Chapter 95 – Whispers of the Forgotten
The hum of machines was the only sound in the recovery hall.
Moon and Kai sat side by side, both in their automated wheelchairs. The chairs were sleek and quiet, gliding at a thought, climbing steps, even adjusting themselves to recline or stand when needed. A marvel of convenience—yet, to the brothers, they felt more like chains.
For weeks now, these chairs had carried them everywhere. From chamber to chamber. From therapy to therapy. They could stand if they forced it. They could even take a few shaky steps if they leaned on each other. But that was all.
They weren't warriors anymore. They were patients.
Kai hated the way the straps felt against his arms. Moon hated the faint clicking sound the wheels made whenever they started to move. Both hated how easy it was—because easy meant they were too weak to do it themselves.
A month had passed like this. Days blurred together in the endless cycle of recovery. Muscle regeneration sessions in the morning. Healing pod immersion at noon. Essence-balancing exercises at night. They were alive, yes. But alive wasn't enough.
Ruby and Minji visited often. They came with fruit, sometimes with laughter, sometimes with long silences when they didn't know what to say. James was there too, always hovering close, as if afraid the brothers would vanish if he looked away.
That evening, the sky outside the tall glass windows was painted in shades of rust and gold. The sun was sinking, and the lounge was bathed in the soft glow of the half-light. Moon and Kai sat quietly, their chairs parked near the edge of the window, looking out but not really seeing.
The silence stretched, heavy, until Ruby finally spoke.
Her voice was quiet at first, almost cautious.
"You two… can you tell us now? What really happened that day? How did you end up like this?"
Moon didn't react. His eyes stayed fixed on the fading horizon.
But Kai's jaw tightened. A muscle twitched at the edge of his cheek. He didn't answer immediately. He sat there, silent, thinking, breathing, weighing the weight of words.
Inside, he struggled. Should I tell them?
Then images rose unbidden. Minji, exhausted, half-collapsing after pouring her energy into their broken bodies. Ruby, sitting through the night, refusing to leave their side. James, face pale and hands trembling when the healers said their chances were thin.
They deserved something. At least a fragment of the truth.
Kai exhaled.
It wasn't just a breath—it was a long, dragging release, heavy and uneven, the kind of exhale that carried weeks of silence, of things swallowed down and never spoken aloud. His shoulders slumped with it, his eyes falling half-shut, as if the weight of the memory itself pressed against his chest.
"…Actually," he began, his voice rough from hesitation, "the day you three left for your bloodline training… Moon and I left too. Within two days we leave for the Amber Dunes."
The name itself seemed to pull the air thinner. Everyone in the room had heard of the place—an endless sea of golden sand where beasts of legend were said to dwell, their bones buried beneath dunes that shifted like waves.
Kai's gaze lowered to the floor, his hands tightening against the arms of his chair. "We thought it would just be exploration. Maybe a hunt."
The corner of his mouth twitched—not a smile, not even close. Something closer to disgust at his own words.
He took a moment before continuing. His tone darkened.
"But out there… we ran into a white serpent."
The words dropped like stones into water, sending ripples across the room.
Minji's head snapped up. Her eyes widened instantly. "A serpent?" Her voice trembled before it sharpened. "Then—that's what did this to you? That thing?"
Her words were almost hopeful, as if she wanted the answer to be simple. As if she needed the answer to be something familiar, something that could be understood.
Kai, however, shook his head sharply, once, twice.
"No. No, it wasn't that. We were close to finishing it. It wasn't easy, but we had it cornered. We were about to kill it when suddenly…"
The words caught in his throat.
He froze. His lips parted, but no sound came out. His chest rose and fell unevenly. For a long, heavy moment, he simply sat there, staring at nothing—like the memory itself was a hand around his throat, squeezing tight, refusing to let him speak.
The silence in the room thickened, oppressive, like the air itself was waiting.
James couldn't stand it. He leaned forward in his chair, his elbows pressing hard onto his knees. His voice cracked with impatience and unease.
"Suddenly what? Who did you meet?"
Kai's jaw clenched. His lips pressed into a thin, bloodless line. His fingers curled so tight against the chair that the faintest creak of metal whispered into the air.
Finally—like dragging something out of the depths of a nightmare—he forced the words past his throat.
"…a being from the Parasite Race."
The room shattered. Not with sound—but with silence so deep it roared in the ears.
Ruby froze, her lips parting slightly. Minji blinked in disbelief, her hand rising instinctively to her chest as though to shield herself from words that shouldn't exist. Even James went utterly still, his breath caught halfway, his eyes wide with something between horror and confusion.
For a moment, none of them breathed.
Minji's voice, when it finally came, was barely more than a whisper.
"That's… impossible." Her words shook as though she didn't even believe she was saying them. "The Parasite Race was destroyed… over a hundred thousand years ago. They're extinct. They have to be."
Kai gave a bitter, almost broken nod. His throat worked as he swallowed, the sound too loud in the silence.
"That's what I thought too."
The words lingered, poisoning the air.
Moon finally turned his head. His eyes, green and steady, fixed on the others. When he spoke, his voice was low—so low it carried more weight than a shout ever could.
"He was strong. Ridiculously strong. Stronger than anyone I've seen in years. At least high King level… maybe even Saint."
