'The bloodline could not accept?'
[Correct,] the system answered, tone unusually serious.
[The previous holder… he wasn't just misguided. He was dangerous.]
Ethan's expression sharpened. 'Because of how he used the power?'
[No,] the system said.
[Because of how he thought about it.]
[He believed the bloodline made him better than everything else. That the world should bend to his will simply because he carried it.]
'That's… insane.'
[It was worse than insane.]
[He treated everything—people, planets, knowledge—as things he was entitled to. Not to learn from. Not to respect. To own.]
Ethan's eyes narrowed. 'Was he the one who built the Vault?'
[Yes.]
[But don't let the place fool you.]
[He didn't build it to protect knowledge.]
[He built it to hoard it.]
Ethan looked around again. The ancient silence. The impossible scale. The beauty of it all.
And underneath it… Something colder.
'But the Librarian… she still respects him. She acts like he was her creator.'
