Chapter 448: Seventeen Bodies

Varos remained silent long enough for Damon to realize that the information had genuinely affected him. He did not seem to be trying to decide whether he believed Aurelia. He seemed to be mentally reviewing years of orders, meetings, and procedures, trying to determine how many things suddenly made sense if Serik was not merely a man.

"Explain," he said.

Aurelia looked at Eir before answering. "My family’s records were incomplete. I saw the name Serik twice. Both times, it wasn’t listed alongside researchers or commanders. It appeared with preservation protocols."

"Preservation of what?"

"Standardization."

Aria had already opened her notebook. "The alterations Eir just showed us?"

"Probably."

Aurelia approached the image of the chains still drawn across the root. "The first groups that modified organisms had a problem the Architects would encounter much later. Altering a structure didn’t mean the alteration would remain stable. Bodies continued adapting, mutations appeared, and some lineages recovered previous traits after a few generations."

Damon looked at Eir. "So they created Serik to prevent that from happening."

The tree answered affirmatively.

Varos frowned. "A protocol doesn’t give orders."

"This one did," Eir replied.

"How?"

The image on the ground changed. A human body appeared. Then another. Between them emerged a complex sequence of lines that entered through the base of the skull, spread through the nervous system, and ended in small structures near the heart, spine, and brain.

Ester crouched to examine it.

"That looks like a distributed implant."

"It was," Eir replied.

Aurelia understood. "It wasn’t a protocol executed by an external machine. It was installed in a person."

Aria looked at Varos. "Like the procedure used on you."

He did not answer.

Eir showed the next sequence. The first body aged. Before it died, part of the internal structure was copied into the second. No complete memories were transferred. No soul. No continuous consciousness. What passed on were criteria, conditioned responses, priorities, and sets of instructions.

Damon watched the demonstration to the end.

"So Serik isn’t one person jumping from body to body."

"No," Aurelia replied. "It’s a set of decisions that keeps being installed in people."

Varos became serious. "That’s impossible. I’ve spoken to him. He remembers operations carried out before I was born."

Eir replied, "Records."

"He knew personal details."

"Records."

"He remembered the people."

"Records."

Varos clenched his fists.

Damon did not try to soften it. "He can still be intelligent. It just doesn’t mean he’s the same person who lived through all of it."

Aria pointed at the image. "If each bearer receives the records of the previous ones along with the protocol’s criteria, the practical difference could become very small after enough generations. The new host would begin with their own memories but would start reasoning according to priorities accumulated over centuries."

"Until they stop knowing where the person ends and the protocol begins," Xue Lian added.

Aurelia nodded.

Varos ran a hand over his face. "The Order’s superiors say Serik has held the same position since its founding."

"He probably has," Aurelia replied. "The position. Not the body."

Damon looked at Eir. "How many?"

The tree hesitated.

"Seventeen."

Varos raised his head.

"Seventeen what?"

"Bodies."

The man went still.

Liora approached her mother and placed a hand on the trunk. Eir showed seventeen human silhouettes in sequence. Some were male, others female. They had different heights, ages, and builds. In every one of them, however, the same red structure appeared in the brain and spine.

The seventeenth remained highlighted.

"Current?" Damon asked.

"Yes."

"How long?"

"Thirty-two years."

Varos took a deep breath. "I’ve known him for twenty-four."

The information contradicted nothing.

That seemed to be the worst part for him.

Ester pointed at the pattern installed in the skulls of the silhouettes. "Can that completely control the host?"

Eir replied, "Not at first."

"Later?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"Resistance. Time. Amount of records."

Damon looked at Varos. "How does someone become Serik?"

"I don’t know."

"You’re a commander."

"Field commander. Leadership succession isn’t discussed outside the inner circle."

"So you’ve never seen a transition."

"No."

Aurelia asked, "Does Serik appear in public?"

"Rarely. Most orders arrive through intermediaries or authenticated records."

