The voice came from beneath us.
I remember you.
I couldn't move.
The crack beneath my feet widened.
Stone broke away and disappeared into darkness.
Then the voice came again.
Because I was the first Ariana.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
The golden-eyed girl tightened her grip around my hand.
"Ariana..."
"I heard it."
Rowan pushed himself to his feet.
His blue energy flickered around his hands.
"Everyone back."
Nobody moved.
We were all staring into the opening.
The First Hunger looked like he had seen a ghost.
"That's impossible."
I turned toward him.
"You said that already."
His eyes remained fixed on the darkness.
"Because it is."
"Then explain it."
He shook his head.
"I can't."
The first Architect stepped closer to the opening.
For the first time, I saw genuine fear in his face.
"You know what that is," I said.
He didn't answer.
"You're the first Architect. You've been alive longer than anyone here."
His eyes remained on the darkness.
"Tell me."
He finally spoke.
"Before there were Heirs..."
He swallowed.
"...there was one."
My skin prickled.
"One what?"
"One child."
The golden-eyed girl stepped forward.
"Her?"
The first Architect nodded.
"The first Ariana."
The First Hunger looked at him.
"You told me she never existed."
"I was wrong."
"No."
The First Hunger's voice hardened.
"You lied."
The Architect looked at him.
"I believed she was destroyed."
The darkness below us moved.
Something was climbing.
Slowly.
A hand appeared.
Human.
Small.
Pale.
It gripped the edge of the broken floor.
Then another hand.
The golden-eyed girl stepped backward.
"No."
I stared.
A child pulled herself upward.
She looked about ten years old.
Long dark hair.
Silver eyes.
My face.
But not exactly.
There was something ancient in her expression.
She looked at me.
And smiled.
"Hello."
I couldn't speak.
She climbed completely out of the opening.
She wore a simple white dress.
No shoes.
No markings.
No blood.
Nothing that suggested she had spent thousands of years beneath the world.
Yet I knew.
She was the voice.
She was the one who had been waiting.
She walked toward me.
The golden-eyed girl moved in front of me.
"Stay away from her."
The child looked at her.
"You always protect her."
The girl froze.
"You know me?"
The child smiled.
"I made you."
Silence.
The golden-eyed girl's face went pale.
"What?"
The child looked at me.
"I made you too."
My breath caught.
"How?"
The child tilted her head.
"Do you remember the first memory?"
I nodded slowly.
"The woman holding the baby."
"That wasn't the beginning."
My stomach tightened.
"Then what was?"
She pointed at herself.
"Me."
The First Hunger stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
The child looked at him.
"You don't remember me?"
He stared.
Then his expression changed.
"No."
She smiled.
"You were there."
His face went pale.
"I was not."
"You were."
She looked at me.
"All of you were."
I shook my head.
"That's impossible."
The child laughed softly.
"That's what they always say."
The first Architect stepped forward.
"Enough."
The child looked at him.
Her smile disappeared.
"You."
The Architect stopped.
"You remember."
He didn't answer.
"You remember what you did."
"I was trying to protect humanity."
"No."
Her voice was suddenly cold.
"You were trying to protect your version of humanity."
The Architect lowered his eyes.
The child turned toward me.
"You want to know why the Source was divided?"
"Yes."
"You want to know why the first Heir existed?"
"Yes."
"You want to know why you and she were created?"
I nodded.
"Then you need to remember me."
She touched my forehead.
The world disappeared.
I was standing in a room.
A very small room.
There were no machines.
No technology.
No glowing symbols.
Only stone walls.
A woman was sitting on the floor.
She was holding a baby.
The baby was crying.
I knew the woman.
The first Heir.
But she looked younger.
Much younger.
She wasn't holding one child.
She was holding two.
Two babies.
One had silver eyes.
The other had golden eyes.
My breath caught.
The golden-eyed girl appeared beside me.
She stared.
"We were already there."
I nodded.
The first Heir looked exhausted.
A man stood before her.
The first Architect.
But he was young.
He wasn't the cold, ancient man I knew.
He looked terrified.
"You cannot keep them."
The first Heir held the babies tighter.
"They're children."
"They are not children."
"They're alive."
"They are possibilities."
The first Architect stepped closer.
"They will destroy the boundary."
The first Heir shook her head.
"They will give humanity a choice."
He looked at the babies.
"Which one?"
"Both."
"You cannot control both."
"I'm not trying to control them."
"Then what are you doing?"
The first Heir looked down.
"Giving humanity a future."
The vision changed.
The first Heir placed the two babies into a chamber.
The Source floated above them.
Silver light surrounded one.
Gold light surrounded the other.
Then something unexpected happened.
The Source split.
One part entered the silver-eyed child.
The other entered the golden-eyed child.
But the children began crying.
The chamber shook.
The first Architect stepped backward.
"What have you done?"
The first Heir stared at the Source.
"I didn't do this."
The lights became brighter.
A third presence appeared.
Dark.
Red.
Hungry.
The First Hunger.
But he wasn't the creature I knew.
He was a child.
A tiny boy.
He was crying.
The first Heir looked horrified.
"No."
The first Architect whispered,
"Another one."
The Source had created three children.
Memory.
Possibility.
And something else.
The third child opened his eyes.
Red.
The first Architect stepped toward him.
"We have to destroy him."
The first Heir stood in front of the child.
