"A signal does not belong to the one who sends it. Once released, it belongs to everyone who can hear it."
Aurion Citadel had become unusually quiet.
The delegation remained in the outer receiving hall.
They had arrived expecting answers.
Instead, they had been met with guarded doors and careful questions.
Thomarion stood at the head of the hall.
Orinthal Vael stood beside him.
Neither man appeared impressed by the visitors' demands.
The delegation leader finally stepped forward.
"My name is Ser Caldris. I speak for the city of Elyndra."
Thomarion studied him.
"Elyndra."
"Yes."
"You heard our Machine Core."
Caldris nodded.
"We heard a signal travel through the ancient network."
One of his engineers activated a small device.
A projection appeared.
A wave of energy spread outward from Aurion.
It passed through mountains.
Across deserts.
Through dormant relay stations.
Then farther still.
Several faint points appeared.
Thomarion's expression changed.
"Those are cities."
Caldris nodded.
"Some are."
"Some are only ruins."
"And some..."
He looked at the projection.
"...are beginning to wake."
The Question of Technomagik
Orinthal Vael stepped forward.
"You called it a Technomagik signal."
Caldris looked at him.
"Because that is what it is."
Orinthal frowned.
"We called it the Machine Core."
Caldris smiled slightly.
"Then your people have forgotten what you possess."
Thomarion's eyes narrowed.
"Explain."
Caldris looked toward the enormous doors leading deeper into Aurion.
"Your Core is not simply machinery."
"It is an ancient Technomagik heart."
Silence.
Thomarion did not answer immediately.
"We have used the Core for years."
"You have used it."
Caldris corrected.
"But you have not understood it."
Orinthal's hand moved slightly toward his weapon.
"Be careful."
Caldris raised both hands.
"We did not come to threaten Aurion."
"Then why demand access?"
"Because the signal means something has awakened."
A City That Heard
Caldris opened another projection.
This time, it showed Elyndra.
The city floated above a vast valley.
Massive platforms of crystal and bronze suspended entire districts in the air.
Airships moved between towers.
Technomagik engines beneath the city glowed like artificial suns.
Thomarion was cautious.
Caldris continued.
"Elyndra has studied the ancient network for generations."
"When your Core awakened, our instruments detected something we had never seen before."
"What?"
"Synchronization."
Thomarion frowned.
"Synchronization with what?"
Caldris looked at the projection.
"Other Cores."
The First Problem
Orinthal stepped closer.
"How many?"
"We don't know."
"Then how did you find Aurion?"
"Because your signal was the strongest."
Caldris paused.
"And because it was different."
"Different how?"
"The Core did not simply activate."
"It called."
Thomarion's expression hardened.
"Called whom?"
Caldris looked toward the ceiling.
"Everyone."
The Machine Core
Thomarion finally turned toward the inner Citadel.
"You're not seeing the Core."
Caldris stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because we don't know enough about it."
One of the visitors objected.
"But you activated it."
"We did."
"Then you must understand it."
Thomarion looked directly at him.
"That is exactly why you aren't seeing it."
The room became silent.
Thomarion continued.
"We have already learned that the ancient machines are not as simple as we believed."
"Some remember."
"Some respond to people."
"Some contain knowledge."
"And some..."
His voice lowered.
"...should never be activated."
Caldris nodded slowly.
"Then you have begun to understand."
A Stranger's Knowledge
A young woman stepped forward from the delegation.
She wore a dark blue Technomagik coat covered with small crystal instruments.
She looked toward Thomarion.
"May I ask something?"
Thomarion nodded.
"Who activated the Core?"
"Why?"
"Because it matters."
Thomarion answered:
"Our people."
The woman looked surprised.
"One person?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Thomarion paused.
"Several."
The woman exchanged a glance with Caldris.
"That should not be possible."
Orinthal immediately noticed.
"You know something."
She hesitated.
"Our records say that an ancient Core requires a compatible resonance."
"Resonance from what?"
"Living Technomagik."
Thomarion frowned.
"We don't call it that."
The woman smiled faintly.
"That's because Aurion forgot the word."
A New Word
The hall became strangely quiet.
Lirion's name was not present.
Neither was Sorion's.
Neither was Dorion's.
The expedition was still far from Aurion.
Yet the visitors had brought something the Citadel did not possess.
A name.
Technomagik.
Thomarion repeated it quietly.
"Technomagik."
Caldris nodded.
"Technology shaped through magical energy."
"Magic directed through technological systems."
"The two are not separate."
Orinthal looked toward the inner Citadel.
"Then the Core..."
"Is both."
The Visitors Ask Again
Caldris stepped forward.
"Allow us to see it."
Thomarion shook his head.
"No."
Caldris looked frustrated.
"Lord Thomarion, your Core has already announced itself to half the ancient network."
"That does not give you permission."
"We can help you."
"Perhaps."
"Then why refuse?"
Thomarion looked directly at him.
"Because I don't know whether you're here to help Aurion..."
He paused.
"...or claim what we possess."
Caldris said nothing.
The silence answered enough.
Thomarion turned away.
"Until I know the difference, the Core remains closed to visitors."
Meanwhile — The Expedition
Far from Aurion...
Sorion walked quietly beside the others.
Lirion was still thinking about Veyrath.
"I can't stop thinking about their technology."
Dorion smiled.
"You nearly forgot to eat because of it."
"I was studying."
"You were staring."
"There is a difference."
Bardin laughed.
"He's right."
Sorion looked ahead.
The road stretched toward another region of the Lost Cities.
They had left Veyrath behind.
But the experience had changed them.
They no longer looked at every ancient machine as something to repair.
Sometimes...
they first asked why it had been built.
The Next Signal
That evening, the expedition established camp near an abandoned relay station.
Lirion inspected the structure.
"This one is dead."
Sorion approached.
He placed his hand against the stone.
"No."
Lirion looked at him.
"What?"
Sorion listened.
"Something is moving."
The ground trembled.
A tiny crystal beneath the ruins illuminated.
Then another.
Then another.
A line of ancient lights stretched across the darkness.
Lirion's eyes widened.
"The network."
Sorion looked toward the distant horizon.
Another light appeared.
Then another.
Then another.
The expedition stood silently.
The Lost Cities were beginning to answer Aurion's signal.
Back at Aurion
Night had fallen.
The delegation had been given rooms within the outer Citadel.
They were not prisoners.
But they were not free to wander.
Thomarion stood on a balcony overlooking Aurion.
Orinthal Vael joined him.
"They're hiding something," Orinthal said.
Thomarion nodded.
"So are we."
Orinthal looked toward the Machine Core.
"Do you think they're telling the truth?"
"About Technomagik?"
"Yes."
Thomarion was silent.
Then:
"I think they know more than they have told us."
A faint pulse came from deep inside the Citadel.
THUM.
Thomarion looked toward the Core.
This time...
the pulse was different.
It was answering something.
Not from within Aurion.
From somewhere far away.
The City That Called
The visitors' instruments suddenly activated.
One after another.
Across the sleeping Citadel, small crystals began glowing.
Caldris rushed from his room.
"What's happening?"
His engineer stared at the instruments.
"We're receiving another signal."
"From Aurion?"
"No."
"Then where?"
The engineer turned toward the window.
"I don't know."
The instrument projected a map.
A single point appeared beyond the known territories.
Then a second.
Then a third.
Caldris stared.
"There are more of them."
His voice became quiet.
"The Lost Cities are waking."
Thomarion stood beneath the night sky.
He could not see the distant cities.
He could not hear their machines.
But somewhere beyond the horizon...
ancient Cores were awakening one after another.
The expedition had thought they were searching for forgotten cities.
They were beginning to realize something else.
The cities were searching for them too.
And Aurion Citadel...
had become the signal at the center of it all.
The Expedition Rest
The expedition did not leave immediately.
After everything they had witnessed beneath the frozen civilization, the travelers needed time.
Time to repair their equipment.
Time to recover.
Time to understand what they had learned.
And, perhaps most importantly, time to decide where they would go next.
The answer came from the map.
The ancient records pointed toward the eastern frontier of Borealis.
Beyond the Frostfang Mountains.
Beyond the last settlements.
Beyond the final surviving road.
Toward a place the Nordfrost people called the Dead End Sea.
The name had been given generations ago.
The ancient Founder's Road simply stopped there.
No bridge.
No tunnel.
No mountain pass.
Only an enormous frozen sea stretching toward the horizon.
The expedition traveled for three days through increasingly empty country.
The land became quieter with every kilometer.
Snow-covered forests slowly disappeared.
The mountains flattened into long frozen ridges.
The wind became stronger.
There were no farms.
No villages.
No travelers.
Only the occasional remains of ancient road markers, half buried beneath snow.
The expedition was approaching the edge of the known world.
At least...
the world they knew.
[End of Episode 65]