"How many people actually meet him?"

Varos thought about it.

"Maybe twenty in the entire Order."

Aria wrote it down. "Then hiding a change of body would be simple."

Varos did not answer.

Damon turned back to Eir. "Why does he want you now?"

The tree displayed the ancient biological structures again. This time, one of them was highlighted. It was the modern human body. Eir showed small differences compared to the earlier versions: smaller spiritual organs, narrower circulation in certain regions, and several pathways that were completely closed.

"Degradation," Eir said.

Aurelia stepped closer. "The standardization is failing?"

"Slowly."

Aria asked, "In every species?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"Thousands of years."

Damon frowned. "And no one noticed?"

"They noticed parts."

Eir showed several examples. Some spiritual lineages were born with defective roots. Certain species developed incompatibilities that did not exist in ancient records. Others required increasing amounts of energy to sustain abilities that had once been natural. None of it looked like an imminent extinction. It was a slow accumulation of problems.

Aurelia analyzed the images. "The first standardizers created organisms compatible with the world of that period. The environment changed. The network changed. The species remained trapped in the same models."

"Yes."

Damon understood. "Serik knows the patterns are becoming obsolete."

"Yes."

"And he wants to update them."

Eir’s answer took longer.

"He wants to restore first."

"Restore what?"

The image changed to a figure none of them recognized. It was humanoid, but possessed a much more extensive internal structure than a modern human. Multiple circulatory systems overlapped without conflict. It was not the same ancestral lineage as Damon’s, but it followed the same logic of flexibility.

Aurelia became serious.

"Base model."

Eir confirmed.

Aria asked, "The first standardized organism?"

"One of the first."

"Serik wants to recreate it?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To begin again."

Damon looked at the figure. "Standardize everyone all over again."

"Yes."

Varos responded immediately. "The Order wouldn’t do that."

Damon turned his head.

Varos held his ground. "Containing pre-network regions is one thing. Altering entire populations is another."

Eir produced a new image.

This time, it was a document.

Not complete letters, but recognizable structural markings. Aria approached and compared them to the pattern of the chains.

"Same language."

At the center was the symbol representing Serik. Beneath it, several figures belonging to different species converged into a single pattern.

Varos went pale.

"That could be old."

"It is," Eir replied.

"Then it doesn’t prove current intent."

Liora looked at him.

"They took my sister."

The man turned immediately.

So did Damon.

"When?"

Liora looked at Eir before answering. "One hundred and seventeen years ago."

Aurelia went still. "The other daughter."

"Yes."

"Is she alive?"

"Yes."

Damon realized Liora would not have answered that way before, either because she had not known or because Eir had not been ready to show them.

"Where?"

Eir answered with a direction, not a name.

"North."

Damon ran a hand over his face.

"Why is everything important always in the north?"

Aria wrote without looking up. "Geography has preferences."

"Not helping."

Varos seemed more disturbed by something else.

"If it was one hundred and seventeen years ago, the current Serik hadn’t even been born."

"Protocol," Aurelia reminded him.

He fell silent.

Eir showed the previous daughter. Unlike Liora, she had light-colored hair and a deeper plant structure, with roots wrapped around part of her spine. Then she appeared imprisoned inside a facility, surrounded by instruments similar to the machines from the camp.

Aria studied the records.

"They’re using her as a reference."

Eir confirmed.

"For what?"

"Learning restoration."

Damon understood.

"She’s a part of Eir that can be taken outside. Serik can’t move the forest, so he took one of her daughters."

"Yes."

"More than a century ago."

"Yes."

"Why does he still need you?"

"Doesn’t learn everything."

Aurelia explained. "A manifestation doesn’t contain the complete structural memory of the region. A daughter can carry parts of it, but not the entire archive."

"That’s why they came back."

"Yes."

Varos looked at Liora.

"My operation was supposed to install the anchors and extract material from the core."