"No."
"He is unstable."
"He is alive."
"He will consume everything."
"He is afraid."
The first Heir picked up the child.
The little boy stopped crying.
He looked at her.
She smiled.
"You're not a monster."
The first Architect stared.
"Then what is he?"
The first Heir answered:
"Everything we refuse to become."
The vision shattered.
I gasped.
The golden-eyed girl was crying.
"He was a child."
I nodded.
"The First Hunger."
The First Hunger's voice came from behind us.
"No."
I turned.
He was staring at the memory.
Tears ran down his face.
"I remember."
He dropped to his knees.
"I remember her."
The first Architect closed his eyes.
"The first Heir."
The First Hunger shook his head.
"No."
He looked at me.
"I remember the children."
My heart stopped.
"All three?"
He nodded.
"All three."
The child standing beside us smiled.
"Finally."
I looked at her.
"You were there too."
She nodded.
"I was the first."
"First what?"
"The first memory."
I stared at her.
"You were created before the Source was divided."
"Yes."
"Then why do you look like me?"
She smiled.
"Because you look like me."
My mind struggled to process it.
"You came first."
"Yes."
"Then I am..."
"Your echo."
The words hit me.
I looked at the golden-eyed girl.
"And her?"
"Your possibility."
The child pointed toward the First Hunger.
"And him?"
"The consequence."
The First Hunger lowered his head.
"And the Source?"
The child smiled.
"The witness."
Silence.
The first Architect whispered,
"The four pieces."
I looked at him.
"Four?"
He nodded.
"Memory."
He pointed toward me.
"Possibility."
The golden-eyed girl.
"Consequence."
The First Hunger.
"And the Source."
The child.
I stared at the child.
"You said you're the first Ariana."
She nodded.
"Then what happened to you?"
The smile disappeared.
"They buried me."
"Who?"
"The Architects."
The first Architect looked away.
"Why?"
"Because I remembered."
"Remembered what?"
She looked directly at me.
"The truth before humanity."
I felt cold.
"What truth?"
She stepped closer.
"Humanity wasn't the first species to live on this world."
The chamber went silent.
"What?"
She continued.
"There were others."
The first Architect looked alarmed.
"Stop."
She ignored him.
"They lived here before humanity."
"Who were they?"
"People."
I frowned.
"People?"
"Humans."
My confusion deepened.
"Then what's the difference?"
"They remembered."
She looked toward the First Hunger.
"They didn't reject their darkness."
She looked toward the golden-eyed girl.
"They didn't fear possibility."
Then she looked at me.
"And they didn't surrender their memories."
I swallowed.
"What happened to them?"
The child's eyes filled with sadness.
"Humanity destroyed them."
The First Hunger whispered,
"Why?"
"Because they were different."
The child looked around.
"They were the first people to discover the Source."
I looked at the first Architect.
"Is this true?"
He nodded slowly.
"Yes."
My stomach twisted.
"And the Architects?"
"Created to protect the knowledge."
"From humanity?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you become what you became?"
The first Architect's expression hardened.
"Because humanity kept repeating the same mistake."
"What mistake?"
"Fear."
He looked at me.
"They feared those people."
"Why?"
"Because they were different."
The child interrupted.
"Because they were better at remembering."
I looked at her.
"And humanity hated them for it."
She nodded.
"They erased them."
My heart hurt.
"The First Civilization."
"Was not the first."
The child pointed toward the floor.
"The world beneath this world is filled with their remains."
I looked down.
The silver lights beneath the sanctuary suddenly became visible again.
Thousands.
Millions.
Not stars.
Graves.
I stepped backward.
"No."
The child touched my hand.
"You wanted the truth."
I looked at her.
"This is the truth."
Then she whispered:
"And now you must decide whether humanity deserves to know it."
I froze.
"What?"
She smiled sadly.
"Because if you open the final memory..."
The sanctuary shook.
"...every human being will remember what humanity did before the first civilization."
The golden-eyed girl stared at her.
"And if we don't?"
The child looked at me.
"Then the cycle continues."
The First Hunger stood.
"What cycle?"
The child looked at him.
"The cycle of forgetting."
The first Architect's face went pale.
"No."
I turned toward him.
"What?"
He stepped backward.
"Don't open it."
"Why?"
"Because I know what happens."
"Tell me."
He shook his head.
"You don't understand."
"Then make me understand."
He looked at the child.
"She remembers everything."
The child smiled.
"Yes."
"And she knows what humanity becomes when it remembers."
The child looked at me.
"Do you want to see?"
I couldn't answer.
The Source appeared above us.
Silver light filled the sanctuary.
The golden-eyed girl took my hand.
The First Hunger stepped beside us.
Rowan raised his eyes.
Lena stood behind me.
My mother and Elara watched in silence.
Even the first Architect stopped resisting.
The child extended her hand.
A door appeared behind her.
Not black.
Not silver.
Not gold.
Transparent.
Behind it was an entire world.
A world burning.
A world rebuilding.
A world repeating itself.
Again.
And again.
And again.
The child looked at me.
"Open it."
I stared at the door.
"What's behind it?"
She whispered,
"Humanity's first choice."
The door began to open.
And from the other side came billions of voices.
Not screaming.
Not crying.
Laughing.
Then I heard a sentence.
A sentence that made every person in the sanctuary go silent.
We chose to forget.