We had changed from our Anunnaki formal wear into Drow attire. The clothes were simple but elegant garments of midnight blue and silver that felt weightless compared to the living fabric we had discarded and incinerated.

  For the past hour, we had shared our discoveries with King Mar'Dun, displaying genetic evidence, historical records, and plans for the coming reset cycle. The king had listened with growing interest.

  "Six Sovereigns," he mused, running his fingers over the holographic display from my codex. "Six of the twelve, divided between our two houses."

  "If we can gather them," Styx added, "before the Symphony reaches its peak, we might disrupt the pattern enough to—"

  He stopped mid-sentence, his head tilting slightly as if listening to something only he could hear. The chamber fell silent, and I exchanged nervous glances with Qali and Enrosha as Styx's aura began to pulse with what I learned as a subtle warning.

  "What is it?" Mar'Dun asked, instantly alert, his own aura stirring in response.

  "We are observed," Styx replied, his voice dropping to a whisper that seemed to bypass our ears and speak directly to our minds. "From across the veil."

  Qali paled, her freckles standing out starkly against her skin. "They've found us already?"

  "Not just your parents," Styx interrupted gently.

  He rose from his seat with fluid grace, moving to the center of the chamber. His cloak swirled around him like living shadow, occasionally taking forms that hurt my eyes to perceive directly. The malevolent pressure of his aura intensified, but in a focused, directed manner rather than the overwhelming blanket we had experienced earlier.

  "Show yourself," he commanded, addressing the empty air. "Or I shall reach across the veil and drag you into corporeality by force?"

  Nothing happened for several heartbeats. Then, almost imperceptibly, a section of the chamber's air began to shimmer, like heat rising from sun-baked stone. The shimmer coalesced slowly, forming a vague, translucent outline that wavered between visibility and absence.

  "A scryer," Mar'Dun hissed, rising to his feet, his hand moving to a weapon that hadn't been visible moments before. "From where!?"

  "Not where," Styx corrected, circling the shimmering disturbance with predatory grace. "When."

  I felt a strange sensation wash over me, like standing in a current of time flowing in reverse. The shimmer seemed to respond to my attention, fluctuating more rapidly when my gaze fixed upon it.

  "It's... reaching for me," I whispered, instinctively taking a step back.

  Styx nodded, his ancient eyes never leaving the disturbance. "Yes. It seeks connection." His lip curled slightly. "How very presumptuous."

  With startling speed, Styx's hand shot out, his fingers closing around what appeared to be empty air. The shimmer convulsed violently, warping and twisting as if trying to escape his grasp. A high-pitched keening filled the chamber, oscillating between frequencies that made my teeth ache and skull vibrate.

  "Enough of this," Styx spat, his voice cutting through the noise like a blade through silk. "You gaze upon events not meant for your time. Return to your proper place in the flow, or I shall sever your connection permanently."

  The keening stopped abruptly. The shimmer stabilized, and then began to contract in on itself, growing smaller and denser until it resembled a tiny star hovering between Styx's outstretched fingers.

  "Wise decision," he muttered. Then, to everyone's surprise, his severe expression softened slightly. "Tell your masters that the wheel turns as it should, the pattern progresses, and the Symphony approaches its final movement."

  The star-like point of light pulsed once, twice, then winked out of existence with a soft pop of displaced air.

  Styx turned back to us, brushing his hands together as if removing dust. "An observer from a future timeline. A fool’s errand, really." He remarked. "Curious that they would risk such a direct intrusion. Surely there will be consequences."

  "The future?" Enrosha asked, her eyes wide with astonishment. "But why would they—"

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  "To confirm their own history," Mar'Dun interrupted, understanding dawning in his expression. "And verify that events are proceeding as recorded."

  Styx nodded, returning to his seat at the table. "Precisely. Though they should know better than to meddle so directly. Temporal observation carries significant risks, even for those with advanced understanding of the principles involved."

  The implications hung in the air between us. I felt a shiver run down my spine, not of fear, but of possibility. If beings from the future were monitoring these events, it suggested our actions now were of tremendous significance.

  "Will they return?" I asked.

  "Not in that form," Styx replied. "I've sealed this particular approach. Should they wish to observe further, they'll need to be considerably more subtle." He turned to Mar'Dun. "We should accelerate our plans. The intrusion suggests urgency I hadn't anticipated."

  The Drow King nodded, his earlier hostility completely replaced by tactical focus. "I'll have messages sent to the underground outposts. If we move quickly, we might gather our people at the western mountains before Nibiru completes its approach."

  "The western mountains?" Enrosha asked.

