Chapter 456: Because He Wasn’t the First

The next morning, Vermillion was still functioning.

Damon considered that a victory.

During the night, no new orders had emerged from the original archive, no agents had died because of the authentication marks, and all twenty-four patients had remained stable. The six who had undergone Phase Three still required constant monitoring, but Mereth had managed to reduce the artificial circulation in one of them without causing any drop in vital signs. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to prove that the dependency created by Serik’s procedure didn’t have to be permanent.

Damon found Aria asleep over a table on Level Zero, her head resting between two notebooks.

He knocked twice on the wood.

She opened her eyes.

"I’m awake."

"Now you are."

Aria straightened and looked around as though she needed to remember where she was.

"What time is it?"

"Past the time normal people wake up."

"That means nothing."

"Agreed."

Aurelia was sitting on the other side of the room, still reading Vaelor’s records. Unlike Aria, she didn’t appear to have slept at all.

Damon approached.

"Find anything else?"

"Yes."

"Good or bad?"

"Information."

"I’m learning to be suspicious when you answer like that."

Aurelia turned one of the ancient tablets toward him.

"Vaelor wasn’t the only one from your lineage to survive the first standardization."

Damon looked at her.

"How many?"

"We don’t know."

Aurelia showed him a sequence of records. The first standardizers had monitored several populations over generations. Vaelor’s ancestral lineage appeared in at least seven different regions, but later records stopped treating it as a single species.

Instead, separate classifications began to appear.

Hematophagous predators.

Emotional absorption organisms.

Thermal adaptation lineages.

Entities capable of converting ambient spiritual energy.

Damon understood.

"They divided everyone."

"Gradually."

"And then forgot they came from the same thing."

"Probably. Some divisions became so stable that they began producing offspring only within their own groups."

Aria, now genuinely awake, approached them.

"There are records suggesting that certain lineages continued interbreeding for some time."

Damon looked at her.

"Vampires and incubi."

"Perhaps not under those names at the time, but yes."

"So my existence isn’t as absurd as it seemed."

Aria paused.

"It remains statistically unusual."

"Thank you."

Aurelia closed the record.

"The important point is something else. Vaelor didn’t simply want to recover the ancestral condition. He believed the division of the lineages had reduced their ability to survive."

"That matches what Eir showed us."

"Yes. But he made a mistake by trying to solve everything at once."

Damon rested one hand on the table.

"He wanted a final version."

"Exactly."

Aria showed him another note left by Vaelor.

He had described repeated attempts to create a structure capable of automatically choosing which adaptations should remain in each organism. The original intention had been to prevent incompatibilities. Over time, however, the criteria had become increasingly rigid.

Aurelia pointed to a line.

"Look."

Damon read.

UNPREDICTED VARIATION REPRESENTS A RISK OF INSTABILITY.

The next line had been written later.

INSTABILITY MUST BE CORRECTED BEFORE PROPAGATION.

And another.

INDIVIDUAL CORRECTION IS INSUFFICIENT WITHOUT LINEAGE CONTROL.

Damon exhaled.

"That’s how it happened."

"Probably," Aurelia replied. "He started by trying to prevent people from dying because of incompatibility. He ended up concluding that he needed to decide which variations were allowed to continue existing."

Aria closed the notebook.

"Then Vaelor died, but those criteria remained in the protocol."

"And every bearer added others."

"Yes."

Damon stared at the records.

There didn’t need to be another invincible entity hidden behind all of it. The origin was worse precisely because it was understandable. A practical decision transformed into a rule. A rule transformed into a system. A system repeated long enough to seem natural.

"Copy everything that doesn’t involve individual medical records," he said.

Aria raised an eyebrow.

"I was already doing that."

"Then keep going."

"Excellent contribution."

Damon left before she decided to record that too.

He found Ester in the infirmary. She was finishing her examination of Neria, who could already remain standing with the help of a wooden support frame. Liora stood beside her, watching every movement as though she expected her sister to collapse at any moment.

"I’m not going to fall," Neria said.

"You almost fell five minutes ago."

"I slipped."

"You were standing still."

Neria fell silent.

Damon pointed at Liora.

"She’s learning quickly."

Ester continued the examination.

"Circulation stable. No loss of sensation. The roots are responding normally to nourishment."

