Chapter 97: The City Beneath the Red Sky

The open door pulled all four of us forward.

And somewhere beyond the red sky, the city began waking up.

I hit the road first.

The surface beneath me was black and smooth, but thin red lines moved beneath it like veins. They carried light toward the city ahead. Every pulse made the road tremble.

Kai landed beside me.

Mira came next, rolling across the ground before Aster caught her arm. He almost fell with her, but managed to stay upright.

Behind us, the door slammed shut.

Not closed.

Sealed.

The sound traveled through the city, and every building answered.

Windows opened.

Bridges moved.

Far above the red rooftops, something enormous turned in its sleep.

Kai stood slowly.

He was completely solid now. No silver lines showed beneath his skin. No part of him was fading. For the first time since I had known him, he looked like a person who belonged entirely to his own body.

He looked at his hands.

Then at me.

"I remember something."

Mira stepped closer.

"What?"

Kai shook his head.

"Not yet."

The road behind us began disappearing.

Black stone rose from the ground and swallowed the path piece by piece. The door had not brought us into the city.

It had brought the city around us.

A bell sounded somewhere above the buildings.

It was not the third bell.

It was smaller.

Older.

A warning.

The red sky darkened.

Aster looked toward the tallest structure in the distance. It resembled a tower, but its upper half had been broken away. The remaining floors leaned over the city like the ribs of a dead creature.

"That is the House of First Memory," he said.

Jax was not with us.

The thought arrived suddenly.

I turned toward the sealed road.

"Where are the others?"

Mira looked behind us.

"The door only carried the four of us."

"Sarah. Kael. Neri. Dorian. Marcus."

"They are still on the other side."

"The door is sealed."

"For now."

Aster placed his hand against the black road.

"The city controls the door from within."

"Then open it."

He shook his head.

"Not from here."

Kai looked toward the buildings.

"Where, then?"

Aster pointed at the tower.

"At the center."

A sound moved through the streets.

Footsteps.

Hundreds of them.

Figures appeared between the buildings. They were not soldiers. They wore gray clothing, and every one of them carried a small piece of wood. Some held birds. Others held masks. One carried a broken crown.

They stopped at the edge of the road.

No one spoke.

They watched Kai.

Not me.

Him.

A girl stepped forward. She looked about twelve years old, but her eyes were much older. A dark mark circled her throat.

She pointed at Kai.

"The traveler has returned."

Kai’s expression hardened.

"I am not a traveler."

The girl looked at me.

"The door is speaking."

"I am not a door."

She turned toward Aster.

"The remainder has crossed."

Aster’s face became cold.

"Go back."

The girl smiled.

"You said that the first time."

Aster moved in front of us.

The figures behind her lowered their wooden objects.

The city responded.

The buildings shifted closer together. The road narrowed. Red light poured through the cracks between the stones.

Mira drew her blade.

"Who are they?"

"The residents," Aster said.

"Residents of what?"

"Of the place the Tower sends what it cannot use."

Kai looked at the girl.

"What do you want from me?"

She walked closer.

"You remember."

"I do not."

"You will."

"What did I do before the first ascent?"

The girl’s eyes moved toward the broken tower.

"You closed the city."

Kai went still.

Mira glanced at him.

"What does that mean?"

The girl answered.

"When the first door opened, the city was not here. It was beyond the door. You saw it before the others did."

Kai pressed one hand against his forehead.

A memory flashed across his face.

He did not speak.

I felt the memory through the connection between us.

A red sky.

A city filled with people.

Children standing in the streets.

Aster at the center of a black platform.

The original Arthur beside a machine of silver glass.

Kai standing before a door.

Someone shouting his name.

Not Mira.

Not Arthur.

A name that sounded like a command.

Kai staggered.

I caught his shoulder.

The girl smiled.

"He remembers the first instruction."

"What instruction?" I asked.

Kai looked at me.

"Close the city."

The road beneath us cracked.

The figures stepped backward.

The girl raised her wooden bird.

"The city was full of unfinished minds. The Tower could not absorb them. So Arthur built the door."

I looked toward Aster.

He said nothing.

The girl continued.

