The mountains opened.
Something emerged from beneath them.
It had no body that Aurelia could understand.
At first she saw wings.
Then hands.
Then faces.
Hundreds of faces appearing and disappearing across a shape made from darkness and stars.
Every time she looked at it, it became something different.
The boy whispered:
"They don't have names."
Veyne kept his eyes on the creature.
"Then what do we call them?"
The boy answered:
"The Before."
Aurelia felt a strange pressure inside her mind.
Memories that weren't hers began appearing.
Worlds before worlds.
Stars before stars.
Civilizations that had existed and vanished before humanity had ever imagined them.
And through all of them was the same pattern.
Creation.
Fear.
Control.
Destruction.
Then silence.
Aurelia staggered.
Veyne caught her before she fell.
"Stay with me."
She looked at him.
"I saw them."
"What?"
"The beginning."
The boy nodded.
"They were here before the first world."
Aurelia stared at the creature.
"Why did they create the kings?"
"They didn't create them."
The boy paused.
"The kings created themselves."
Aurelia understood.
The kings were not servants.
They were reactions.
Every world that became afraid created something to control it.
Every Aurelia who became afraid created another version of herself.
Every civilization that feared chaos created a ruler.
Every ruler eventually became a prison.
The cycle had not been created by one person.
It had been created by fear itself.
The creature spoke.
"RETURN."
Aurelia stood.
"No."
The word echoed.
The creature stopped.
Veyne looked at her.
The boy looked terrified.
Aurelia stepped forward.
"You don't get to decide anymore."
The creature's many faces turned toward her.
"ALL THINGS RETURN."
"Not us."
Aurelia looked at Veyne.
He understood immediately.
They had spent countless lives repeating the same story.
But this time there was no predetermined ending.
No reset.
No architect.
No king.
No throne.
Only choice.
The creature moved.
The world shook.
Veyne raised his weapon.
Aurelia stopped him.
"Don't."
"It is coming for us."
"I know."
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
Aurelia looked at the boy.
"The door."
The boy understood.
"There is another way."
"Show us."
He pointed toward the horizon.
A black palace stood there now.
It hadn't been there before.
A thousand towers.
A thousand windows.
A thousand doors.
And above its entrance was a single inscription.
THE WORLD MUST CHOOSE.
Veyne stared at it.
"What does that mean?"
The boy answered:
"The palace contains every world that could have existed."
Aurelia looked at the creature behind them.
"And if we enter?"
"You will have to decide which one survives."
Silence.
Aurelia looked at Veyne.
"Then we enter."
They began walking.
Behind them, the creature spoke again.
This time, its voice was quieter.
Almost human.
"You will regret choosing."
Aurelia didn't turn.
"Maybe."
She looked at Veyne.
"But regret is still a choice."
The palace doors opened.
Inside were thousands of worlds.
And somewhere among them was one world where Aurelia had never met Veyne.
She didn't know why.
But that world was the first one she wanted to destroy.