They found the gardens at the center of the city a vast field of flowers, each one glowing with a different color. But these weren't ordinary flowers. Each bloom contained a memory. A life. A soul.
"The people Amaranth has absorbed," Vesper said, her voice trembling. "Their memories are preserved here. Forever."
Lee approached a flower that glowed with soft gold light. He touched it, and a vision flooded his mind.
A woman. Middle aged. Kind eyes. She was baking bread in a small kitchen, humming a song her mother had taught her. Children played at her feet. A husband kissed her cheek. She was happy.
Then the shadows came. The Sunken City. Amaranth's hunger. She tried to run, tried to protect her family, but the darkness was faster. It swallowed her. And she woke up here, in the garden, her memories preserved like flowers in a vase.
But she wasn't alive. Not really. She was a ghost. An echo. A story that would never have a new chapter.
Lee pulled his hand away, tears streaming down his face.
"There are millions of them," he whispered. "Billions. Amaranth has been feeding for eons."
"Then we free them," Kira said. "Like you freed the souls in the Sunken City."
"I can't. Those souls were trapped in stone. These are... part of Amaranth. If I try to free them, I might destroy them."
"Then we find another way."
Lee looked at the garden at the millions of glowing flowers, each one a life, each one a tragedy.
"I will find a way," he said. "I swear it."
He turned to continue deeper into the city.
But Inyocha stayed behind, staring at a flower that glowed with dark red light.
"Inyocha?" Lee called.
"I know this memory," Inyocha said. "It's mine."
He touched the flower.