"He sent the first mind through."

Aster’s expression changed.

"He did not send me to a city."

"You arrived after the city had already been closed."

"I opened it."

"You tried."

Aster’s hand tightened.

"What happened to the others?"

The girl pointed at the black windows above us.

"They became the city."

The buildings trembled.

For a moment, I saw faces beneath the walls. Hundreds of faces pressed against the stone from inside. Some were children. Some were old. Some looked directly at me.

One of them had Marcus’s face.

Another had Sarah’s.

A third looked like Jax and appeared to be shouting something, but the wall swallowed his voice.

Kai saw them too.

"They are not dead."

"No," the girl said. "They are waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"For the door to open again."

Mira looked at me.

"Then we open it."

The girl shook her head.

"The city does not open for people who want to leave."

"Then what opens it?"

"A person who remembers why it was closed."

Kai took one step forward.

"Me."

The girl lowered the wooden bird.

"You are not ready."

"I do not need to be ready."

"That is what you said before."

Kai’s face tightened.

"What happened before?"

The girl pointed toward the tower.

"You chose the city over the people inside it."

"No."

"You closed the door."

"To save them?"

"To save the world outside."

Kai’s silence answered before he did.

I looked at him.

"Did you choose to close it?"

"I was a child."

"That is not what I asked."

Kai looked toward the broken tower.

"I remember standing before the door. Arthur was on the other side. Aster was inside the city. Mira was screaming."

Mira’s eyes widened.

"You saw me?"

"I heard you."

"Why did you close it?"

Kai’s breath shook.

"Because the city was spreading."

The girl nodded.

"The unfinished minds were becoming connected to the world outside. If the door remained open, every memory in this place would have entered the original system."

"And what would that do?" I asked.

"It would have destroyed the boundary between people."

Aster looked at me.

"Everyone would have carried everyone else’s memories."

The idea was worse than death.

Mira lowered her blade.

"Then why blame Kai?"

"Because he made the choice."

"He was a child."

"The Tower does not understand age."

Kai stared at the girl.

"Who told me to close it?"

She raised the wooden bird toward him.

"You did."

The city became silent.

Kai’s voice dropped.

"That is impossible."

"You heard Arthur say the door could not remain open. You heard Aster say the city would collapse. You heard Mira asking you to wait."

"Then who told me to close it?"

"You did."

The girl’s eyes became red.

"You chose the command before anyone else could choose for you."

Kai turned away.

The connection between us shook.

I could feel his memories pushing against the edges of my mind, trying to remain buried.

I reached for him.

He stepped back.

"Do not."

"I am not trying to take your memory."

"You already carry enough of me."

"That is not the same thing."

"It is to the Tower."

The girl watched us with interest.

"The door is afraid of the traveler."

I looked at her.

"He is not afraid of me."

"No. He is afraid of what you remember together."

A distant horn sounded.

The people along the road raised their wooden objects.

The broken tower began opening.

Not a door.

Its entire front split apart, revealing a staircase spiraling upward through darkness.

At the top, a red light burned like an eye.

Aster pointed toward it.

"The city is calling us."

Mira stepped toward the stairs.

"Then we go."

The girl blocked her path.

"Only the traveler can enter the tower."

Mira raised her blade.

"Move."

"The tower will reject you."

"Let it try."

The girl smiled.

"It will not reject you. It will show you the truth you came here to avoid."

Mira’s blade lowered slightly.

Aster looked at her.

"What did you hear in the Silent Ascent?"

Mira did not answer.

The girl said it for her.

"You heard yourself asking whether you wanted Kai back, or whether you wanted the child who disappeared."

Mira’s face hardened.

"That is not the truth."

"No. It is the question."

Kai looked at her.

"What is the difference?"

"The truth is what happened. The question is what you would do if it happened again."

Mira took another step toward the tower.

"I would save him."

The girl looked at her.

"Even if he asked you not to?"

Mira stopped.

Kai looked between them.

The city waited.

Aster moved toward the stairs.

"I will go first."

The girl shook her head.

"You are not the traveler."

"No."

"You are the remainder."

Aster smiled without humor.

