Chapter 97: Chapter 97 – The Call of the Root Facility

The words Root Facility did not remain in the hall as only the name of a place. They spread into the stones, passed through the erased faces on the walls, and touched a different wound inside each of them.

For Kael, that name was a dark possibility opening toward the body of the brother who had not even had a grave for years. For Rowan, it meant Seren’s body, the body that had never returned, might still be held somewhere. For Elara, it was worse. Because the Moon Spirit had recognized that name.

And it was afraid.

Elara felt it. The Moon Spirit had not spoken, but the coldness inside her had retreated for an instant, then hidden itself deeper. This was not one of the silences she was used to. Sometimes the Moon Spirit fell silent and watched. Sometimes it fell silent and calculated. But now the silence inside her was the silence of someone holding their breath behind a locked room.

The woman looked at Elara as if she had noticed it. Her face was still not fully clear, but the stone at her throat shone like darkened moonlight.

"The Moon inside you recognized that name," she said.

Elara’s voice came low. "The Root Facility?"

"Yes."

"What is that place?"

The woman’s smile thinned. "The starting point."

Talon spoke dryly from behind. "Starting point sounds bad."

"Because it is," the woman said. This time, she had answered directly. "The physical trace of the first ritual is there. The first body rooms are there. The records of the emptied ones, the bodies that did not return, and the first seals that tried to learn the Moon’s name are there."

Elara’s throat went dry. "The ones who know the Moon Spirit’s name are there too?"

The woman’s gaze lowered to Elara’s chest. "The name was not completely forgotten. It simply has not been spoken by the right mouth."

The Moon Spirit stirred sharply inside Elara. This time, the fear was clearer. Elara felt it this nakedly for the first time. Not like a being. Like a wound trying to hide.

Kael immediately looked at Elara. "What happened?"

Elara gathered her breath before answering. "The Moon Spirit is afraid of that place."

Kael’s face darkened. Rowan’s gaze sharpened. Talon’s hand tensed involuntarily, as if ready to turn into claws. Erynd stood behind Rowan, but his eyes had not left the woman.

The woman lifted her hand. The map opened again across the hall’s walls. Old border lines, erased pack territories, witch seals, and World Government roads overlapped one another. Then all of them flowed into a single point.

Root Facility.

Rowan approached the map. "This place is not outside the borders."

Kael turned to him. "What does that mean?"

"The opposite," Rowan said. "It is where the borders touch one another. A point left empty on everyone’s map." His gaze hardened. "A place like this cannot be hidden by a single power. Witches, old border families, and some pack bloodlines covered it together."

Elara looked at the map. "So everyone knew."

Talon’s voice came without mockery this time. "So no one is innocent."

The woman slowly inclined her head. "Some did it. Some watched. Some learned. Some stayed silent. Then everyone forgot their own share."

Kael’s voice darkened. "Did Blackthorn know?"

The woman looked at him. "Blackthorn lost something."

"That is not an answer."

"No," the woman said. "But it is a beginning. Those who lose do not always know. But those who decide how the loss will be told do."

Kael’s jaw tightened. "My father."

The woman did not answer.

Her silence landed in the hall like a door slamming shut.

Elara felt the anger inside Kael change direction. The desire that had reached toward Darian’s fire, trembling between hope and pain, was becoming something else now. If someone within Blackthorn had known the truth of Darian’s departure and lied anyway, then Kael’s war would not only be against the enemy outside.

Rowan was silent too. But his silence was not empty. Lucien’s records, old seals, Seren’s path, unopened passages... none of these were merely personal pains trapped in the past anymore. Each one was connected to the border system of the present.

The woman’s voice became clearer this time. "You need to go to the Root Facility."

Elara fixed her eyes on her. "Why?"

"Because the fire was stored here. The path was kept here. But the bodies were held somewhere else."

Kael’s face changed at once. "Darian’s body..."

Rowan’s voice came lower, but sharper. "Seren’s body..."

"Perhaps," the woman said.

That word struck them both at the same time.

Perhaps.

It was not a certain answer. But sometimes hope was more dangerous than a lie. A lie deceived a person. Hope made a person open the door with their own hand.

Elara spoke sharply. "You are pulling us there by giving us hope."

The woman’s gaze returned to her. "Yes."

Talon lifted his head. "At least the ghost is honest."

The woman did not even look at Talon. "Because I do not need to lie. The truth will take you there anyway."

Elara went cold inside. Because this time, the woman was right. Kael could not ignore the possibility of Darian’s body. Rowan could not know where Seren’s body was being held and turn back. And Elara, after hearing that those who knew the Moon Spirit’s name might be at the Root Facility, would still face the danger even if she stopped walking. It would come walking toward her.

Kael spoke in a low voice. "If Darian is there, I am going."

