his warm smile twisting into corporate coldness as he revealed the truth that shattered her world: "It was always the plan, sister. Xi Corp's grand design required a martyr. You played your part perfectly."
Agony lanced through her skull like a hull breach in vacuum—sudden and absolute. She gasped, dropping the rag. Her hand pressing against the dome as if she could somehow ground herself against the storm of returning memory.
The wards shattered like spun glass, fragments raining down in glittering cascades that sang with released power.
"She's destroying it!" Saphira screamed, her voice cracking with genuine terror.
But Jade barely heard the words.
The tome opened of its own accord. Pages flipping wildly as if caught in hurricane winds. Runes leaping from the yellowed vellum like living fire. They swirled around her in expanding spirals, branding themselves into her skin—not with pain, but with purpose.
Power beyond comprehension flooded through her, rewriting her very existence from the cellular level up.
Soul mechanics: transfer protocol initiated. Anchor point established.
Federation technology?
No—something older. More fundamental. Something that made human science look like children playing with toys. The Luminari artifact, disguised in myth and legend, waiting for the right bloodline to activate its true potential.
Edvard lunged forward. His blade materializing in his hand with Inferno-tempered speed. "Abomination! I won't let you—"
The explosion cut off his words mid-sentence.
Not fire. Not force. But pure essence—raw, uncontrolled power erupting from the tome like a star going nova. The blast slammed into the room with the weight of collapsing mountains. Turning air itself into a weapon that shattered stone and pulverized centuries of preserved knowledge.
Shelves buckled and splintered. Their ancient wood screaming as it was torn apart. Artifacts exploded in cascades of contained magic, suddenly set free. Their power adding to the chaos in colors that had no names. Crystal cases detonated like bombs, sending razor-sharp fragments spinning through the air that'd become a hurricane of destruction.
The wave hit Edvard like a giant's fist.
Lifting him off his feet and hurling him across the library with bone-crushing force. His Inferno-tempered cultivation did nothing to protect him as he slammed into a marble column with this sound like breaking pottery. Something cracked inside him—not just bones, but something deeper. More fundamental.
His Crucible Core, the source of his power and pride, fractured under the assault.
Spiritual energy began bleeding from the fissures in visible streams, leaving him gasping and powerless. His eyes wide with shock and pain as he crumpled to the floor, barely breathing.
Saphira's scream was cut short as the blast caught her in its peripheral edge. The raw power flash-burning her robes and searing her skin with agony that dropped her to her knees. Her carefully maintained beauty was ruined in an instant. Replaced by angry burns that'd mark her for life—assuming she survived the next few minutes.
She clutched at her face, howling.
Jade flew backward. Her small body striking the wall with devastating impact. Ribs cracked. Her skull rang like a struck bell. Blood trickling from her ears and nose as darkness clawed at the edges of her vision.
But even as her body failed, something miraculous happened.
The tome, or what remained of it, dissolved into motes of golden light that sank into her skin without sensation. Warmth flooded through her broken body. Not healing, not yet, but anchoring. Connecting. Binding something ancient and vast to her very soul.
The artifact's bonding, the voice whispered as consciousness fled. When you wake, everything'll be different.
(I'm sorry, Old Man Zhek. I didn't mean to...)
No apologies. You survived. That's what matters.
Then darkness claimed her completely.
And the library fell silent except for the settling of debris and the labored breathing of the wounded. Dust motes drifted through shafts of crystal light, golden and ethereal, like the ghosts of all the knowledge that'd just been destroyed.
In the wreckage, three bodies lay still.
Two of them would wake, broken and burning with hatred.
One of them would wake changed forever.
The Voidforge child had touched divinity.
And divinity had answered.