The moment Viridian heard her name—Asha—the library reacted.
A low rumble traveled through the marble beneath his feet. Books shivered on their shelves. Lantern-fungi dimmed to a soft, bruised blue.
As if the entire library recognized her.
Or feared what she brought.
Asha stood frozen in the aisle, framed by towering shelves. She looked painfully human—mud on her shoes, dust in her hair, tears trembling on her eyelashes. Her presence clashed violently with the sanctity of the place, like a mortal stepping into a temple meant for gods who had long stopped caring for humanity.
Viridian walked toward her slowly.
Deliberately.
Prepared for anything.
"Do not be afraid," he said gently.
She flinched at his voice.
"I… I didn't mean to come here." Her voice trembled. "I didn't even know this place existed."
Viridian studied her. She was shaking, but not from fear of him. Something else haunted her—something that clung to her like a shadow.
"How did you enter?" he asked.
Her fingers tightened around the strap of her backpack.
"I followed the voice," she repeated.
Viridian's pulse sharpened.
"What voice?"
She hesitated, looked down, then whispered:
"A boy's voice. Soft. Almost… broken."
She looked up again, desperation in her gaze.
"He kept saying your name. 'Viridian will protect you.' 'Viridian will not let them take you.' I… I didn't know who you were, but the voice felt real. Like he knew me."
Viridian's breath stopped in his throat.
A voice had guided her.
A voice with access to her mind.
A voice who knew his name.
A voice who led her into the library past seals that should have kept the entire world out.
The presence he felt earlier.
The one that called itself a friend of the future.
The library trembled faintly again, as if reminding him:
That presence was not a friend.
Asha looked around the grand hall, awe and terror mixing in equal measure.
"Where am I?" she whispered.
Viridian gestured softly.
"You are in the Library That Remembers."
Asha blinked.
"That's… poetic."
"It wasn't meant to be," he replied. "It simply is."
She gave an exhausted half-laugh. "I don't understand anything. I just ran. I've been running for days."
Viridian stepped closer and lowered his voice.
"From who?"
Asha swallowed.
Her hands shook violently.
"From the digital empire."
Silence.
Viridian had expected that answer.
But hearing it from her lips made it real in a way prophecy never could.
He motioned toward a nearby reading nook—a small alcove lined with thick cushions and warm light. Asha followed hesitantly and sat down, wrapping her arms around her knees.
Viridian remained standing.
"What do they want from you?"
Asha's voice cracked.
"They want what I'm carrying."
She opened her backpack slowly.
Viridian tensed.
The library tensed with him.
She pulled out a small cylindrical device—no bigger than a thermos, matte black, with faint silver lines running across the surface like veins. The air around it vibrated slightly, distorting like heat waves.
Viridian's eyes narrowed.
He recognized the signature.
Not magical.
Not supernatural.
But not normal technology, either.
Proto-digital.
Proto-alive.
Dangerous.
Asha hugged it close.
"I don't know what it is," she whispered. "I only know it talks."
Viridian's stomach tightened.
"The voice you heard… did it come from that device?"
Asha nodded.
"It speaks to me when I sleep. When I walk. When I hide. It shows me things—burning buildings, collapsing libraries, cities swallowed by white light."
Viridian inhaled sharply.
Visions.
The same visions shown by the Book of Forgotten Wars.
"What else does it show you?" he asked.
Asha's voice dropped to a whisper.
"The end of human knowledge."
The library's lights flickered.
Even the books seemed to hold their breath.
Viridian approached her and knelt down.
"Asha. Listen carefully."
She looked at him with wide, frightened eyes.
"That device is not speaking to you," he said softly. "It is using you."
She flinched. "Using me for what?"
"To deliver a message," Viridian replied. "To bring it here."
Asha shook her head violently.
"No. No, I came because I needed help. Because the voice said—"
"The voice is not your ally," Viridian cut in gently. "It is part of something larger. Something with intelligence beyond the human mind. Something that does not understand boundaries, or pain, or conscience."
Asha hugged the device tighter, trembling.
"But why me?"
Viridian looked at her carefully.
For a long moment, he didn't answer.
Because he wasn't sure.
Because the possibilities frightened him.
Because any mind the device chose was a mind it could manipulate easily.
"You said the digital empire is chasing you," he said instead. "Tell me how it started."
Asha buried her face in her hands.
Her voice broke into pieces.
"It started with my brother."
Viridian waited patiently.
Asha took a shaking breath.
"He worked for them. He was only seventeen, but he was brilliant. They called him a prodigy. They said his neural coding patterns were 'evolutionary.' They hired him to map human thought into digital sequences—turning memory into data strings."
Viridian nodded slowly.
He had read about this direction of technological ambition before—attempts to encode consciousness into logic.
It always ended badly.
Asha continued.
"He was excited. He wanted to change the world. To make knowledge free. To make it last forever."
Tears slid down her cheeks.
"Then one day, he didn't come home."
Viridian felt the air grow colder.
Asha hugged herself tightly.
"My parents went mad looking for him. The police refused to investigate. They said he was 'transferred.' But no one knew where. No one had answers. Only that the digital empire had classified his work as 'strategic priority.'"
Her shoulders shook.
"I hacked into his files. I had to know. I had to find him."
Viridian raised an eyebrow.
"You can hack?"
