The broken dimension trembled as the Memory Core expanded, its layers of light rotating like galaxies pressed into a single sphere. The fractured sky dimmed. The ground beneath Rourke's feet rippled like liquid glass.
Seren stepped back quickly. "Uh—Rourke? The space around you is… bending. I don't think that's normal."
The guide floated beside her, trembling.
"It is necessary.
This is the Solarii's Gravemind Field, used only to train those who would bond with the Heart."
Seren scowled. "They trained people in THIS? Looks like a death trap."
The Memory Core spoke, its voice echoing in layers.
"Training begins now."
Rourke braced himself. "What do I have to do?"
A wave of force slammed into him.
He flew backward—
spiraling through the air—
and crashed into the ground, hard enough to crack it like ice.
Seren screamed, "HEY! HEY! That's not training, that's assault!"
But Rourke forced himself up, coughing.
"I'm fine—"
Another wave hit him.
He slid across the glowing tiles until his back slammed against a pillar of light. The air itself felt heavier, denser—like he'd stepped into gravity multiplied by thousands.
The relic floated closer.
"Lesson One:
You cannot control gravity.
You must become part of it."
Rourke groaned, pushing against the invisible weight crushing him.
The guide whispered:
"Rourke, listen closely—let the Heart breathe for you."
He swallowed.
Breathe… with the Heart.
He placed a shaking hand over his chest.
Inside him, the Heart pulsed.
Once.
Steady.
Calm.
He inhaled with the pulse.
Gravity loosened—barely.
He inhaled again.
The invisible pressure thinned.
Rourke slowly rose to his feet.
The Memory Core observed.
"Good.
Lesson One: completed."
Seren threw her hands up. "Completed?! He almost got flattened!"
Rourke wiped blood from his lip. "It's okay. I'm learning."
The Memory Core pulsed sharply.
"Lesson Two:
Control collapse."
A circular fissure opened beneath Rourke—
a vortex pulling downward, a miniature singularity.
Seren gasped. "NOPE. Nope, nope—close that hole!"
Rourke's feet skidded toward the swirling pit. He struggled to anchor himself, planting his feet, but the gravity intensified, dragging him inch by inch.
The guide called out:
"Rourke—reverse the vector!
Do not push against it—redirect it!"
"My what?!" he shouted back.
The Memory Core answered.
"Every collapse has a direction.
Turn yours sideways."
Rourke clenched his teeth and focused.
He imagined the pull moving left.
Not down.
Left.
The vortex resisted.
It tightened.
Roared.
Tried to rip him apart.
His arms shook violently.
Seren shouted, "Rourke—what do I DO?!"
He didn't hear her anymore.
He felt the collapse.
He saw its shape.
And then he rotated his hands—
as if turning a dial—
And the vortex swerved sideways.
The singularity flew across the field like a rolling marble of darkness and faded into nothingness against the distant horizon.
Seren's jaw dropped. "That's… insane."
Rourke fell to one knee, panting.
"That was… hard."
"Lesson Two: completed."
Seren glared at the relic. "If Lesson Three includes spontaneous combustion, I'm shutting you off."
The relic's glow dimmed thoughtfully.
"Lesson Three:
Become the center."
The ground around them fractured—
not breaking,
but splitting into floating shards, lifting into the air like pieces of a shattered world.
Rourke rose with them, pulled upward by an unseen force.
The air around him distorted.
Seren stepped forward. "Rourke? Rourke!"
He floated, suspended in a small pocket of warped gravity.
He couldn't breathe.
His chest tightened.
Pressure crushed his lungs, squeezing every atom inside him, pushing blood into his ears until the world rang like a broken bell.
Seren panicked. "STOP IT! He can't breathe!"
The guide looked horrified.
"Memory Core—this is too soon!"
The relic ignored them.
"The Heart is the balance point of collapse and creation.
If he loses control here, he will die.
If he succeeds, he takes his first step toward mastery."
Rourke heard none of their voices.
He heard only the pounding inside his chest.
The Heart.
It beat once—
strong.
Then again.
And again.
He surrendered to the rhythm.
He stopped fighting the pressure.
Stopped resisting the crushing force.
He became it.
A strange peace spread through him.
He was the weight.
He was the pull.
He was the center.
The fractured world rotated around him.
The shards slowed.
Stabilized.
The pressure vanished in an instant.
Rourke dropped to the ground in a soft thud, gasping for air.
The Memory Core dimmed, as though approving.
"Lesson Three: completed."
Rourke coughed, leaning on his hands. "That felt like… dying."
Seren ran to him, grabbing his arm. "You DID die! Or almost died! Or something died! That was horrible!"
The guide hovered above them, trembling.
"The trial was brutal, but necessary.
He is the first Heartbearer in a millennium.
If he cannot endure the Heart's gravity…
he cannot survive what comes next."
Rourke forced himself to his feet.
"I'm okay. I'm still here."
The Memory Core floated higher.
Its glow changed—
from blue-gold to sharp white.
"You have completed the first three lessons.
Now comes the fourth."
Rourke straightened.
"What's the fourth?"
The world around them broke.
Not violently—
but like an illusion peeling away, revealing something far deeper.
A colossal chamber of light emerged.
In the center—
A structure of swirling energy, tall as a tower, humming with the same signature as the Heart inside him.
Seren gasped.
"What is THAT?"
The relic answered:
"The Solarii Resonance Forge.
Where Heartbearers were shaped."
Rourke stepped toward it—drawn unconsciously.
Seren grabbed his wrist.
"Don't just walk into ancient cosmic machines!"
Rourke's voice went quiet.
"I have to."
The Memory Core's glow intensified.
"Lesson Four… is your first true awakening."
Gravity pulsed outward from the forge—
A heartbeat.
A call.
And Rourke stepped forward.