It was as if knives of ice slid into everyone's spine at once. Ruby's shoulders locked, a shiver rippling through her frame before she forced her arms to cross tightly in front of her. Minji hugged herself without realizing it, her nails digging faint crescents into her sleeves. James didn't move at all—only his throat bobbed, a hard swallow betraying how dry his mouth had become.
Ruby spoke first, her words coming out sharper than intended, edged by fear she refused to show.
"So what then? That thing just… what? Let you go? Injured you like this and decided to leave?"
Kai shook his head so quickly it almost looked desperate.
"No. No, he wasn't going to let us live. He was going to kill us. I could feel it. I knew it." His voice cracked on the last word.
He shut his eyes, forcing the memory back, then continued.
"But then… something changed. He stopped. His expression—" Kai's breath hitched. "—it was like he suddenly understood something we didn't. Something that made him hesitate. And then… he fled."
He opened his eyes again, wide and dark, the memory playing across them like fire. "And right after that… the ground beneath us gave way. Like it swallowed us whole. The dunes collapsed. Everything went dark."
He raised a trembling hand to his temple, pressing hard, rubbing as if trying to dig the truth out from beneath his skin.
"…When we woke up from the coma, it was like someone had stolen part of our memory."
But that wasn't true.
The words hung heavy, incomplete.
Moon and Kai remembered. They remembered everything.
The ghost jungle.
The endless bridge.
The flashes of lives that weren't theirs.
The fists of Zambandari—merciless, breaking them down until their spirits nearly shattered.
Moon's lips moved, barely a whisper, more thought than speech.
"That old man… he shouldn't have beaten us so hard we ended up in a coma."
James's head turned sharply. "What? Did you say something?"
Moon's eyes flickered up, startled. He shook his head too quickly, the denial almost clumsy.
"No. Just… mumbling."
But his hand, resting on the arm of his chair, trembled once before going still again.
The silence after Moon's whisper lingered like smoke.
No one spoke. No one moved. It felt as though the very air inside the lounge was charged, humming with something unspoken—something dangerous—something waiting just beyond the edge of words.
And then—
Ding.
The sharp chime of the entrance bell cleaved through the heavy atmosphere like a blade. Everyone's heads turned.
James pushed back his chair with a faint scrape against the marble floor. He muttered under his breath, half annoyance, half relief, and made his way to the door. His steps were quick, his shoulders still stiff from the tension that hadn't yet left the room.
The door slid open with a soft hiss.
Outside stood a delivery robot. Its body was polished steel, catching the last orange streaks of the dying sun. Twin optic lenses glowed faint blue, scanning James with unblinking patience. The machine's voice was flat, mechanical, without inflection.
"Signature required."
A panel extended from its torso, glowing faintly.
James frowned but complied, dragging his finger across the screen. His name etched itself in light before fading. In response, the robot's arms shifted, unfolding with perfect precision, and extended two rectangular cases toward him.
They were small, black, their surfaces engraved with faint silver lines that pulsed like veins of light. Something about them felt deliberate, ceremonial.
James accepted them carefully, one in each hand. The weight surprised him—they were heavier than they looked. The robot retracted its arms, spun on silent treads, and rolled away without another word, vanishing into the twilight outside.
The door hissed shut.
James turned back. His face gave nothing away, though his eyes lingered on the cases as if they might open themselves. Slowly, he crossed the lounge and set them down on the low table in front of Moon and Kai.
"These… are for you two."
Everyone leaned in slightly. Ruby's brow furrowed. Minji tilted her head, lips pressing together as though she wanted to ask but didn't want to look like peeping Tom . The atmosphere thickened again.
The cases clicked open under James's hands. Inside each, resting on black velvet lining, lay a storage ring.
They were simple yet unmistakable—metal bands forged of a dull, silvery alloy that seemed to drink in the light instead of reflecting it. On one, faint lettering spelled Moon. On the other, Kai.
But it wasn't the names that drew attention.
The rings pulsed faintly. Not like ordinary storage devices. There was something alive about the glow, something that beat softly, rhythmically, like a heart.
Essence-locks. Seals that only the rightful owners could undo.
Moon and Kai stared at them. For a moment, neither moved. Their faces were unreadable, but their eyes said it all—the hesitation, the question, the silent calculation of whether to trust what lay inside.
Then, slowly, they looked at each other.
It wasn't much—just a shared glance, a slight narrowing of the eyes, a tiny dip of Moon's chin. But it was enough. A silent agreement.
No words were needed.
Both brothers reached forward. Their hands trembled, though subtly. Fingers brushed against cold metal. The rings flared faintly in response, the essence-locks stirring like something asleep sensing its master's touch.
Moon and Kai closed their eyes and pushed. A thin stream of their essence flowed from their cores, through their hands, into the rings.
A faint click.
So soft it was almost imagined.
The seals unlocked.
And then their senses slipped inward..
Moon's breath caught audibly. Kai's head jerked back, his pupils dilating.
Their eyes widened in unison. Their lips parted, but no words came.
Shock flooded their faces—raw, unfiltered disbelief. Moon's chest rose sharply as if he had forgotten how to breathe. Kai's fingers gripped the arms of his chair so tight the leather groaned beneath him.
It wasn't just surprise. It wasn't just awe. It was the kind of stunned reaction that broke reason—like waking up one morning to find the world had shifted, and suddenly, impossibly, they had won a lottery beyond imagination.
Ruby leaned forward. "What is it?"
Minji whispered, "What's inside?"
But Moon and Kai didn't answer.
To be continued…