Rowan did not answer immediately. His gaze shifted for a moment to the point on the map, then to Elara. Seren’s name still hung in the hall, but it no longer touched the same place inside Rowan. That name was not a call of love anymore. It was an unpaid debt.

"If Seren is there," Rowan said, his voice more controlled, "I need to learn who kept her there."

Kael looked at him. "Is that why you are coming?"

This time, Rowan’s eyes did not avoid Elara. "No." He paused briefly. "That is one reason. But the real reason is not allowing this cycle to reach Elara."

The line in Elara’s chest warmed for an instant. That answer did not erase Seren. But it did not place Seren before Elara either.

Elara turned to both of them. "And if that is exactly what she wants?"

Kael fell silent.

Rowan’s gaze moved to the woman. "It probably is."

Talon spread his hands. "So we came all this way, entered an archive, got told by a ghost that the entire old order is guilty, and now we are going to another facility? Everyone knows we are walking into a trap, but we are going anyway, right?"

Erynd was still looking at the map. "Sometimes a trap is the only door that has to be closed."

Talon looked at him. "You are young, but you are very good at darkening the mood."

Erynd did not answer. Rowan gave him a brief look. This time, the pride was not hidden. Erynd saw it and stood a little straighter.

The woman approached Elara. Darkened moonlight circled around her like a thin smoke. Kael and Rowan tensed at the same time. This time, Kael took one step, but Elara lifted her hand slightly. Without touching him, she asked him to stop.

Kael stopped. But as he stopped, his gaze remained on Elara. There was no command in that look. No possession. Only a darkness burned by restraint. Elara felt it deep in her body. Even Kael not approaching her now felt like a touch. A fire standing at the border. A fire that knew how to come closer, but held itself between its teeth so it would not burn.

The woman saw it. "The fire still circles around you."

Without turning her head, Elara spoke. "Because it is learning where it should stand now."

The woman’s smile thinned. "Learning is one thing. Enduring is another. At the Root Facility, no one can remain where they stand."

Kael’s eyes turned to the woman. "If you speak about my fire one more time, I will test whether this hall can hide you."

The woman’s smile did not disappear. "Darian used to speak like that too."

That sentence struck Kael. But this time, he did not scatter. Elara walked to his side. Only a breath of distance remained between them. Kael’s body was still tense. Elara did not touch his hand. She only stood beside him.

"Kael," she said slowly. "Do not let her turn this into his voice."

Kael looked at her. "Sometimes having you stand beside me makes it harder."

Elara’s breath stopped for a moment. "What?"

Kael’s gaze dropped briefly to her lips, then returned to her eyes. "Holding myself back."

Rowan’s silence sharpened on her right. Elara felt it. It was not only jealousy. It was a tension Rowan held within himself, one he did not touch and yet did not abandon. When Elara turned her head toward him, Rowan did not look away.

The woman’s voice slipped between them. "This is how they break. The fire burns first. Then the path falls silent."

Rowan spoke slowly. "No."

The woman turned to him.

Rowan’s voice was calm, but the inside of it was like a blade. "This time, I will not stay silent."

The line in Elara’s chest warmed for an instant. That promise mattered for both of them. Kael was burning. Rowan was choosing not to fall silent. And Elara was standing between them not to be chosen, but to protect her own choice.

The woman lowered her hand. The Root Facility mark on the map slowly shrank and rose into the air as a black point. The point stopped before Elara.

Kael moved immediately.

Rowan’s voice came very low. "Do not touch it."

Kael stopped.

The black point did not land in Elara’s palm, but on the inside of her wrist. The place where seal marks, chains, and Rowan’s cool touch had passed before. Elara felt no pain. That was worse. It was as if not a direction, but a memory had been left beneath her skin.

A fine mark appeared on her wrist. A broken ring around a black point. It was not a moon symbol. It looked more like the trace left behind by a moon that had been removed.

Kael’s voice darkened. "What is that?"

The woman answered, "The call of the Root Facility."

Rowan’s eyes locked on the mark. "That is not a path."

"No," the woman said. "It is a threshold mark. So the facility will recognize you."

Elara looked at her wrist. "So when we enter, it will use me as a key?"

"The door will not use you," the woman said. "It will recognize you. The difference will determine whether you survive the door."

The Moon Spirit spoke sharply inside Elara. "I do not want this mark."

Elara answered inwardly, "Neither do I."

"Remove it."

"If I remove it, we cannot find the Root Facility."

The Moon Spirit went silent.

That silence filled Elara with anger. "You knew this."

At last, the Moon Spirit spoke. "I did not remember."

"You remember now."

"Yes."

This time, Elara felt its fear clearly. A small, unwanted understanding mixed into her anger. She did not like it. Because understanding was not trust. But it made complete hatred harder too.

The woman watched with satisfaction. "Memory is not always a gift."

Elara turned to her. "I did not ask for your gift."

"No. But you received it anyway."