"Can we leave?" Neria asked.

"We can start planning our departure."

"That’s different."

"Yes."

Damon leaned against the wall.

"How long?"

Ester put away the needles.

"If we can arrange transportation that doesn’t require her to walk long distances, today."

Liora immediately looked at Damon.

He raised his hands.

"I’m not the one you need to convince."

"Transfer doesn’t reach here," Neria reminded him.

"I know. Varos is checking whether there are vehicles capable of crossing the route to Eir’s region."

Ester shook her head.

"Vehicles will attract attention."

"Then a stretcher."

Neria grimaced.

"No."

"You were trapped inside a cylinder for one hundred and seventeen years, and now you’ve decided dignity begins with refusing a stretcher?"

"Yes."

Damon nodded.

"Respect."

Ester looked at both of them.

"She’s going on a stretcher if necessary."

Neria gave up arguing.

Varos arrived a few minutes later carrying three documents and an expression that made it clear he hadn’t slept much either.

"We have an administrative problem."

Damon sighed.

"I prefer monsters."

"There are forty-three agents in Vermillion. Twenty-nine accepted my provisional orders. Eight said they only recognize Serik as their authority. Six want to leave immediately."

"Can they?"

"After we examine their marks, yes. I have no grounds to keep them imprisoned if they didn’t participate in the covert operations."

Damon nodded.

"Agreed."

Varos looked slightly surprised.

"You expected me to disagree?"

"You entered this facility prepared to fight everyone."

"I was prepared to fight anyone who tried to imprison Liora. I have no interest in collecting Order employees."

Varos handed him one of the documents.

"The eight who refused my orders want to speak with Serik."

"Let them."

Ester looked at Damon.

"Just like that?"

"If his implant is still blocked, talking won’t hurt."

Varos agreed.

"I want two representatives from the medical team present and someone from outside the Order."

Damon pointed at Ester.

"Her."

"Why me?"

"Because no one is going to try manipulating a conversation in front of someone carrying twenty needles."

"That logic is terrible."

"It works."

Ester agreed anyway.

The meeting took place in a common room, with no equipment connected to the archive. Serik remained seated with his arms restrained, but Varos removed the straps around his ankles so the situation wouldn’t look like an improvised execution.

The eight agents entered together.

One of them, a tall man with gray hair, went straight to the point.

"Director, the commander claims you used authentication marks to kill members of the Order."

Serik answered without hesitation.

"Yes."

The room fell silent.

Another agent asked:

"Without an internal trial?"

"A security breach required immediate containment."

"Why were we never informed that the marks had that function?"

"Because knowledge of that capability would reduce its effectiveness."

Damon watched their faces.

Their loyalty didn’t disappear immediately.

But something changed.

The gray-haired man continued.

"And the woman kept in the laboratory?"

"Neria is a pre-network biological manifestation used in essential research."

"Did she consent?"

Serik hesitated.

"Not according to modern criteria."

Ester crossed her arms.

Damon almost smiled.

The agent didn’t.

"Then no."

Serik looked at him.

"The results obtained saved hundreds of lives."

"I asked whether she consented."

"No."

This time, no one spoke for several seconds.

Varos didn’t interfere.

It was important for them to hear it directly.

A woman among the agents asked:

"Would Phase Three install the protocol in the patients?"

"Functional components necessary for monitoring."

"Without informing them."

"The patients consented to structural restoration."

She looked at the others.

Damon realized that Serik still believed his own justifications. He wasn’t trying to hide the facts because he didn’t consider them capable of changing the conclusion.

Perhaps that was the clearest demonstration of the problem.

The gray-haired man turned to Varos.

"I want access to the records."

"You’ll have it."

"And I want no execution orders restored to the marks."

"They’ve already been suspended."

"Permanently."

Varos nodded.

"That is my intention."

Serik spoke.

"You do not possess the authority to alter the Order’s fundamental protocols."

Varos looked at him.

"Then the Order will need to decide whether it considers killing its own agents without informing them that it was possible a fundamental protocol."

None of the eight defended Serik.

The meeting ended shortly afterward.

There was no dramatic declaration of rebellion. Five of the agents agreed to remain under Varos’s provisional command until a full review could be conducted. Two requested to be relieved of duty. The last asked for permission to leave Vermillion as soon as Ester confirmed that his mark was safe.

