Chapter 5: The Red Mark
The wind across the Morlin Flats carried sand like razors.
By midday, Shu's cloak was tattered at the hem, and the horizon shimmered with the heat of the dying sun. The once-prosperous plains—rumored to have once fed entire sky cities—were now a graveyard of rusted machines and jagged, vine-strangled wrecks. Somewhere beneath this endless stretch of cracked soil was the next red-marked site: a Sky Vault listed in the Lattice as ECHO-9.
Its coordinates led them to nothing but a cratered depression surrounded by fragmented pylons. Shu stared at it for a long time.
"This can't be it."
Sera's voice crackled in his ear, distorted by interference. "I'm reading massive energy residue under the surface—old, but strong. That vault's underground, no doubt."
Kael stepped ahead, brushing his hand across the broken stone. "They buried it after the purge. The Empire couldn't reach it, so the Order collapsed the surface entrance. But the lattice wouldn't have marked it red if they hadn't found another way in."
Shu crouched beside the fractured ground. Scorch marks. Faint tracks—mechanized. Recent.
"They're already inside."
"Then we're late," Kael said, voice calm. "But not too late."
Together, they circled the crater's edge until Kael found what he was looking for: a sunken shaft hidden beneath a camouflage tarp, still warm to the touch. Fresh tool markings. Someone had cut into the vault using plasma-grade drills. That kind of gear didn't come cheap.
Shu drew his blade. "Mercenaries?"
Sera confirmed it. "Riftborne operatives. Ex-Imperial scavengers. No loyalty, just contracts. And someone hired them to dig here."
"They work fast," Shu muttered.
"They kill faster," Kael added.
The shaft dropped into shadow like a vertical grave. They descended in silence—Shu using the wall grips, Kael simply sliding down the length of twisted cable. At the bottom, they emerged into a vault corridor.
And walked straight into a war zone.
Bodies littered the hall—mercenaries in matte-black armor, torn apart by energy bursts and high-frequency blades. The walls were scorched, and the lighting flickered with dying power. The corridor hummed with the sound of failing systems, overlaid with something else—whispers in a tongue Shu couldn't place.
"Echo-9 had no defenses listed," Sera whispered.
"Then someone activated them," Shu said grimly.
Kael crouched beside one of the corpses, examining the cauterized wounds. "They triggered an internal protocol. The vault is defending itself."
Further in, the air changed. The corridor opened into a chamber shaped like a perfect circle, with glyph-covered panels floating midair and revolving slowly. At its center stood a crystalline spire—shattered. And beside it, a figure.
Clad in obsidian armor, helmet still on, the operative was alive—but barely. He slumped against the wall, blood leaking from the joints of his suit.
When he saw Shu and Kael, his hand twitched toward a holstered pistol. Shu kicked it away.
"Who sent you?" Shu asked.
The mercenary's visor flickered. His voice was wet with blood. "Doesn't matter. You're too late."
Kael knelt beside him. "Where's the relic?"
The merc laughed, bitter and broken. "Gone. Taken by the girl. She wasn't with us. Didn't even kill us. Just walked through the fire like she owned the place."
Shu tensed. "What girl?"
He coughed again. "She had the other Key. Same shape. Different light. Said her name was Lyra."
Then he collapsed, exhaling one final time.
Kael stood slowly. "Lyra."
"You know her?"
"Not personally," Kael said, voice low. "But the name was whispered before the Fall. A child born in the sky, but not of it. A descendant of the last Archon."
"Another chosen?"
"No," Kael said. "A rival."
Shu turned toward the shattered relic spire. Pieces of it still floated in stasis, orbiting a pulsing void.
"She took something," he said, "but whatever she left behind—it's still active."
He reached out.
The moment his fingers brushed the fragments, the room filled with light.
Not a flash—but a memory.
The world shifted around them.
---
Shu stood in the same chamber—but it was whole. The spire intact, the air filled with Sky Order archivists and soldiers. A council of figures argued in the center, each voice a thunderclap of conviction.
"We cannot let them take the lattice!"
"They already control the surface—we'll lose the skies next."
"Then we scatter the keys. Seal the vaults."
"Let the world forget."
At the center of them all stood a robed woman with glowing white eyes—her face younger, but unmistakable.
Lyra.
She raised her hand, and the chamber fell silent.
"Then let the world forget," she said. "But let it remember when the stars begin to fall."
The vision vanished.
Shu staggered back, breath shallow.
Kael caught his arm. "You saw her."
"She was one of you."
"She was the Order's prodigy. Until she betrayed it."
Sera's voice trembled slightly. "I've found records. Lyra disappeared during the Siege of Erythea. She wasn't just powerful—she was the central heir to the lattice. She could control vaults, override commands. She's not just a rival, Shu."
"She's the endgame," Shu muttered.
"And she has a head start," Kael added. "If she's collecting Keys…"
"Then we need to find the next one. Fast."
Shu stood, renewed focus in his eyes. The shattered vault glowed behind him, as if urging him forward.
Sera uploaded a new ping. "The next red site just lit up on the map. This one wasn't marked before. Lyra activated it."
Shu nodded. "Good. Then she left us a trail."
Kael looked toward the exit shaft. "Then let's follow the storm."