The sky is too clear.
No clouds. No birds.
As if the world itself is waiting.
Kael sits at the edge of a cliff, the Blueprint open in his hands.
Not paper.
But light.
Strands of thought woven together—how to unmake the Lock, how to free every mind, how to let memory return.
Naia paces behind him, anxious.
"You're not really considering releasing it, are you?"
Kael doesn't look up.
"If I don't, the truth dies with me."
Naia kneels beside him.
"Kael… people built entire lives on forgetting. The Lock didn't just erase pain—it gave peace. Order."
Kael nods.
"And it also buried genocide. Rewrote betrayal. Made monsters into saints."
He folds the Blueprint.
It folds itself like origami.
And hums.
"I don't want to be a god, Naia."
"I just want to be honest."
Naia touches his hand.
"But the world isn't ready."
Kael looks her in the eyes.
"No. The world isn't willing. There's a difference."
A voice cuts the wind.
"So which will you choose, Kael Evenhart?"
They spin around.
An old man stands behind them.
Long coat. Burnt fingers. Eyes that do not blink.
Kael stands, wary. "Who are you?"
The man smiles sadly.
"I'm the one who burned the first version of that Blueprint."
"And I've come to stop you from making my mistake again."
They sit around a dying campfire.
The man speaks of the First Cycle.
Before the Door. Before the Lock.
When people remembered too much.
"Wars weren't started by hatred. They were started by pain no one could forget."
"You think truth frees people? No. It burdens them."
Kael stares into the flames.
"But lies rot everything."
The old man removes a medallion.
It bears the same Ω Kael saw in the Facility.
"We were the Ones Who Remembered."
"We tried to carry the pain for the world. Failed. So we erased it instead."
"You hold the last chance, boy. Burn that Blueprint. Save them from what we couldn't."
Kael says nothing.
But the Blueprint shudders in his hands.
It doesn't want to be burned.
Later, Kael and Naia walk alone through the woods.
She asks, "Will you do it?"
He whispers, "No."
She freezes.
"You'll share it?"
He turns, gaze hard.
"I'll give people the choice to remember. Not force. Not hide."
They reach an abandoned tower—one that once broadcast dreams to sleeping cities.
Kael climbs to the top.
And unfolds the Blueprint.
It rises into the air.
Spinning. Glowing.
Then begins to split—into thousands of fragments.
Each one a truth.
Each one a seed.
Naia watches as the fragments scatter across the sky.
"Where are they going?"
Kael exhales.
"To people ready to remember."
"To people who deserve the choice."
Somewhere across the world, a mother suddenly recalls the name of the child she lost.
A soldier remembers the city he razed.
A girl wakes from a dream and knows who her real father is.
The world trembles.
The world awakens.
Kael falls to his knees.
Naia catches him. "What is it?"
He smiles.
"I just heard a million people whisper their real names."
But far below the earth—
In a place colder than death—
The Shepherd stirs.
"It begins again," the voice hisses.
"If memory lives…"
"…then so must punishment."
Chapter 29 End