"And your superior ordered you to use Liora."

"Yes."

"That wasn’t part of the original plan."

"No."

Damon crossed his arms. "When did you receive the change?"

"The morning before we entered."

"Directly from Serik?"

"No. Authenticated message."

Aria asked, "Do you still have it?"

Varos reached into an inner pocket and pulled out a small red plate about the size of two fingers. Damon immediately looked at Eir.

"Safe?"

"Yes."

Only after receiving confirmation did Aria take the plate. There were extremely small inscriptions on one surface and an internal recording mechanism.

"I can open this in Mirath."

Varos held out his hand.

"That’s Order property."

Aria put the plate away.

"Now it’s evidence."

He looked at Damon.

Damon shrugged.

"I’m not getting involved in this argument."

"You just supported her."

"Indirectly."

Varos took a deep breath, clearly reconsidering every decision that had led him there.

Xue Lian was more practical.

"If Serik has been keeping another daughter of Eir for more than a century, we need to know where."

Varos replied, "There’s a facility in the north."

Damon looked at him.

"Of course."

"It’s not the Order’s headquarters. Officially, it’s a biological research center."

"Name."

"Vermillion."

Aurelia reacted immediately.

Damon noticed.

"Another familiar one?"

"Not the place. The word."

"And?"

"The Valcair records mentioned a Vermillion Archive. Long before the Architects."

Varos looked at her.

"The facility has that name because it was built over ancient ruins."

"What kind of ruins?"

"I don’t know."

Eir answered:

"First standardizers."

The clearing fell silent for several seconds.

Damon organized the information. Serik was an ancient protocol preserved through human hosts. The Scarlet Order descended from the groups that had standardized species before the modern network. The protocol knew that the biological models were degrading and wanted to recover original references in order to carry out a new standardization. To accomplish that, it had been keeping one of Eir’s daughters inside a facility built over an ancient base belonging to the original standardizers themselves.

At least it was a problem with an address.

"How far is Vermillion from here?" he asked.

Varos replied, "Twelve days by road."

"Transfer?"

Aria shook her head. "We’re outside the network."

"And once we leave?"

Varos answered before she could. "If you try to open a route directly to Vermillion, it’ll be detected. The facility has blockers similar to these chains."

Damon looked at Eir.

"Can you open a path there?"

"No."

"Because of the anchors?"

"Yes."

"How far can you take us?"

The forest displayed a region on the ground. A line extended from Eir and moved north until it stopped in a mountainous area.

"Three days," Liora said.

"Better than twelve."

Ester crossed her arms. "You just came out of a fight, traveled here, and now you’re planning another trip."

"I’m listening to options."

"Your face."

Damon exhaled. "That stopped being funny."

"Not to me."

Varos looked at the path Eir had drawn.

"If I help you reach Vermillion, I can’t return to the Order."

Xue Mei replied, "After what you discovered, do you want to go back?"

He thought before answering.

"I want to know if the rest of the Order knows."

Damon nodded. That was reasonable.

"Then find out."

"How?"

"By coming with us."

Varos raised his eyes.

Damon continued. "You know their procedures, signals, hierarchy, and the facility. We know the part your superior probably doesn’t want you to know. If Serik really controls everything, you confirm it. If there are people inside the Order who don’t know, maybe we don’t have to treat all of them as enemies."

Ester looked at Damon with subtle approval.

He noticed.

"Don’t make that face."

"What face?"

"I’m learning."

"Slowly."

Varos looked back at Eir.

The root was still in front of him.

Waiting.

"If I touch it, what happens?"

Eir replied, "Nothing you don’t accept."

He remained still for several seconds before finally extending his hand.

When his fingers touched the root, no restoration began.

Eir only showed him an image.

Varos’s sister.

Young.

Smiling.

Probably taken from a memory he had recovered decades earlier and that Eir had retained since their first encounter.

Varos closed his eyes.

