The torn page fluttered in Liam's trembling hands, its ink weathered but still legible—written in a style that could only belong to Kael himself.
"When the golden river turned to dust, and my city sank beneath the sun, we built our walls not for glory, but for memory. Let the sand cover our truth, and let the world forget the name of Solanar, until the desert itself learns to dream again."
At the bottom of the page was a single symbol: a rising sun above two lion-headed obelisks—the emblem of Kael's forgotten kingdom.
Voice leaned in, her pale brows knitting as she traced the emblem with a gloved finger.
"This... is Egyptian."
Liam looked up, stunned. "You're sure?"
Voice nodded. "It's a hybrid of Upper Egyptian and a script I've only ever seen in tombs buried deep in the Valley of the Kings. If Kael's kingdom was real, it wasn't just ancient—it was pre-dynastic."
Liam exhaled slowly. "So all this time… the Kingdom of the Forgotten Sun was in Egypt."
He stared out the train window. The sun had begun to rise behind the Beijing skyline.
"But if Kael's kingdom was in Egypt," he murmured, "then what the hell is the Western Empire doing beneath the Forbidden City?"
Voice didn't answer right away. Her eyes darkened.
"Unless…" she whispered. "There was more than one empire. Or time isn't what we think it is."
Liam blinked. "Come again?"
Voice's tone dropped to a near-whisper.
"What if Kael's kingdom and the Western Empire never coexisted… but were connected? Different points in time—different places—linked by something older than history?"
A beat of silence passed between them.
Liam looked down at the page again. Now, behind the ink, he noticed a faint symbol in red: a circular crest with arrows pointing in four directions. At its center—a spiral.
"This is a chronoglyph," Voice said, eyes wide. "I've only seen it once before. It's a marker for ancient time-shifting architectures. Lost civilizations used them to hide ruins that didn't belong to any timeline."
"Like a kingdom buried in Egypt... and a war buried in China," Liam finished.
Suddenly, the train slowed.
They had arrived—Beijing.
They stepped off, navigating the dense crowds until they found themselves once again at the steps of the Forbidden City. But this time, they weren't alone.
A woman stood at the gates—tall, veiled, and smiling.
"You found the page," she said calmly.
Liam raised his guard. "Who are you?"
"A librarian," she replied. "And a daughter of Kael."
Both Liam and Voice froze.
"Wait—what?!"
But the woman simply turned and pressed her palm to the lion-shaped carving on the palace wall.
Stone groaned.
The ground beneath them shifted.
And before their eyes, the floor of the Forbidden City began to split—revealing a massive spiral staircase descending deep beneath Beijing.
The woman turned her head slightly and said:
"Now let me show you what history was too afraid to remember."
They descended.
And as the darkness swallowed them whole—
Liam whispered, "Kael… who were you, really?"
To be continued...