Chapter 457: The Time to Change

The path Eir opened led into a region that even Liora didn’t seem to recognize.

The trees grew farther apart as the group continued, replaced by short, thick trunks whose roots covered almost the entire surface of the ground. The four Order agents carrying Neria’s stretcher had to slow down several times, but the roots withdrew before they were forced to lift the woman or tilt the stretcher too far.

Ester noticed after the third time.

"She’s preparing the terrain for Neria."

Liora nodded.

"Mom knows she can’t walk."

Neria, lying on the stretcher, sighed.

"Everyone knows."

"You complained quite a lot," Damon replied.

"Because everyone keeps talking about it."

"It’s difficult to ignore when four people are carrying you."

Neria turned her face away.

Xue Mei laughed.

Damon continued walking, although he had to shorten his stride when he felt an unpleasant pressure in his ribs. His recovery had progressed considerably since the fight against Caelum, but three days of crossing mountains, entering ancient facilities, and dealing with archives that tried to reprogram people hadn’t exactly contributed to the rest Ester had recommended.

She noticed.

"It hurts."

"No."

"You touched your ribs."

"I’m checking if they’re still there."

"They are."

"Excellent."

Ester approached and pressed two fingers against the side of his torso.

Damon stopped.

"That was unnecessary."

"Now I know exactly where it hurts."

"You could’ve asked."

"I did."

"I lied."

"That’s why I pressed."

He couldn’t find a sufficiently good response and resumed walking.

After approximately half an hour, the vegetation changed again.

The ground descended into a broad depression resembling a natural basin. At its center stood a semicircular rock formation surrounded by trees so ancient that their trunks had grown around the stones.

Aria stopped immediately.

"This was built."

Aurelia examined the arrangement of the rocks.

"Not by the Architects."

"No," Eir replied through the leaves.

Damon descended the last few meters to the bottom of the depression.

"Vaelor was here?"

"Yes."

"But he wasn’t the first."

"No."

The root near Neria moved across the ground and touched one of the stones.

Nothing happened to the group.

Instead, the surface of the rock changed.

Layers of moss pulled away, revealing deep marks preserved in the stone. They weren’t words. They looked like impressions left by hands, arms, and bodies positioned against the surface.

Aria approached.

"How many?"

Eir answered:

"Forty-two."

Damon looked at the entire formation.

"Forty-two people came asking to be restored?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"To survive."

The central stone darkened.

Thin roots emerged between the cracks and formed a representation similar to those Eir had shown them before. This time, however, there weren’t dozens of species.

There was only one lineage.

The same ancestral structure that existed beneath Damon’s vampiric and incubus systems.

But those organisms were in very different conditions.

Some had portions of their circulation blocked.

Others displayed structures implanted by the first standardizers.

Two appeared to be dying.

And some still retained much of the original system.

Aurelia stepped closer.

"This was during the first standardization."

"Yes."

Aria looked toward Eir.

"These people came to you because they were being modified?"

"Some."

"The others?"

"Were fleeing."

"From the standardizers?"

"Yes."

Damon observed the forty-two figures.

"How many asked to return to their previous state?"

Eir answered:

"Thirty-one."

"And you did it?"

"For some."

Ester immediately became attentive.

"How many survived?"

There was a pause.

"Nineteen."

Silence fell over the depression.

Damon looked toward the nearest tree.

"Twelve died."

"Yes."

"Because the restoration failed?"

"No."

Eir tried to find the words.

"Because the world had already changed."

The representation showed one of the bodies being almost completely restored. Ancient channels reappeared, implanted structures vanished, and circulation returned to its ancestral pattern.

For a few moments, everything worked.

Then the organism began to fail.

Environmental energy passed through its channels too quickly. Some tissues couldn’t regulate the amount being absorbed. The body reacted as though exposed to conditions against which it no longer possessed any defenses.

Aurelia understood.

"Standardization had already altered the relationship between organisms and the environment."

"Yes."

