The Book of Recalled Flame pulsed like a heartbeat.
Skyler stood before it again, his palm still glowing faintly from the glyph burned into him by the library page. Every breath he took now felt heavy—not with fear, but with memory. Fragments itched behind his eyes. Words that hadn't been invented in this world clawed at his throat, begging to be spoken.
Orias placed a crystal shard into the Book's center groove. The chamber dimmed as the crystal flickered to life, projecting a massive helix of interwoven light and flame into the air.
"This," Orias said, "is what remains of the Novaah genetic code."
It twisted—chaotic, unstable, alive. Unlike any DNA Skyler had ever seen.
"We call it the Witness Thread."
Skyler stared at the swirling light.
"Why is it so unstable?"
Orias responded with quiet fire in his voice.
"Because it's not supposed to exist anymore."
He raised a hand—and the projection fractured, splitting into two timelines:
1. One where the Witness Line evolved freely, expanding through worlds, remembering, archiving, transcending.
2. The other… a broken sequence. Blocked. Glitched. Strangled by artificial locks embedded into the genome itself.
"They rewrote your blood, Skyler," Orias said. "Piece by piece. Every time a new Witness was born, the gods of the upper continuum added another suppression layer."
"Not to kill you... but to limit what you could remember."
Skyler's hands curled into fists.
"Why? What were they so afraid I'd see?"
Orias's eyes burned now. Not just with anger—but sorrow.
"The truth."
"That the gods didn't make the multiverse. The Witnesses did."
Silence hit the chamber like a thunderclap.
Skyler's head spun.
"That's not possible."
"It is," Saya whispered, stepping into the light. "Our blood holds the original sequences. The First Memory. The Archive of Creation itself."
Skyler shook his head. "So we were gods?"
"No," Orias corrected. "We were the recorders. The stewards of balance. The flame that remembered, so others could forget and grow."
"But the gods wanted control. Not growth. And the easiest way to control a world…"
"...is to control who remembers its beginnings."
Skyler turned back to the helix. The suppression nodes—glowing black locks along the DNA strand—flared like prison bars.
"How many of these are inside me?"
"Seven," Orias replied. "And you've broken the first."
Skyler's blood pulsed again. The glyph on his hand dimmed—but didn't disappear.
"So that's why I'm changing," he said.
"Yes," Orias said grimly. "Your body is trying to become what it once was."
"A full Witness."
But before they could continue, the chamber rumbled.
Saya gasped and dropped to one knee.
Skyler felt it too—like something reaching into his blood from outside reality.
"They've noticed," she whispered. "The suppression thread is collapsing. The lock has fractured."
"The gods will come now."
Orias turned to Skyler. His voice was firm.
"You must burn the Second Seal before they find you."
"And to do that… you must learn about the one who vanished."
Skyler's pulse quickened.
"Who?"
Orias stepped into the shadows.
"Orias Novaah. Your ancestor."
"And the man they erased from every timeline…"