"I have been called worse."

He stepped onto the first stair.

The red light above the tower flared.

The stair beneath him broke.

Aster fell, but Mira grabbed his arm. The darkness beneath the stairs opened like a mouth.

I reached for him with the Architect Authority.

The command appeared.

RETURN.

I seized it.

The tower rejected the command.

The message formed in the air.

**REMAINDER CANNOT RETURN.**

Aster looked up at me.

"Do not use the Tower’s words against it."

"What should I do?"

"Give it a reason to remember me."

I looked at the city.

At the faces in the walls.

At the figures holding wooden birds.

At the girl with the mark around her throat.

"Aster Vale," I said.

The city stopped.

The red light above the tower flickered.

Aster’s body became heavier in my grip.

I said his name again.

"Aster Vale. The first mind rejected by the system. The person left outside the record. The one who crossed before the Tower understood what crossing meant."

The walls began opening.

Faces turned toward him.

The message above the stairs changed.

**REMAINDER IDENTIFIED.**

The darkness released him.

Aster landed on the stair.

Mira pulled him upward.

The girl backed away.

"You cannot name what the city has already absorbed."

"I just did."

The tower groaned.

The faces beneath the walls began repeating his name.

Aster.

Aster.

Aster.

The sound moved through the streets.

The girl covered her ears.

Kai stared at the tower.

"What is happening?"

"The city is remembering him," I said.

"And if it remembers him?"

"The door may open."

The girl looked at Kai.

"Do not let him reach the top."

Kai moved toward the stairs.

"Why?"

"Because he will remember what you did."

"Then I need to know."

The girl lifted her wooden bird.

The figures began moving toward us.

Mira drew her blade fully.

"Now would be a good time to run."

Jax’s voice came from one of the buildings.

"I agree."

Everyone looked up.

Jax’s face appeared behind a red window. He was covered in dust, one arm tied against his chest.

Kael appeared behind him.

Sarah stood between them, holding a broken piece of silver metal.

Neri and Dorian were visible on the floor below.

Marcus stood at the far end of the room, staring through another window.

The Company had not left them behind.

The door had sent them into the city separately.

Jax pressed his face against the glass.

"I would like to complain about the transportation system."

Sarah struck the wall.

"Arthur! Do not go to the tower!"

"Why?"

"Because Marcus found something."

Marcus raised his head.

His voice carried through the city.

"The tower is not a tower."

The red light above us pulsed.

"It is a memory storage structure," he continued. "The third bell is not calling the world outside. It is waking every mind stored here."

Dorian stepped beside him.

"And if they wake all at once, the boundary will collapse."

The city shook.

The girl smiled again.

"That is why Kai closed it."

Kai looked toward Marcus.

"What did I do?"

Marcus stared at him through the window.

"You saved the world."

Kai’s face twisted.

The girl spoke over him.

"He condemned the city."

Mira looked at Marcus.

"Which one is true?"

Marcus answered without hesitation.

"Both."

The third bell began to ring again.

This time, the sound entered every building.

The faces in the walls opened their eyes.

The road beneath us split into dozens of paths.

At the center of the city, the black tower began to rise.

The broken upper half reassembled itself piece by piece.

The red sky turned white.

A message appeared above the stairs.

**FIRST ASCENT MEMORY RESTORING.**

Then another.

**PRIMARY WITNESS: KAI.**

Kai stepped onto the first stair.

I grabbed his arm.

He looked at me.

"If I remember, you may hear it too."

"Then we remember together."

"You do not know what I did."

"No."

"What if I cannot forgive myself?"

"Then you do not do it alone."

Kai looked at the city.

At Mira.

At Aster.

At the faces waking beneath the walls.

Then he looked at me.

"Together."

We climbed.

Behind us, the city opened every door at once.

The figures began following.

The girl with the wooden bird remained at the bottom of the stairs.

She watched us rise.

Before the darkness swallowed her, she called out one final warning.

"Arthur."

I turned.

Her eyes were fixed on me.

"When Kai remembers what he did, you will remember what you allowed."

The tower closed around us.

The red light above us became a ceiling.

And the first memory of the ascent began.