The creature's words stayed with me. They echoed in the water in the stones and inside my bones.
The creature said, "The one who breathes is not a cave. It is where something new will be born. When you take Core, the place where it's will open, and what is inside will start to wake up."
I looked around us. The walls sparkled with lights, and the shapes on them were changing. Many eyes were watching us from the dark.
I asked the creature, "What is sleeping inside?" My voice was calm even though I was not sure how I was staying calm.
The Guardian looked at us. At me at Lina, then at the stone in the middle of the cave at Core. The creature said, "Something from when we were young. Something that was waiting when we were made. Something that has been asleep since before the first lock was put in place."
The creature changed shape. For a moment I saw something in the dark. Not a monster, not a being. Something much older, something that existed a long time ago.
The creature kept talking. "We were made to guard it to keep it asleep so it would not wake up. The locks were closed; the doors were sealed. We stayed with it, waiting and watching until the thief came."
The creature looked at me. It said, "Your grandfather took the lock." He opened the door and woke us up. Now you have taken the lock. The door is open a little. The thing in the place where it is sleeping is moving."
I felt the stone in my pocket, Aegis. It was warm and pulsing with light against my leg.
I said, "If I take Core –"
The creature interrupted, "The place where it is will open. The thing inside will start to wake up. Slowly. Not today. Not tomorrow... It will wake up... When it does—" The creature's shape got darker. "It will be hungry."
Maya's voice came through the water. "What does it want to eat?"
The creature looked at her, its white eyes empty of feeling, but something like fear was inside them.
The creature said, "Everything."
There was a silence after that.
The water was still. The lights on the walls were pulsing with the same rhythm as breathing. Cores' breathing, the breathing of something that was not born yet.
Rakas's voice was in my mind. "Kael. We cannot take it. We cannot risk waking up something like that."
Kirana said, "If we do not take it, Ouroboros will. They will come for it no matter what wakes up."
Raka said, "We can hide it just like your grandfather hid Aegis."
Maya added, "We do not have twenty years. Ouroboros is already moving. They have attacked a city. They will strike again... And again, until they find what they are looking for."
I looked at the stone in the middle of the cave. Core. It was the key to the lock. It was what my grandfather tried to take but failed.
Linas's voice was soft in my mind. "Kael. What are you thinking?"
I looked at her. Her eyes were shining silver-white, and her face was calm.
I said, "I am thinking about what my grandfather would do."
Lina smiled gently, her eyes sparkling.
She said, "He would take it. He always made a choice even when it cost him a lot."
I stared at Core, at the light pulsing inside it, at the thing sleeping behind it.
I said, "He lost a lot."
The Guardian looked at me again. The creature said, "He lost much... He did not lose everything. He left you the lock and the choice."
I asked, "The choice?" You keep talking about that. What choice?"
The creature moved closer, its shape changing, and the water around us got colder.
The creature explained, "Your grandfather took the lock, opened the door and woke us up... He did not take Core. He could have; he was close enough to grab it... He chose not to."
I asked, "Why?"
The creature was quiet for a moment, and the eyes on the walls blinked twice.
The creature finally said, 'He heard it breathing. He felt it moving... He knew. If he took Core, the place where it is would open and the thing inside would wake up... He was not ready for what would happen."
The creature looked at me now.
The creature added, "He was not ready... You—" The creature's shape changed between dark and light. "You have something he did not have."
I asked, "What is it?"
The creature looked at Lina at the light in her eyes and the warmth in her hand.
The creature said, "Her. The one who chose to wake up. The one who is not limited by our rules. The one who can make us wait."
Linas's grip on my hand got tighter, her light getting stronger.
I said, "If I take Core, the thing inside will wake up; the place where it is will open... You can make it wait, just like you made the others wait."
The creature did not move. The eyes on the walls were still. The breathing. The breathing of the thing inside. Got slower.
The creature said, "We can keep it asleep. We can keep it waiting for a while. Not forever... But for a while."
I asked, "How long?"
The creature did not answer. Its shape changed again. The darkness around us got thicker.
The creature said, "Enough for you to find what you need. Long enough for you to close what your grandfather opened. Enough—" It stopped, its eyes looking at Lina. "Long enough for her to do what she is meant to do."
Lina's hand shook in mine. She asked, "What was I meant to be?"
The creature did not answer. Its shape seemed to fade, the eyes on the walls closing and the lights getting dimmer.
The creature urged, "Take Core. Take it and go. We will keep the place where it's asleep." We will wait."
The water around us started to move. Not because of a current or tide. Because of something else pushing us toward the centre, toward the core.
The creature insisted, "Take it before we change our minds."
I swam toward the stone. Core was bigger than Aegis than I thought. It was pulsing with light, sound and something like a heartbeat.
My hand touched its surface. It was icy. Colder than anything I had felt. The cold of water, stone and something that had been asleep for ages.
Then. Warmth. The Ember Core in my chest pulsed. Once. Twice. Thrice. The stones' chill went away. The light changed from white to something matching the glow in my chest and in Linas's eyes.
I pulled. The stone came loose. Not because I lifted it. Because it was released, something that had been waiting to be taken.
The cave shook. The walls cracked. The lights flickered. The eyes in the dark got wider.
The breathing. The breathing was not a cave but a place where something was born. Stopped.
For a moment there was silence. The water was still, the walls were frozen, and the eyes were closed.
Then the breathing started again. Deeper. Slower. Louder.
Lina's voice was urgent. "Kael. We need to leave."
I looked at the stone in my hands. Core, the heart of the lock. It was pulsing with warmth and light as if it had always belonged to me.
I looked up. The walls were changing; the lights were getting dimmer. The many eyes were closing, one by one, as if going back to sleep.
The thing in the place where it is sleeping. The one that's not a cave. Was waking up.
Rakas's voice was in my mind, followed by Kirana's and Maya's all at once. "GO!"
We swam. The tunnel felt different, narrower, and darker, with the walls closing in. The water was trying to hold us back.
I shouted in my mind to them all, "Keep moving!"
Lina was beside me, her light shining in the dark, her hand warm and steady in mine.
Behind us the cave was collapsing. The walls are crumbling, the lights going out.
In the centre. Where Core had been. The place where it was sleeping was starting to open.
I did not look back. We swam upward through the tunnel through the dark.