Mokshabhumi had a way of making secrets look ordinary.
From the upper terraces of the Academy district, the city appeared almost peaceful again.
Emergency lights had faded from the transit corridors, civilian traffic had resumed, and the great orbital windows once more displayed the familiar blackness of space scattered with stars.
Only the security drones gave away the truth.
They moved in unusually dense formations between the towers, scanning every vessel entering the district.
Access restrictions had been imposed across several lower sectors, and the Academy administration had cancelled all classes for the next two days under the convenient explanation of a structural systems failure.
Aryaan had learned, during his brief career as an investigator, that governments and institutions preferred explanations that sounded boring.
A structural failure was boring.
A temporal doorway beneath the Academy was not.
He stood in front of the window of his assigned quarters and watched a cargo shuttle disappear behind one of Mokshabhumi’s enormous habitation rings.
The city below had been built in layers.
The earliest structures had been carved directly into the asteroid’s surviving stone, while later generations had expanded outward with metal, composite materials, and artificial landmasses.
Towers rose from the old rock like forests of silver and glass, connected by transit bridges and atmospheric corridors.
The central spine housed the city’s administrative systems, while the Academy occupied one of the oldest fortified sectors.
And beneath all of it—
A door.
Aryaan rubbed his forehead.
The headache had returned.
Not the sharp pain that usually accompanied his temporal perception, but a dull pressure that seemed to sit behind his eyes.
He had tried sleeping.
It had not worked.
He had tried meditation.
That had been worse.
During meditation, his mind had repeatedly returned to the same image.
A boy standing behind an ancient door.
A boy with his face.
His voice.
His memories.
Or perhaps Aryaan’s memories.
That distinction bothered him more than anything else.
A soft knock came at the door.
Aryaan turned.
Lane entered without waiting for an invitation.
Aryaan looked at him.
“You know, most people wait.”
Lane glanced at the door.
“I knocked.”
“You knocked and then came in.”
“You didn’t answer.”
“I was thinking.”
“Clearly.”
Aryaan narrowed his eyes.
Lane looked completely unimpressed.
Aryaan had spent most of his life trying to understand his cousin.
He had failed.
It was one of the few mysteries he had accepted without complaint.
“Did you sleep?” Aryaan asked.
“A little.”
“Nightmares?”
Lane paused.
“Not exactly.”
Aryaan turned away from the window.
“What does that mean?”
Lane leaned against the wall.
“It means I don’t know whether they were nightmares.”
Aryaan waited.
Lane’s eyes moved towards him.
“After what happened yesterday, I tried meditation.”
Aryaan immediately became attentive.
“And?”
“I saw the room.”
The room.
Aryaan knew exactly which one.
“Vanta-3?”
“No.”
Lane’s voice became quieter.
“Your parents’ house.”
Aryaan stared.
“From when?”
“I don’t know.”
“Past?”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
Lane shrugged.
“Time isn’t exactly my thing.”
Aryaan almost smiled.
“Neither is yours.”
“That’s what makes it funny.”
Aryaan stared at him.
Lane’s expression remained perfectly serious.
Aryaan snorted.
It was the first time either of them had smiled since the chamber incident.
Then Aryaan remembered the important part.
“You astrally projected?”
Lane shook his head.
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?”
“I was meditating. Then I was standing in the house.”
“Your astral body?”
“I don’t know.”
Aryaan’s eyes narrowed.
“Did you see yourself?”
“No.”
“Could you feel your body?”
“No.”
“Could you return whenever you wanted?”
Lane hesitated.
“No.”
Aryaan’s expression changed.
“That sounds like astral projection.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
Lane looked at him.
“Do you want me to call someone and ask?”
Aryaan thought about it.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if Anahita finds out we’re going to my parents’ house tonight, she’ll lock us in separate rooms.”
“That is probably the correct response.”
“Are you coming?”
Lane considered.
“Yes.”
Aryaan stared at him.
“That was suspiciously easy.”
“I want answers.”
Aryaan nodded.
That was enough.
He turned towards the door.
Then it opened.
Ron stood there.
Aryaan froze.
Lane closed his eyes.
Ron looked between them.
“So.”
Aryaan sighed.
“No.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
“Your face did.”
Ron looked offended.
“My face is innocent.”
“Your face is many things.”
Ron ignored him.
“Where are we going?”
“Nowhere.”
“Cool.”
Ron walked inside.
Aryaan stared.
Ron stared back.
Three seconds passed.
Aryaan gave up.
“We’re going to my parents’ house.”
Ron nodded.
“Okay.”
Aryaan waited.
Ron did not move.
“You’re coming?”
Ron looked confused.
“You literally just told me where we’re going.”
“I was hoping you would understand that it wasn’t an invitation.”
Ron considered that.
“Oh.”
He turned towards the door.
Aryaan felt relieved.
Ron stopped.
“Can I come?”
Aryaan closed his eyes.
Lane walked past him.
“Let him.”
Aryaan looked at Lane.
“Why?”
“Because if we leave him here, he’ll follow us.”
Ron pointed at Lane.
“See? This guy gets me.”
Lane kept walking.
Aryaan stared after him.
Then at Ron.
“You are both going to be the death of me.”
Ron grinned.
“Family bonding.”
They did not leave through the main Academy gates.