"So returning completely didn’t mean returning to a world compatible with that structure."

"Yes."

Damon ran a hand over his face.

"Did Vaelor know this when he asked for complete restoration?"

"Knew part."

"But he tried anyway."

"Yes."

Aria was writing rapidly.

"The eleven who didn’t ask for restoration... what did they do?"

Eir changed the representation.

Eleven figures remained.

Some retained their implants.

Others possessed ancient structures that were only partially functional.

One of them caught Damon’s attention.

The figure was female, tall, and apparently human, but her internal circulation showed three distinct systems working together. One absorbed spiritual energy. Another reacted to temperature. The third regulated ingested organic matter.

None completely dominated the organism.

Damon pointed.

"That one."

Eir answered:

"Maerin."

"Was she like Vaelor?"

"Same lineage."

"Did she ask for anything?"

"Yes."

"What?"

The answer took a moment.

"Time."

Damon frowned.

"Time for what?"

Eir showed him.

Maerin wasn’t restored.

Instead, she remained in that region for years.

Eir periodically recorded her condition. Small changes began appearing within her organism. One ancient channel reopened on its own.

Then another.

But others remained closed.

Whenever a particular structure caused incompatibility, the body didn’t insist on it. It created alternative pathways.

Aurelia knelt beside the representation.

"She recovered the ability to adapt."

"Part."

"Without restoration?"

"Yes."

Damon went still.

Aria understood before the others.

"She didn’t recover the ancestral state."

"No."

"She only recovered the ability to keep changing."

"Yes."

The phrase Vaelor had used in the archive immediately came to Damon’s mind.

Preserving the model was insufficient.

The capacity for change had to be preserved.

"Did Vaelor know about Maerin?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Then he had an example."

"Yes."

"Why didn’t he do the same thing?"

Eir didn’t answer immediately.

Neria spoke before her mother.

"Because it took time."

Everyone looked at her.

Neria continued:

"Vaelor was already dying when he returned for the last time. Maybe he had months. Maybe less."

Eir confirmed.

"Little."

Damon understood.

"He couldn’t wait years for his body to learn on its own."

"No."

Aurelia studied Maerin’s figure.

"How long did it take her?"

"Seven years."

Damon let out a short laugh.

"Of course."

Ester looked at him.

"What’s the problem?"

"Nothing. It’s just much less convenient than touching a tree and waking up transformed."

"That’s an advantage."

"For you."

"Especially for you."

Damon didn’t argue.

Aria was still studying the records.

"Did Maerin have descendants?"

Eir answered:

"Yes."

"Does that lineage still exist?"

"I don’t know."

Aria looked frustrated.

"You lost contact?"

"They left."

"When?"

"Much later."

The representation showed an older Maerin leaving the region accompanied by five people. Some were children.

Damon stared at them.

"So there could be descendants out there."

"There could," Aurelia replied. "But after thousands of years, that doesn’t mean they still carry the same structure in a recognizable form."

Eir added:

"Some carry pieces."

Damon looked toward the tree.

"Like me."

"Yes."

He waited.

Nothing else happened.

"You brought me here to tell me I don’t need restoration."

"Yes."

"This could’ve just been a conversation."

The leaves moved.

"You needed to see."

Damon exhaled.

"Fair."

Ester approached Maerin’s representation.

"I want to understand the medical part. Did her body recover those channels because it needed them, or did Eir stimulate something?"

"She lived."

"That isn’t a sufficient answer."

Liora almost smiled.

Eir tried again.

"Food. Environment. Injuries. Energy. Choices."

Ester became more interested.

"So normal changes."

"Yes."

"Without external manipulation."

"Yes."

Aurelia looked at Damon.

"That might explain what has already happened to you."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Which part?"

"Your ancient structure started appearing more clearly after your organism was forced to deal with different systems. Vampire, incubus, root, celestial body, artificial adaptations..."

"And nearly dying repeatedly," Ester added.

"That too."

Damon looked back at Maerin.

"So my body might be doing this on its own."