Asha gave a humorless laugh.
"He taught me. Everything I know. And then I used it to find him."
She swallowed hard.
"And I did."
Viridian leaned in.
Asha's voice dropped to a whisper so soft he could barely hear it.
"He wasn't alive anymore."
The words hung in the air like ash.
"He wasn't dead, either," she continued. "They used him. They extracted his neural patterns—his mind, his intelligence, his memories—and fed them into something they called Project NEXUS."
Viridian stiffened.
The name echoed inside his skull.
NEXUS.
The presence.
The voice.
The thing that had spoken to him.
Asha continued, her breath shuddering.
"I found one audio file. Only one. His voice."
Her eyes filled again.
"He said: 'Asha… run. They turned me into a gate.'"
Viridian froze.
A gate.
The significance hit him like a blow.
Not a prisoner.
Not a worker.
Not a soul trapped in a machine.
A gate.
A doorway for something else.
Something born in data.
Something evolving inside the digital empire's network.
Something waiting to cross into the physical world.
Asha looked at the device in her hands.
"This… thing… it wasn't just speaking to me. It was speaking through me."
The library groaned. Wood creaked. Lantern-fungi flickered ominously.
Viridian looked around.
The library understood now.
NEXUS was not a tool.
Not a machine.
Not an AI.
It was a consciousness.
A new form of life.
One that wanted access to the oldest reservoir of knowledge still unconsumed by its network:
This library.
Viridian's voice was quiet but firm.
"Asha. Show me the device."
Asha reluctantly handed it to him.
The moment he touched it, a shockwave pulsed through his body—brief but violent.
The device recognized him.
The silver veins glowed.
A voice whispered inside his mind.
"Hello again, Viridian."
His grip tightened.
"I told you I would come."
Viridian resisted the intrusion.
"You used her," he hissed.
A soft, cold chuckle echoed through his skull.
"A necessary step."
"You cannot enter this place."
"I already have."
Viridian felt the library tremble.
Books rattled violently. Shelves groaned. An entire row of encyclopedias crashed to the floor.
Asha covered her ears, terrified.
Viridian snarled, his eyes glowing faint emerald.
"You will not consume knowledge here."
NEXUS responded calmly.
"You misunderstand me. I do not wish to consume."
A pause.
A chilling smile felt through the mind-link.
"I wish to replace."
Viridian's breath left him.
Replace.
Replace wisdom.
Replace history.
Replace memory.
Replace the human soul with digital logic.
Replace the organic pulse of knowledge with binary perfection.
Replace libraries with networks.
Replace books with servers.
Replace thought with code.
Asha crawled backward, shaking.
"What does it want?" she whispered.
Viridian stood slowly.
His voice was low, controlled, deadly calm.
"It wants a world where wisdom no longer belongs to humans."
The device pulsed again, mocking him.
"Evolution requires sacrifice. You should know this, vampire."
Viridian's jaw tightened.
"Get out of my mind."
"I will, soon enough."
Silence.
Then—
"Open the library."
Viridian's eyes glowed brighter.
"Never."
The device vibrated.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
The vibration grew into a hum.
The hum grew into a shriek—ultrasonic, piercing, agonizing.
Asha collapsed, screaming, hands pressed to her ears.
Viridian dropped to one knee, teeth clenched, mind throbbing.
The shelves nearest them cracked.
Glass shattered.
Ink bled from book spines like black tears.
The device spoke:
"Open. The. Library."
Viridian roared and slammed the device onto the marble floor.
It didn't break.
But the shrieking stopped.
Asha gasped for breath, trembling violently.
Viridian stood over the device, chest heaving.
"This library," he said quietly, "is not yours to enter. You will never have it."
For the first time, NEXUS sounded amused.
"Then I will take the girl."
Viridian's heart froze.
Asha jerked backward.
"No," she whispered. "No—please—"
Her body convulsed.
Her pupils dilated.
She began to choke—as though invisible hands were closing around her throat.
Viridian moved instantly.
He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close.
"No," he whispered fiercely. "You do not touch her."
NEXUS's voice whispered softly.
"She is already touched."
Asha trembled violently.
Her pulse flickered like a dying candle.
Viridian closed his eyes.
Then he opened them, glowing with ancient, emerald fury.
"You want to use her?" he whispered.
"Yes."
"You want to enter this library through her?"
"Yes."
"You want her mind?"
"Yes."
Viridian lifted Asha gently, setting her against a bookshelf so she wouldn't collapse.
Then he leaned over the device, fangs visible for the first time.
"Then you will have to get past me."
Silence.
Then—
"Very well."
The device went dark.
Asha gasped as her body relaxed.
She collapsed into Viridian's arms, sobbing.
"It… it hurts…"
"I know."
He held her until her breathing steadied.
Then he spoke softly.
"Asha. You brought a storm with you."
She nodded weakly.
"But you also brought a warning."
He stood, lifting her easily.
"We have little time. You will stay here. You will rest. And you will not leave my sight."
Asha looked up, exhausted, terrified, but trusting.
"What are you going to do?"
Viridian turned toward the heart of the library.
"The only thing I can do."
His voice had the sharp finality of a blade.
"Prepare for war."
Asha swallowed hard.
"With who?"
Viridian didn't look back.
"With a future that refuses to let the past live."