Damon found that more useful than vows.

Early that afternoon, Varos finally organized the departure for the Valley. They would use two reinforced stretchers, one for Neria and another for medical equipment and nourishment. Four agents volunteered to help with transportation until they reached the region where Eir would be able to open paths for them again.

Serik wouldn’t be going.

Neria had explicitly requested that he not be taken to the Valley, and Eir had confirmed through Liora that she didn’t want to receive him.

"So what happens to him?" Xue Mei asked while adjusting her backpack.

Varos answered, "He remains detained in Vermillion while we gather enough representatives from the Order to review what happened."

Damon looked at him.

"No mark, no protocol installed in someone else, and no improvised transfer."

"Agreed."

"If he starts dying?"

Varos immediately understood.

"There will be no automatic transfer."

Serik probably wasn’t going to die anytime soon, but Damon wanted that established before leaving.

Aria and Aurelia carried copies of the historical records. The medical documents would remain in Vermillion under Mereth’s responsibility. The sample taken from Neria would travel inside a sealed box, separated from any Order equipment.

When Neria was placed on the stretcher, she complained for approximately twenty seconds.

Ester ignored all of it.

Liora walked beside her sister.

Damon led the way out through the same ancient passage they had used to enter. This time, there was no need to hide their movements. Varos opened the internal access points and disabled only the barriers blocking their route, preserving the medical systems.

By the time they reached the outside of the mountains, the sun was already low.

Neria stopped complaining.

She stared at the sky.

Damon noticed after a few seconds.

"One hundred and seventeen years?"

She nodded.

"I saw the sky a few times through windows."

"Not the same thing."

"No."

Liora held her hand.

Neria took a deep breath.

The cold mountain air seemed to bother her at first, but then she relaxed.

"It’s different."

"From what?" Xue Mei asked.

"From what I remember."

Aurelia replied, "A century changes quite a lot."

Neria looked at her.

"For you, perhaps."

Liora pointed toward the distant tree line.

"Mom is there."

They were still far from Eir’s core, but they had already reached the region where small ancient roots appeared beneath the ground.

Neria closed her eyes.

Nothing happened for several seconds.

Then a thin root gently broke through the soil beside the stretcher.

It didn’t try to wrap around her.

It merely touched the side of her hand.

Neria started crying before she even touched it.

Liora knelt beside her.

The root remained still.

Waiting.

Damon watched in silence.

After one hundred and seventeen years, Eir still asked.

Neria placed her hand over the root.

The entire ground vibrated.

There was no explosion of energy or sudden transformation. The vegetation merely reacted in sequence, leaves moving hundreds of meters away as the connection spread through the forest.

Neria closed her eyes.

The small plant-like veins in her arms turned green.

Liora touched the root as well.

Eir’s voice emerged through the surrounding trees.

"Mine."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

Liora looked at him.

"She’s emotional."

"I figured."

The voice came again.

"Neria."

The woman on the stretcher tightened her grip on the root.

"Mother."

Eir didn’t try to restore her.

She didn’t alter the filaments that still left marks on her body or erase one hundred and seventeen years of changes.

She simply maintained the connection.

Damon realized that this might be the most important difference between the entity Aurelia had described in the ancient records and the one that existed now.

Eir had learned that returning someone to an earlier state didn’t necessarily mean helping them.

After some time, the leaves moved again.

"Damon."

He looked toward the nearest tree.

"I knew this part was coming."

Ester immediately became alert.

"Conversation."

"I remember."

Eir replied:

"Conversation."

Damon exhaled.

"Great. At least one of you trusts me."

Ester smiled.

"She didn’t say that."

A path began to open between the trees.

Not toward the clearing where they had first found Eir.

Deeper.

Neria looked at him.

"Mom wants to show you where Vaelor was."

Damon became serious.

"Why?"

The answer came directly from the leaves.

"Because he wasn’t the first."

Damon looked at Aurelia.

She was already holding Aria’s notebook.

Aria snatched it from her hand.

"That’s mine."

"I was just going to open it."

"Get another one."

Damon closed his eyes for a moment.

Then began following the new path.

At least this time, no one was trying to reorganize his body.

Yet.