The image disappeared.

Eir did not try to change anything else.

He withdrew his hand.

"I’ll go."

Damon nodded.

"Good."

Liora looked at her mother.

"Me too."

Eir answered immediately.

"Yes."

Xue Mei turned toward her. "You just got out of a cage."

"My sister is there."

Ester opened her mouth, then stopped. There was no medical argument strong enough to make that decision for Liora.

Damon looked at the veins in the girl’s arms.

"Can you stay away from Eir for three days?"

"I can stay away much longer."

"Without losing strength?"

"I need to eat."

He looked at Ester.

"Diagnosis still complete."

She took a deep breath.

"I really do try not to hit you."

"I appreciate that."

Aurelia turned toward Eir.

"Before we leave, we need one thing."

"What?"

"A safe reference."

Eir seemed to understand.

A small root emerged from the ground and formed a wooden sphere the size of a coin. It contained no perceptible energy. Liora picked it up and handed it to Aurelia.

"What does that store?" Damon asked.

Eir replied:

"Liora’s state."

Aurelia nodded. "If Vermillion’s chains try to fix or alter her structure, we’ll have a comparison."

"Exactly."

Damon looked at Varos.

"You really chose a complicated organization."

He replied without humor:

"I’m starting to realize that."

The group left the clearing about half an hour later. Eir opened a route north that did not exist on modern maps, passing through ancient regions of the forest that the Order had never managed to stabilize.

Damon was walking behind Liora and Xue Mei when Aria approached him.

"Did you notice?"

"Probably not."

"Your body."

He looked at her.

"Don’t start."

"I’m not suggesting restoration."

"Good."

Aria kept her voice low. "But that ancient structure explains several things we considered exceptions."

"I know."

"Maybe it explains others."

"Probably."

"Don’t you want to investigate?"

Damon kept walking.

"I do."

Aria looked surprised.

"Then why did you say no?"

"Because wanting to know and wanting to let a tree reorganize my body are two different decisions."

She fell silent.

Then wrote something down.

Damon looked at the notebook.

"What did you write?"

"Progress."

"Erase it."

"No."

He let it go.

Up ahead, Varos stopped.

Everyone else did the same.

In the middle of the path was a man wearing the Order’s red uniform.

Dead.

The body was propped against a tree and showed no visible injuries.

Varos approached first.

He recognized the man immediately.

"He was at the camp."

Damon checked his neck.

No pulse.

Ester knelt and examined his eyes, mouth, and skin.

"It wasn’t poison."

Varos frowned. "Did he leave before us?"

"I didn’t see him."

Liora touched the ground.

"He didn’t leave through the path."

Damon looked at the corpse.

Then he noticed a mark behind the man’s ear.

Red.

Very small.

Varos saw it too.

His expression changed.

"Authentication mark."

"What does it do?"

"Confirms identity for internal communications."

Ester moved the dead man’s hair aside.

The mark had burned from the inside out.

Varos went still.

"That shouldn’t happen."

Damon looked at him.

"Serik?"

The man hesitated before answering.

"If he can use the mark to kill an agent..."

Damon finished:

"Then he already knows the operation failed."

Aria looked at the red plate she had confiscated.

Varos followed her gaze.

"Throw that away."

She did not argue.

She placed the plate on the ground.

Damon split it apart with his sword.

Inside was a red filament-like structure, too thin to be ordinary metal.

Liora immediately stepped back.

"Same thing."

"Same thing as what?" Xue Mei asked.

She pointed toward the symbol Eir had shown them.

"Serik."

Varos looked at the body of his own subordinate and finally seemed to understand that his decision to accompany Damon was no longer merely a possible desertion.

His superior probably already considered it one.

Damon cleaned his sword.

"Three days?"

Varos stood.

"If Eir keeps the path open."

Liora nodded.

Damon looked north.

"Then let’s meet Vermillion before Serik decides to erase anyone else."