Sylvia had always been the quiet one.
While the rest of the AMP Squad joked, argued, and sprinted into danger headfirst, she lingered in the background—watching. Listening. Sketching silently in her notebook, jotting down every twist in Keitha's maze with eerie precision. No one ever questioned how she always knew which way to turn, or how she noticed the little changes in the city's rhythm before the rest of them even felt them.
Until now.
It started the morning after they met the Banished Ones. Blair was still shaken, Athena hadn't touched her breakfast, and Axel kept pacing the balcony like Keitha's vines were gonna reach up and drag them into the jungle.
But Sylvia? Sylvia sat perfectly still at the kitchen table, tracing a finger along the edge of a strange new symbol burned into her palm. One none of them had seen before.
"Sylv," Zora said gently, sliding into the seat across from her. "What's that on your hand?"
Sylvia paused. Her eyes flicked toward Enzo, who had just entered the room and frozen mid-step.
"It's... from last night," she said finally. "It appeared after we left the Banished Ones."
Axel narrowed his eyes. "No one else got branded. Why just you?"
"I think it's because..." She hesitated, then exhaled. "Because I've been dreaming of Keitha for years."
The room fell silent.
"You what now?" Asher asked, spoon halfway to his mouth.
Sylvia closed her notebook and stood, the symbol on her palm beginning to glow faintly in the morning light.
"I thought they were just vivid dreams. Jungles. Temples. Whispers in a language I didn't understand. But when we got here... I realized I did understand it. Keitha isn't new to me. She's... familiar."
Athena's brows furrowed. "You've been here before?"
"I think someone in my family has," Sylvia whispered. "A long time ago. I found this a few days ago, hidden in my backpack." She pulled out an old photo. Sepia-toned. A woman who looked eerily like Sylvia, standing in front of a jungle archway.
On the back, a name: Elaris M. Quinn. Her grandmother.
"No way," Enzo muttered, taking the photo. "Your grandma came here?"
"I think she was one of the original explorers," Sylvia said. "She disappeared when my mom was a baby. No trace. No letters. Just... gone. My mom always said she was 'swallowed by adventure.' I thought it was a metaphor. But now..."
"It wasn't," Zora finished for her. "She was swallowed by Keitha."
Athena stepped forward, flipping through her sketchbook. "That would explain why Keitha responds to you. You're connected to her somehow. Maybe through bloodline. Legacy. Maybe more."
Sylvia nodded. "And I think that's why I was marked. The Banished Ones said the city remembers. It remembered her. And now, it's watching me."
The mark on her hand pulsed gently, almost like a heartbeat.
"We need to find the core of Keitha," she said suddenly. "The Archive wasn't the end. There's something deeper. A heart. And I think... I can lead us there."
Blair crossed her arms. "And how do we know this isn't the city messing with your mind?"
"Because I feel more awake than ever," Sylvia replied, eyes burning with clarity. "I'm not losing it. I'm just finally understanding it."
Axel sighed, rubbing his face. "So, what—you're our Keitha compass now?"
"Something like that," she said, cracking the smallest smile.
Enzo leaned forward. "If your grandma was part of the original team... maybe she left clues. Journals. Maps. Somewhere in Keitha."
"I already found one," Sylvia said, pulling out a folded piece of paper from the bottom of her bag. A map, sketched in charcoal and ink, with strange spirals and Xs leading to what looked like a mountain temple. In the corner, it read: "Vault of Elaris."
Asher whistled. "Ominous. I like it."
Zora looked around at the team. "We go there. Together. Whatever secrets Sylvia's family left behind, they might help us finish this."
And for the first time in days, the squad felt like a squad again. Not just a group of teens surviving a magical jungle.
But explorers.
Chosen ones.
Keitha's last chance.
As they packed for the journey to the Vault, Keitha's winds picked up outside, swirling around the house like a living storm.
The city had awakened something in Sylvia. And now, the whole jungle knew it.
This wasn't just a mystery anymore.
It was her inheritance.