  "The highest peaks, The Makhonjwa, we call it." Mar'Dun explained. "They will remain above the great inundation when the reset begins. Our ancestors used them as sanctuary in previous cycles."

  "Not just your people, Mar’Dun," Styx added. "The Sovereigns. All six that we know of. They must be gathered and protected at all costs. There is no time to gather the others."

  An aide appeared at the chamber entrance, bowing deeply. "My King, forgive the interruption. The Royal Guard reports unusual seismic activity throughout the realm."

  The aide trailed off, noticing us for the first time. His eyes widened in shock and his hands moved instinctively to the weapon at his belt.

  "They are under my protection," Mar'Dun stated firmly. "What do the sensors indicate?"

  The aide tore his gaze from us with visible effort. "Movement, Sire. Massive displacement in the upper crust. The patterns match those recorded at the beginning of the last reset cycle."

  A heavy silence fell over the chamber. Styx and Mar'Dun exchanged a look laden with understanding.

  "They’re coming too quickly…" Mar'Dun said softly.

  "Because of us," I realized, the weight of responsibility settling on my shoulders. "Our escape from Nibiru. It changed something in the pattern, didn’t it?"

  Styx nodded slowly. "Not just your escape. Your awakening. Your choices. Do not forget, young ones, the fabric of the Symphony is woven from consciousness itself. A consciousness that not even the Anunnaki can properly control. And when consciousness shifts unexpectedly, the pattern too self-adjusts."

  The aide cleared his throat nervously. "Sire, what are your orders?"

  Mar'Dun straightened, royal authority emanating from him like heat from flame. "Alert all outposts and settlements. Prepare the evacuation routes to the Makhonjwa." He turned to Styx. "How long do we have?"

  "Days, not weeks," Styx replied grimly. "Four, perhaps seven at most before the Black Sun Eclipse."

  "And their parents?" Mar'Dun asked, glancing at us.

  "They will come," Styx confirmed. "They cannot allow this deviation to stand unchallenged. Especially not with what these three have taken from them." He gestured toward my codex. "Knowledge is the one thing the Anunnaki have always feared more than power, control, and order."

  "Then we must prepare for war as well as evacuation," Mar'Dun concluded. He turned to the aide. "Send word to Queen Vanya of the Vampires. Tell her..." he hesitated, emotion briefly clouding his features, "tell her that her kin's vision may yet be realized. Tell her to bring her Sovereigns to the mountains. She has three days realistically, and seven days at most. Expect significant losses."

  As the aide hurried away to carry out his orders, Styx rose once more, moving to stand before us. His imposing presence had shifted subtly. It was still overwhelming in its intensity, but protective rather than threatening.

  "What begins here will echo across all future timelines," he told us, his ancient eyes reflecting knowledge beyond mortal comprehension. "The path ahead is fraught with danger beyond anything you have yet encountered. Are you certain this is the road you wish to take?"

  Enrosha stood first, her towering form casting a long shadow in the bioluminescent light. "We crossed that threshold when we fled Nibiru," she said firmly. "There is no return for us. We move forward at all costs."

  Qali joined her, freckled face set with determination despite the fear visible in her eyes. "We've seen too much to turn back now."

  I rose last. "Our parents created us as experiments," I said quietly. "But we choose to be revolutionaries instead."

  A rare, genuine smile spread across Styx's features—the few we had witnessed from him. In that moment, he revealed glimpses of something older and deeper; the foundation upon which the horror had been built… Was this love?

  "Then it begins," he said simply. "This battle will be the war of all wars. Our blood versus theirs. A calamitous last stand and a stand against those who have claimed dominion for too long.” He glanced at Mar’Dun. “Something we perhaps should have acted on far sooner, old friend…"

  He turned fully to Mar'Dun, extending one pale hand. "Are you with us? Despite the cost and outcome?"

  The Drow King clasped Styx's hand without hesitation, his blue eyes burning with resolve. "For my daughter, I would move the world," he said, his voice rich with emotion. "For Trisananda, I would fulfill his every wish. For all they would have built together, had they been given the chance, remains the only future I wish my progeny to born into."

  As the two ancient beings stood united, their auras intermingling in a display of synergy that made the very air tremble, I felt something stirring deep within my consciousness. A resonance? Recognition? Maybe it was a remembering of something I had not yet experienced.

  Beyond the chamber, throughout the vast underground realm of the Drow, alarms began to sound—deep, resonant tones that vibrated through stone, mind, and body alike, igniting ancestral memories within the DNA of all those who heard it. The evacuation had begun.

  The Elder Wars had been set in motion.