The command center was a relic of a forgotten age, its walls pulsing with ancient energy, sealed tight against the miasma swirling outside. The air inside was crisp, untouched by time, thick with a significance that defied explanation.
At the heart of the chamber sat the throne, dark and commanding, exuding a silent authority as though it alone remembered the secrets buried in the dust of centuries. It beckoned with a crown, a gateway to lives long past.
Thalyn Ka’el’s breath came in shallow gasps as the throne eased her back to an upright position, her pale knuckles gripping its arms. Her green eyes flicked around the chamber, like a cornered animal.
Hearing the gasps, Dr. Elara Voss stepped closer, concern edging her calm voice. “Thalyn, are you alright?”
Thalyn blinked, still trapped between the past and the present. “I... I don’t know,” she whispered. “It just happened, the throne… it pulled me in. I put the crown on my head and suddenly... I was someone else.”
Commander Jaxon Hurst approached from across the chamber, his voice controlled, like a hammer ready to fall. “And you didn’t think to inform me first?”
Thalyn’s jaw tightened, as she shook her head. “Didn’t know what was happening. One second, I’m standing here. The next, I’m in the chair, the crown on my head... It was like the chair was calling me.”
She stilled, as if listening to something far away. “It was like waking up inside a nightmare. Cold metal against my skin, a hum deep in my bones, like a heartbeat. A voice was there too, urging me to fight, to wake. And when I did... it was chaos.”
“The air... it burned my lungs.” Her fingers brushed her throat. “The walls were torn apart. Sparks everywhere, wires loose. Should’ve been dead, but I wasn’t. Everything felt... wrong.” She was silent for a moment, staring at nothing.
Korr Draven, the team’s archeologist who had been inspecting a peculiar piece of machinery, leaned in, his curiosity piqued. But Thalyn wasn’t finished. “There was someone... Arvie, in my head. Speaking to me as if we’d always known each other. But I didn’t recognize her, not fully. Yet, she was... comforting, in a way. Like a part of me, but separate, aware of things I wasn’t.”
Her hand rose to her blond temple, brushing against the dull ache that had settled there. “It felt real. The pain, the fear, the... not belonging.” Her voice grew quieter. “Felt like a ghost in a strange world. But I had to know what was on the other side of the door, to find out what happened.”
She paused, her gaze settling on the others, pinned by whatever ghost still haunted her. “It felt… ancient,” she said, almost to herself. “Like I’d brushed up against something that had been waiting for me a long, long time.”
Korr’s lips parted, eyes full of wonder. “Memory transference, not just thoughts… lives. The Elders wielded power far beyond what we grasp.”
Thalyn’s gaze drifted back to the crown gleaming darkly in the low light. “Whatever it is,” she said, “it’s not finished with me.”
Jaxon’s frown deepened, his voice like gravel. “We don’t know what this thing is. What it’s doing to you. We need answers.”
But Thalyn could feel it, a cold current, a pull like a whisper at the back of her mind, drawing her in. Her jaw set, muscles tightening against the pull. “I have to go back,” she said, her voice filled with quiet determination.
Korr’s eyes flared with curiosity. “Do it. We might find out what this place is… what the Elders were.”
Elara’s hand touched Thalyn’s arm. “Just… be careful.”
Thalyn nodded, feeling the weight of it all, but the pull was there, an ache inside her bones. She eased herself back onto the throne, as the chair reclined again, placing the crown on her head with a deliberate motion.
The air seemed to thin, the light flickering, and the hum of the ancient machines grew, vibrating through the floor. Her vision dimmed, the edges blurring, and then all went black.
And there, in the dark, it started again—the murmur of a life not hers, whispering like old leaves in a dry wind, drawing her deeper into the abyss.559Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOAeFxjPOcJ
