The seventh symbol illuminated.
For a moment, the golden key became so bright that Rin could no longer see his own hand.
Then the light disappeared.
The landscape beyond the archive remained.
A white tree stood beneath a pale sky. Countless figures gathered around it, some walking, some talking, some simply sitting beneath its branches.
They looked ordinary.
They looked alive.
And none of them appeared to know that their existence had been erased.
Rin stared at them.
"Are they real?"
Orien answered calmly.
"They were."
Kaelith's hand tightened around Rin's.
"What does that mean?"
"It means they belonged to a world that existed before Aelion created this one. A world with its own history, its own Gods, and its own choices."
The other Aelion was not physically present, but his voice echoed through the golden key.
That world was destroyed.
Orien glanced at the key.
"Destroyed is an interesting word. It suggests there was nothing left."
He turned toward the landscape.
