Sleep didn't come easily that night.
Kael lay on his bunk staring at the ceiling, counting the faint hums of the academy generators. The Crest on his arm flickered now and then — faint blue, like a heartbeat he couldn't control.
Lucen snored in the next bed, one leg hanging off. Ryn mumbled something about stew in her sleep. The normal noises should've been comforting. They weren't.
He kept seeing the words that had burned across the glass earlier that day. Who are you.
It wasn't curiosity he'd felt from the Crest — it was recognition. Like something that already knew him, but couldn't place where.
He turned over, groaned quietly, and sat up. The Crest reacted again, a faint pulse along his forearm.
> System: Low resonance detected.
Dream recall sequence — optional.
"Dream recall?" he whispered. "That's new."
He hesitated, then muttered, "Fine. Show me."
The pulse spread across his palm, and the room vanished.
He stood in a hall that wasn't real — walls made of light and shadow shifting around him. At the far end stood a figure, blurry and transparent.
Kael called out. "Who are you?"
The figure didn't answer. It raised its hand instead. The same Crest symbol glowed faintly on its arm.
Then another shape appeared behind it. And another. Within seconds, the entire hall filled with faint silhouettes — dozens, maybe hundreds. Each marked with the same symbol.
Kael's breath caught. "You're the others."
One of them stepped forward. A woman — faint details forming now. Long hair tied back, eyes hollow. She spoke in a voice that sounded half static.
> "We built the path. You walk it."
Kael frowned. "What path?"
> "Division Zero is the end. But it began somewhere else."
The lights flickered. The figures blurred.
> "Find the source."
Then they were gone. The hall cracked apart like glass shattering, and Kael fell back into his body.
He sat upright, gasping. Lucen stirred. "You good?"
Kael rubbed his face. "Yeah. Just— bad dream."
Lucen snorted. "Your bad dreams set off alarms."
True enough — the Crest was still glowing faintly. Kael covered it with his sleeve.
Ryn woke next, sitting up with her hair sticking everywhere. "You two whispering like old ghosts again?"
Kael forced a small grin. "Something like that."
Ryn stretched. "Well, unless your nightmares start paying rent, go back to sleep."
Lucen rolled over. "She's right. Even ghosts need curfews."
Kael didn't sleep again.
By morning, the academy's routine had already changed. Extra patrols lined the halls. Checkpoints had doubled. Students whispered rumors — some said an intruder broke in, others said a containment test failed. None of them knew it was about him.
Nyra didn't show up for class that day.
Instead, Kael was called into a different room — a study under the library dome. Inside waited an old man wearing half-moon glasses and a robe marked with golden threads.
"Kael Draven," he said without looking up. "Sit."
Kael did. "You're not going to make me activate anything again, right?"
The man gave a faint smile. "Not today. I'm Headmaster Varrin."
That name alone made Kael sit straighter. Even Lucen joked that Varrin was the kind of man who probably had an extra century hidden somewhere.
Varrin closed the book he was reading. "You've caused quite a ripple."
"I've been told."
"You awakened something in Division Zero that should not respond. And yet it did."
Kael didn't reply.
Varrin studied him for a while. "Do you know what Division Zero was originally built for?"
"No."
"It wasn't for training. It was for burial."
Kael frowned. "Burial?"
"Every failed experiment, every Mimic that lost control — all their data was buried there. Their memories, their fragments, their Crests. You connected to them."
Kael's voice came out quiet. "They spoke to me."
Varrin nodded. "Then they remember. Which means the system that stores them is reawakening."
"Why would it wake now?"
"That," Varrin said, "is what I need you to find out."
Kael almost laughed. "You want me to investigate your secret graveyard?"
"Not alone. I'm assigning you to the Academy Archives team. You'll be given access to restricted files under observation."
Kael leaned back. "Observation meaning you're watching if I melt someone."
"If you melt yourself, I'd prefer to know ahead of time," Varrin said dryly.
For a second, Kael wasn't sure if the man was joking.
When he left the room, Lucen was waiting near the hall door. "That look says you either got promoted or doomed."
"Both."
"Figures."
Ryn appeared with a piece of toast hanging from her mouth. "We going somewhere?"
Kael nodded. "Archives."
Lucen groaned. "Oh good. Dust and curses."
The three walked through the long curved hall that led under the main library. The air grew cooler. The lights dimmed the deeper they went.
Old shelves lined the walls, stacked with files that probably hadn't been touched in years. At the end stood a vault door — black steel, marked with the same Crest pattern Kael carried.
Lucen frowned. "That's reassuring."
Kael reached out. The Crest on his hand responded immediately, glowing faintly. The vault door unlocked with a heavy click.
Inside, rows of memory crystals floated in transparent containers, faintly pulsing.
Ryn whistled. "That's… creepy."
Kael stepped closer. One crystal pulsed faster as he approached. Then his Crest flashed.
Images filled his mind — flashes of someone else's life. A training ground. Screaming. Fire. A Crest tearing free from flesh.
He staggered back. Lucen caught him. "Hey— what happened?"
Kael's voice came out shaky. "I saw one of them."
"Who?"
"The ones before me."
He looked
at the glowing crystal again, then whispered, "They're not gone. They're still inside."
The Crest pulsed again, faint but deliberate — like it was agreeing.