"Seraphine."
The voice came from beneath the ground.
It was not loud.
It did not need to be.
The single word passed through the ruins of Valenne like a whisper carried by the earth itself.
Seraphine stood completely still.
Ayan remained beside her, one hand near his weapon.
"Don't answer."
She looked at him.
"I know."
The ground trembled again.
Dust fell from the broken buildings.
Somewhere beneath the ruins, stone scraped against stone.
Then the voice came again.
"Seraphine..."
This time, it sounded closer.
Seraphine's face became pale.
"I remember."
"What?"
"The door."
Ayan looked toward the remains of the old clinic.
"There?"
She nodded.
"There was a staircase beneath the clinic."
"How deep?"
"I don't know."
She closed her eyes.
"I was a child when I saw it."
Another tremor passed through the street.
Maren looked toward the cracked ground.
"We should leave."
Doctor Rowan shook his head.
"Not yet."
Maren stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because whatever is beneath this city already knows she's here."
He pointed toward Seraphine.
"If we leave now, we don't know what follows us."
Ayan understood.
The safest place might be the place where the danger had begun.
He looked toward the broken clinic.
"Then we go down."
Mira frowned.
"You're serious?"
"Yes."
Seraphine stepped forward.
"I'll lead."
Ayan immediately shook his head.
"No."
She looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because if you remember something dangerous..."
"You'll need someone beside you."
She smiled.
"You always say things like that."
"Because they're usually true."
She nodded.
"Fine."
Together, they moved toward the clinic.
...
The ruins were unstable.
They had to climb over broken stone and collapsed wooden beams.
Seraphine moved carefully.
Every few steps, she stopped.
"This was the waiting room."
She pointed toward a pile of rubble.
"Patients sat here."
She moved again.
"That was the medicine cabinet."
Another step.
"Mother's office."
She stopped.
Only a portion of the wall remained.
A faded symbol of the Lilies was still visible.
Seraphine touched it.
"I remember her standing here."
"What happened?"
"She was angry."
"At you?"
"No."
She smiled faintly.
"At the council."
"Why?"
"They wanted to close the clinic."
"Because of the plague?"
"Before it."
Ayan's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
Seraphine looked toward the ground.
"Because Mother had started investigating something."
"The black stone?"
She nodded.
"Yes."
Doctor Rowan crouched beside the wall.
"Then there may be records."
They searched.
After nearly an hour, Mira found a hidden compartment beneath the floor.
Inside was another bundle of papers.
Most were ruined.
But one survived.
Ayan unfolded it.
The handwriting was Elena's.
**Day 3 of Investigation.**
**The stone does not belong to any known mineral classification.**
**It reacts to living tissue.**
Ayan's expression darkened.
Another line.
**It responds strongest to Seraphine.**
Seraphine stared at the page.
"Why?"
Ayan continued reading.
**I have tested it against animals. Nothing.**
**Against ordinary patients. Nothing.**
**Against myself. Nothing.**
**But when Seraphine touched it...**
The next line had been scratched out.
Ayan looked closely.
There were several layers of ink.
Underneath, he could barely make out the words.
**It spoke.**
Maren's expression changed.
"What did it say?"
Ayan turned the page.
The next section was almost unreadable.
**I could not understand the language.**
**But Seraphine could.**
Seraphine suddenly whispered,
"It said my name."
Everyone turned toward her.
She stared at the black stone.
"It said..."
She swallowed.
"...'daughter.'"
Silence.
Doctor Rowan slowly looked at the stone.
"Then whoever is beneath this city..."
"Knows her."
Ayan nodded.
"And may have known her before she was born."
The ground trembled again.
This time, the floor cracked.
A section collapsed.
A staircase appeared beneath the rubble.
Seraphine stared down.
"I remember."
The stairs descended into darkness.
Ayan lit a torch.
"Then let's see what your mother was hiding."
...
The staircase was narrow.
The walls were made of black stone.
Unlike the ordinary ruins above...
These stones had not decayed.
No moss grew on them.
No cracks.
No dust.
It was as if the passage had been built yesterday.
Seraphine walked ahead.
"I remember this."
"What happened here?"
"Mother brought me down once."
"Why?"
"She wanted me to see something."
"What?"
"I don't know."
They continued.
After several minutes, the passage widened.
A series of doors lined the walls.
Each door had a symbol.
