Location: The Folded Core – Subspace Entry Ruin Z-77
The vault was buried beneath five collapsed timelines, encased in a logic shell that flickered like corrupted water. No GPS worked. The only way in was through resonance memory access — and the only person who could unlock that…
Was Yanis.
> "This place isn't on any Reclaimer records," Kael said, scanning the air.
> "It wouldn't be," Yanis replied, voice low. "Because it was built before the Seed chose sides."
She placed her hand on the control pillar.
Her palm lit red.
> [Echo Signature Verified – Entry Permitted]
[Welcome, Interface Host: Echo Variant v0.1]
> "Variant zero…?" she whispered.
The gates hissed open.
And a whisper passed through her skull: "Welcome home, Echo."
---
Inside the Vault – Memory Glass Hall
They walked through rows of floating spheres—each one humming with timelines that had never happened.
Kael paused beside one.
It showed him—older, draped in white, holding a child made of light.
> "This didn't happen."
> "Not in our line," Yanis said. "But maybe in one of hers."
The girl in red stirred.
> "This is where I was born."
> "Not as a weapon. As a warning."
They reached the vault core.
A suspended cylinder floated in the center, locked by a lattice of time-threads.
Yanis stepped forward.
> "Whatever's inside… it's mine, isn't it?"
Kael nodded. "Open it."
She pressed her hand to the seal.
Light surged.
---
The Memory Awakens
A vision slammed into them both.
The first experiment.
A child.
Not a subject.
A creation.
She opened her eyes surrounded by scientists.
She wasn't human.
She was Seed-born — made from the first successful bonding.
And her designation wasn't Echo.
It was:
> [PROJECT: FORGEMOTHER // SUBJECT ZERO // PROTOTYPE INTERFACE]
Yanis gasped.
> "She's… me?"
> "No," Kael said, staring.
> "She's the one the Forgemother cloned you from."
> "The original interface. The one who cracked the throne open."
---
The Truth
The girl in red had never been just a fragment.
She was the first Echo, the prototype meant to communicate with the Seed — not to control it.
Yanis wasn't bonded to her.
Yanis is her. A genetic, psychic, temporal echo of the original interface prototype.
---
> "That's why she fits inside you," Kael whispered.
> "She's not invading your mind."
> "She's coming home."
Yanis stepped away, trembling.
The vault lights dimmed.
And a new voice echoed from the walls.
One Kael hadn't heard in over a century.
> "So you've found the truth."
> "Pity it won't save you."
Aeyra Vael had arrived.
---