The path to the gate was shorter than Kael remembered.
Or perhaps the Abyss had changed.
They walked in silence for nearly an hour.
The pale trees slowly disappeared behind them.
The flowers became sparse.
The air grew heavier with every step.
Shade remained close.
Kael could feel him watching.
Eventually, Shade spoke.
“You remember Cairos.” Kael didn’t look at him.
“Yes.” “You remember what you asked him to do.” “Yes.” “You told him to lie.” Kael stopped.
Shade stopped beside him.
“You told him to say you betrayed him.” Kael nodded.
“That was the first lie.” Shade waited.
Kael looked toward the distant darkness.
“No.” He corrected himself.
“It was the first lie I remember.” Shade frowned.
“What does that mean?” Kael started walking again.
“I don’t know.” They continued toward the gate.
The deeper they went, the more Kael remembered.
Not complete memories.
Pieces.
A hand gripping his shoulder.
A rifle falling to the ground.
Cairos shouting his name.
A door closing.
And twelve people standing behind him.
Then another image.
Cairos sitting alone in a dark room.
Seven years younger.
His hands were covered in blood.
Someone stood across from him.
Kael couldn’t see the person’s face.
But he heard the voice.
“You will tell them he opened the gate.” Cairos said nothing.
“You will tell them he killed the expedition.” Still nothing.
“And when they ask whether he survived…” Cairos slowly lifted his head.
“He didn’t.” The memory ended.
Kael stumbled.
Shade caught his arm.
“You saw something.” Kael nodded.
“Cairos was ordered to lie.” “By who?” “I don’t know.” Shade looked at him.
“Then why did you say it was his lie?” Kael’s eyes hardened.
“Because I remember him choosing to continue it.” They reached the final stretch.
The gate appeared through the darkness.
It was larger than Kael remembered.
Black stone rose from the ground like the remains of something buried beneath the world.
The cracks across its surface had widened.
Kael stopped several feet away.
“This is where I stayed.” Shade looked at the gate.
“And this is where Cairos left you.” Kael nodded.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then Kael noticed something carved into the stone beside the gate.
A sentence.
Old.
But unmistakably human.
**THE FIRST LIE WAS NOT THAT KAEL DIED.** Kael stepped closer.
His eyes moved to the next line.
**THE FIRST LIE WAS THAT HE WAS EVER THE PRISONER.** Shade stared at the words.
Kael said nothing.
The gate remained silent.
Then something happened.
Not from behind the gate.
From beneath it.
A small metallic sound.
Click.
Kael looked down.
A narrow compartment had opened in the floor.
Inside was a recording device.
Ancient.
Cracked.
But still functioning.
Shade picked it up.
A faint light appeared.
Then a voice filled the corridor.
Cairos.
Older.
Tired.
Afraid.
“If you’re hearing this, then K-07 has remembered enough.” Kael froze.
Shade looked at him.
The recording continued.
“I don’t know whether you’ll remember me as the man who betrayed you or the man who saved you.” A pause.
“But you need to understand something.” Static filled the chamber.
Then Cairos spoke again.
“You were never sent into the Abyss.” Kael’s breathing stopped.
“You were sent to it.” The recording crackled.
“You were already here before Expedition Seven existed.” Kael looked at the gate.
The memory came back.
Not the expedition.
Not the twelve.
Something earlier.
A laboratory.
White walls.
Metal restraints.
His younger self sitting inside a chair.
A scientist standing behind glass.
And a number written across the observation window.
**K-07** Kael’s hand tightened.
Cairos continued.
“They told us you were a weapon.” Static.
“They were wrong.” Another pause.
“You weren’t created to contain the Abyss.” Kael closed his eyes.
The next words came slowly.
“You were created to survive it.” The recording stopped.
Silence returned.
Shade stared at Kael.
“What does that mean?” Kael opened his eyes.
“I don’t know.” But this time, he knew one thing.
The people who built K-07 had misunderstood him.
And the people who sent Expedition Seven had known more than they admitted.
The Abyss had never been the beginning of his story.
It was only the place where his story had been hidden.
Kael looked at the gate.
“Cairos knew.” Shade nodded.
“And he lied.” Kael looked down at the dead recording device.
“Yes.” “Why?” Kael was silent.
Then he answered.
“Because whatever happened here seven years ago wasn’t the first time.” Shade looked at him.
Kael stepped toward the gate.
“It happened before.” He placed his palm against the black stone.
The gate remained closed.
But Kael felt something on the other side.
Not a creature.
Not a voice.
Recognition.
For the first time, the Abyss did not feel like it was watching him.
It felt like it was remembering him.
Kael slowly removed his hand.
“We’ve been looking at the wrong beginning.” Shade stood beside him.
“Then where do we start?” Kael looked at the K-07 mark carved into the gate.
“Before Expedition Seven.” He turned away from the gate.
“Before Cairos.” “Before the twelve.” Shade waited.
Kael looked toward the darkness.
“Before I knew my own name.” And they walked away from the gate.
Not deeper.
Not back.
Toward the oldest part of the Abyss.
Others are told because the truth is too dangerous to survive.
Kael finally learned that Cairos wasn’t the one who started the lie.
He inherited it.
And now we’re going back to where K-07 began.