A circle.
A flower.
An eye.
A hand.
A crown.
A broken chain.
Doctor Rowan studied them.
"This place is older than Valenne."
"Much older."
Mira touched the wall.
"How old?"
"I don't know."
Ayan looked at the symbols.
One of them felt familiar.
The broken chain.
He had seen it before.
Not in Valenne.
In the Hollow.
On the carvings beneath the Memory Bloom.
His expression hardened.
"These people were connected to the flower."
Doctor Rowan looked at him.
"How?"
"I don't know yet."
Seraphine suddenly stopped.
She pointed toward the final door.
"That one."
The door was different.
It had no symbol.
Only a name.
**ELENA VALENNE**
Seraphine's breath caught.
"Mother."
Ayan approached.
The door opened before he touched it.
A cold wind rushed past them.
Inside was a small chamber.
There was a desk.
A chair.
Shelves.
And hundreds of documents.
It was Elena's hidden laboratory.
Doctor Rowan stared.
"This is impossible."
Maren looked around.
"Why?"
"This room wasn't recorded."
Ayan walked toward the desk.
Everything was preserved.
Glass bottles.
Medical instruments.
Books.
Notes.
A single lamp stood on the table.
Its flame was still burning.
Ayan stopped.
"How?"
Nobody answered.
Seraphine slowly approached the desk.
A book rested there.
Its cover was black.
On it was written:
**THE DAUGHTER**
She touched it.
The book opened.
A page appeared.
**If you are reading this, then Seraphine has returned.**
Seraphine's face went pale.
Ayan read the next line.
**And if Seraphine has returned, then the thing beneath Valenne has awakened.**
Doctor Rowan stepped closer.
"Keep reading."
The next page contained a warning.
**Do not trust the voice.**
**It will claim that it loves her.**
**It will claim that it created her.**
**It will claim that she belongs to it.**
Seraphine's hands began trembling.
Ayan placed his hand over hers.
She continued.
**All three statements contain truth.**
Silence.
"What does that mean?"
Maren asked.
Ayan turned the page.
There was a diagram.
A human figure.
A black sphere beneath its heart.
Six lines extended from the sphere.
The same six symbols they had seen in the Hollow.
Leaf.
Tear.
Eye.
Hand.
Heart.
Flame.
Beneath the diagram were three words.
**THE FIRST VESSEL**
Seraphine stared.
"I remember this."
"What?"
"Mother told me never to let anyone examine my heart."
Doctor Rowan's expression changed.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Then another memory surfaced.
Elena holding Seraphine's hand.
She was crying.
"Whatever happens..."
"Never let them open you."
Seraphine's breathing became rapid.
"Mother knew."
Ayan turned another page.
The final entry was dated seventeen years ago.
The handwriting was rushed.
**The plague is not spreading naturally.**
**Something beneath Valenne is calling to the infected.**
**The disease is not killing them.**
**It is changing them.**
The next line had been written so hard the parchment was torn.
**It is searching for vessels.**
Ayan's eyes widened.
He continued.
**Seraphine is the only one who survived complete exposure.**
**Therefore, she is not immune.**
A final sentence appeared.
**She is compatible.**
The lamp suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Then...
A voice spoke from beneath the floor.
"Mother was right."
Seraphine froze.
The voice was no longer distant.
It was directly beneath them.
"You are compatible."
The black stone in Ayan's pocket began glowing.
Seraphine stepped backward.
"What do you want?"
The voice answered.
"Nothing."
A pause.
Then—
"Everything."
The floor split open.
A massive eye appeared beneath the laboratory.
Not a human eye.
Not an animal eye.
A circular golden pupil surrounded by black flesh.
Mira raised her weapon.
Doctor Rowan shouted,
"Get back!"
The eye looked directly at Seraphine.
Then the voice whispered:
"Daughter."
The Bridge beneath Ayan's skin erupted with light.
The silver notebook appeared.
Its pages turned violently.
One page stopped.
Words formed.
**Do not allow her to touch it.**
Ayan grabbed Seraphine's hand.
But she wasn't looking at the eye.
She was staring at the black stone.
Because she finally remembered where she had seen it before.
Not in the laboratory.
Not in the Hollow.
Not beneath Valenne.
She had seen it...
Inside her own mother's body.
And Elena had not been studying the stone.
She had been trying to remove it.
From herself.