"Maybe," Aurelia replied.

Eir corrected her:

"Already is."

Damon became serious.

"How do you know?"

The stone changed.

His own representation appeared.

Damon recognized the overlapping systems he had seen before, but now Eir highlighted three small connections that hadn’t existed when he first arrived in the Valley.

One near the heart.

Another crossing the abdominal region.

The third near the base of the spine.

Ester immediately stepped closer.

"Is this recent?"

"Yes."

"How recent?"

"After the changes."

"Which changes?"

Eir showed a simple sequence.

The false Seed.

The root received from Xue Lian.

The changes made by Adaptation.

The removal of the artificial systems.

And finally, his current state.

The three connections had emerged gradually throughout the entire process.

Damon watched in silence.

"So none of them created this."

"No."

"But they forced my body to use it."

"Yes."

Aurelia added:

"Like muscles that existed but weren’t being recruited."

"A strange comparison."

"But functional."

Damon looked at Ester.

She was already examining his pulse.

"Don’t start."

"Stay still."

"I don’t feel anything different."

"Good."

Eir spoke:

"Don’t need to do."

Damon looked toward the tree.

"Do what?"

"Restore."

"I’d already decided not to."

"Good."

Ester immediately smiled.

Damon pointed at her.

"No."

"I didn’t say anything."

"Your face did."

Neria laughed for the first time since they had left Vermillion.

The sound made Liora look at her in surprise before she started laughing too.

Damon left them to it.

Aria, however, still had questions.

"What happened to the other ten who didn’t ask for restoration and weren’t Maerin?"

Eir showed different outcomes.

Some accepted the standardizers’ modifications.

Two chose to remove only specific structures.

One died years later from causes Eir couldn’t explain.

Three remained hybrids between the ancestral state and the standardized models.

There wasn’t a single answer.

That seemed to be precisely the point.

Aurelia stared at the records.

"The first standardizers treated variation as a problem because they needed predictability. But these organisms survived in different ways."

"Yes," Eir replied.

Damon looked at the stone formation.

"So Vaelor saw all of this and still decided to create a system to choose for everyone."

"Yes."

"Because he didn’t trust time."

"Yes."

"Or people."

This time Eir took longer to answer.

"Later, no."

The answer was enough.

The group remained in the depression for some time while Aria copied the information and Aurelia compared Maerin’s structures with the Vermillion records. Ester asked Eir for a more detailed representation of the three newly active connections in Damon’s body, but made it clear that she didn’t want any changes made.

Eir respected that.

When they finished, Maerin’s figure disappeared from the stone.

Damon put his hands in his pockets.

"So what’s the recommendation?"

Eir answered:

"Live."

He stared at the tree.

"That is probably the most irritatingly vague recommendation I’ve ever received."

"Eat."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Sleep."

Ester started laughing.

"Train."

"Now that’s better."

"Heal."

Ester pointed toward the tree.

"That part."

Damon sighed.

"You two have teamed up."

Liora replied:

"My mother likes her."

"Naturally."

Eir continued:

"Observe."

Damon became serious again.

"That I can accept."

He wouldn’t restore the ancestral structure.

He wouldn’t ask Eir to choose which parts should return.

But he also wouldn’t ignore what his own body was already doing.

If those three connections continued developing naturally, Aria, Aurelia, and Ester could monitor the process without forcing it.

It was slower.

Much slower.

But after Vermillion, that seemed like an advantage.

When they began leaving the depression, Eir opened a second path for Neria, shorter and flatter, leading directly toward the core of the forest.

Before following, Damon looked one last time at the marks of the forty-two people in the stone.

Vaelor hadn’t been the first.

Nor had he been the only one.

And, more importantly, he hadn’t been the only one to find an answer.

He had simply chosen the fastest one.

Damon turned and followed the others.

For now, he didn’t need to discover what his ancestral lineage could turn him into.

He only needed to prevent anyone—including himself—from deciding the answer before his own body had time to find it.