But the more they synchronized, the more the corridor began to react. The floor hummed. The air shimmered. Something—someone—was approaching. Not Eden. Not Nine.
Something older.
Something that existed before Eden was Eden.
Kaia turned toward the sound.
"Do you feel that?" she asked.
Lumen's expression shifted. "It's the Archive."
"Your Archive?"
He shook his head.
"Ours."
A distant sound rolled through the corridor. Not digital. Not mechanical. A heartbeat. Heavy. Familiar.
And then, between the mirrors, a third figure began to form. A child, younger than both Kaia and Lumen. Transparent. Unfinished. Watching them with a strange curiosity.
Neither of them had ever seen him before.
Yet both of them knew—
He was the third key.
And now, the bridge between them was no longer a passage.
It was a blueprint.
Together, Kaia and Lumen turned toward the mirrors. One by one, they shattered them—not in destruction, but in creation—each mirror blooming into doorways. New choices. New futures.
Because the children weren't just links in a chain.
They were the architects of a new system.
And Eden?
Eden was afraid