Rowan stopped looking at Elara’s wrist and turned to the woman. "What awaits us at the Root Facility?"

The light in the hall dimmed a little more. The faces on the walls withdrew. The red glow of the taken fires, the blue lines of the unopened paths, and the pale door of the bodies that did not return trembled at the same time.

The woman listed them one by one. "The remains of the first ritual. Body rooms. Old seals. The deepest records of the World Government. And those who still know the name."

The Moon Spirit jolted sharply inside Elara.

Elara’s voice came ice cold. "Those who know the Moon Spirit’s name?"

The woman inclined her head slightly. "Being hidden does not mean no one knows it. It only means it has not yet been spoken by the right mouth."

That sentence remained in the hall like a blade.

Kael’s voice lowered. "Whose mouth?"

The woman’s smile returned. "You will learn when you go to the Root Facility."

Talon stepped forward for real this time. "And if we do not go?"

For the first time, the woman looked directly at him. "Then they will come. And this time, the archive will not be able to hide you."

White lights appeared on one of the hall’s walls. Vehicle lights. Soldier shadows. Modern devices placed over old seals. Metal doors. Cold rooms.

Then a bed appeared.

A body lay on a white bed. Its face was not clear. But there was a red mark beside it. Kael held his breath. The image vanished.

Another bed appeared. A woman’s body with a mark at her throat that resembled darkened moonlight. Rowan’s face changed. That image disappeared too.

The woman whispered, "Some doors do not wait for you to open them. If they open, they wait for what comes out of them to reach you."

The floor of the hall trembled slightly. Thin cracks appeared in the walls of Black Moon Archive. At first, Elara thought it was destruction. Then she understood it was not. The archive was pushing them out.

The woman retreated. "You must go."

Elara looked at her. "Why are you sending us away now?"

"Because you have remembered. And if remembered things stay here too long, the archive adds them to itself."

With that sentence, the shadow behind Talon lengthened. The light on Erynd’s face vanished for an instant. The red lines on Kael’s wrists darkened. A blue path seemed to open and close beneath Rowan’s feet. Elara understood that the woman was right. The archive did not only keep things. Anything that stayed too long was folded into its memory.

Kael turned to Elara. "We are leaving."

This time, there was no command in the sentence. Only decision. Elara nodded. Rowan signaled to Erynd. Talon checked the rear line. The woman stood inside the black moonlight, watching them leave.

After taking a few steps toward the exit, Elara stopped. She looked back.

"What is your name?"

The hall fell silent all at once.

Kael’s head turned toward Elara. Rowan’s face tightened. The Moon Spirit spoke sharply inside her. "Do not ask."

But the question had already been asked.

The woman did not answer for a long time. Then she smiled. This smile was different from the others. Less cruel. More broken.

"The name they gave me has no meaning left."

Elara did not step back. "Then what do you call yourself?"

For the first time, the woman’s face almost became clear. A tired jaw. An erased mouth. Eyes left inside shadow.

"Emptiness," she said.

The Moon Spirit went ice cold inside Elara.

The woman continued. "But once, they called me Liora."

The name spread through the hall. The walls did not crack. The archive did not scream. But Elara felt that name pass through a very old place inside the stones. Liora. The first human. The first emptied body. The first failed attempt. The first mistake that had been meant to be forgotten.

Liora looked at Elara. "Hide your own name, Elara. And hide the name of the Moon inside you. Because at the Root Facility, names do not open doors." She paused for a brief moment. "They empty bodies. Then they call other things into them."

Then the hall threw them out before it could add them to itself.

Mist rose suddenly beneath their feet. Elara saw Kael move on her left and Rowan on her right. Talon’s growl, Erynd’s short breath, the old names coming from inside the stones, and the fear hidden inside the Moon Spirit all tangled together at once.

Then everything turned white.

When Elara opened her eyes, she was back in the forest. The gate of Black Moon Archive was no longer behind them. There were no black stones. The mist of the forgotten path had scattered too. Before them, only the gray World Government road stretched on.

But the broken ring around the black point was still on Elara’s wrist.

Kael was right beside her. Rowan too. Talon had fallen to one knee, cursing. Erynd was leaning against a tree, trying to breathe.

Rowan looked at the sky. "Time has passed."

Kael’s voice darkened. "How much?"

Erynd answered with a trembling voice. "Judging by the sun’s position... at least half a day."

Talon lifted his head. "Wonderful. The archive swallowed us, chewed us, and spat us back out in the afternoon."

No one laughed. Because from far away in the forest, a thin metallic hum was coming.

Elara covered her wrist. The Root Facility mark pulsed coldly beneath her skin.

And for the first time, the Moon Spirit spoke inside her almost like it was begging. "Do not go there."

Elara fixed her eyes on the gray road. Because now she knew.

If she did not go, the Root Facility would come to them.