The cold darkness swallowed Liam whole.
He couldn't breathe—couldn't think—until suddenly he gasped and stumbled forward, finding himself in the same starlit chamber as before… but empty. The book was gone. Voice was gone. The masked figure had vanished as though none of it had happened.
Only the silence remained.
A faint sound echoed behind him—drip… drip… drip.
Water? No—blood.
Liam turned, and the chamber reshaped itself. The walls flickered with images—Kael in battle, Kael seated on a marble throne, Kael laughing with Seriyah and Vireya. But the scenes shifted—his empire burning, his soldiers slaughtered, his name defaced in ancient scrolls.
Then the final image: Kael, alone, bleeding beneath a broken sun symbol… betrayed.
"What is this…?" Liam whispered.
"Truth."
Liam spun.
The masked figure was back, though their porcelain mask now cracked, revealing a glimpse of a mouth—smiling, not cruelly, but sadly.
"The past is not a story," the figure said, circling Liam. "It is a scar. Kael carved peace into a world that wanted chaos. So chaos… removed him."
Liam stood firm. "You were part of the secret organization."
The figure laughed softly. "I founded it."
Liam's pulse spiked.
"We buried him not because he was evil… but because he was too good. He was changing the natural order. Breaking the hierarchy. Uniting enemies. He was unstoppable."
"So you turned him into a myth."
The figure nodded slowly. "A myth. A cautionary tale. A king too noble for kingship."
The chamber darkened again.
"But myths awaken, Mr. Routh."
Suddenly the room trembled, and the wall to Liam's left split open, revealing Voice—frozen in time—held within a glass-like prism, eyes wide, unmoving.
"VOICE!" Liam ran toward her, but the masked man raised a hand.
"She's alive. For now. You still have a choice to make."
Liam clenched his fists. "What choice?"
The figure stepped close.
"To follow Kael's path… or to finish what we started."
A deep rumble cracked through the chamber as a new door opened behind the masked man, revealing an endless staircase upward. Faint light poured through it. On the steps were three words carved into the stone:
"The Forgotten Return."
Liam stared at the figure. "Who are you really?"
The mask fell.
A man—old, regal, scarred—stood before him. His eyes… held centuries.
"My name is Elandros."
"I was Kael's first general."
Liam stepped back, stunned.
"I betrayed him."
Darkness snapped back like a slingshot—
And Liam awoke. Gasping. In a train. In China.
Voice sat across from him, sipping tea.
"Bad dream?" she asked.
He blinked, looking around. The Forbidden City was miles behind them.
But clutched in his hand was something he hadn't had before:
A torn page. Written in Kael's handwriting.
To be continued...