That would have been too sensible.
Instead, they used an old maintenance corridor connecting the student quarters to the western transit sector.
The passage was rarely used because modern transportation systems had made most manual access routes obsolete.
The walls still carried faded maintenance markings from nearly a century earlier.
Ron ran his fingers across one.
“Why does everything here look haunted?”
“Because you have no taste,” Aryaan said.
Ron frowned.
“It’s literally an abandoned corridor.”
“Exactly.”
Lane walked ahead.
Aryaan followed.
Ron brought up the rear.
After several minutes, Ron said:
“So are we going to talk about the kid?”
“No,” Aryaan answered.
“Cool.”
A minute passed.
“Because I have questions.”
“No.”
“Like why does he look like you?”
“No.”
“Whether he’s actually you?”
“No.”
“Whether you’re secretly ten years old?”
Aryaan stopped.
Lane walked another three steps before noticing.
Ron nearly walked into Aryaan.
“What?”
Aryaan stared.
“Do you ever stop talking?”
Ron thought about it.
“Not voluntarily.”
Aryaan resumed walking.
Ron followed.
“I’m just saying, if there’s a child version of you under the Academy, we should probably establish whether you have a history of abandoning children.”
Aryaan turned.
“Ron.”
“Yes?”
“Walk.”
Ron walked.
Three seconds later he said:
“I think I’m helping.”
Lane’s shoulders moved slightly.
Aryaan stared at him.
“Are you laughing?”
“No.”
“You are.”
“No.”
Ron pointed.
“He’s laughing.”
Lane turned.
“Walk.”
Ron immediately obeyed.
Aryaan smiled despite himself.
The humour helped.
That was something he had learned about the group over the years.
Potter could turn almost any disaster into an investigation.
Ron could turn almost any investigation into a disaster.
Somehow, between them, the rest of them usually survived.
Usually.
They emerged into the western transit sector.
The city was still functioning on reduced protocols.
Aryaan used an Academy transit card to access a public shuttle.
The machine scanned his identity.
Then displayed a warning.
ACADEMY SECURITY NOTICE: RESIDENTIAL SECTOR D-17 UNDER RESTRICTED ACCESS.
Ron leaned towards the screen.
“That’s where your house is, right?”
Aryaan nodded.
“Then this seems like a terrible plan.”
“It is.”
“Great.”
The shuttle doors opened.
They entered.
The cabin was nearly empty.
A few workers sat scattered across the seats, their attention focused on personal displays.
Aryaan took the window.
Lane sat beside him.
Ron sat opposite.
As the shuttle accelerated, the buildings outside became streaks of light.
Mokshabhumi’s transport system was one of the wonders of post-Earth engineering.
The station had too many people and too little space, so conventional roads had been replaced centuries earlier by layered magnetic transit channels.
Shuttles could travel through the station’s interior without wheels, suspended inside controlled electromagnetic fields.
Aryaan had grown up with it.
He remembered his father explaining the system when he was small.
His father had taken his hand and shown him the city from one of the upper observation decks.
Every system has a pattern, Aryaan.
If you understand the pattern, you can understand the system.
Aryaan closed his eyes.
His father had said many things.
Why did he remember that one now?
His headache intensified.
Lane looked at him.
“Don’t.”
Aryaan opened his eyes.
“Don’t what?”
“Push it.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
Aryaan stared at him.
Lane looked back out the window.
Ron watched them.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Aryaan said.
Ron frowned.
“You two have become really annoying since the creepy door.”
Aryaan looked at him.
“You weren’t annoying before?”
Ron smiled.
“Not according to me.”
The shuttle slowed.
Aryaan looked outside.
His childhood district appeared.
The view brought back memories so suddenly that he almost forgot to breathe.
Residential Sector D-17 had changed.
Not much.
That was what made it strange.
The same trees lined the central walkway.
The same low-rise residential towers stood beneath the artificial sky.
The same maintenance drones moved along the pavement.
His childhood home was still there.
It was a small house by Mokshabhumi standards, built into one of the older sections of the station where families had access to artificial gardens rather than the vertical apartment blocks used by most residents.
His parents had chosen it deliberately.
His mother had liked the garden.
His father had liked the privacy.
Aryaan remembered both.
He remembered his mother teaching him to grow vegetables beneath artificial sunlight.
He remembered his father repairing old machines at the kitchen table.
He remembered Ron and Lane running through the garden.
He remembered being angry when they broke one of his mother’s cultivation trays.
He remembered Ron blaming a cat.
There had been no cat.
There had never been a cat.
Aryaan smiled.
Then the memory shifted.
A door.
His father’s laboratory.
A child’s hand on the frame.
Someone arguing.
Aryaan opened his eyes.
The shuttle had stopped.
Lane was watching him.
“We’re here.”
Aryaan stood.
Ron followed.
They walked towards the house.
The security barrier should have stopped them.
It didn’t.
Aryaan placed his palm against the old biometric panel.
The system flickered.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED.
Ron stared.
“Your house still recognises you?”
“Apparently.”
“That’s creepy.”
“Everything is creepy to you.”
“I’m consistent.”
The gate opened.
Aryaan stepped inside.
The garden was smaller than he remembered.
Or perhaps he was simply larger.
That thought hurt more than he expected.
He walked slowly across the path.
The plants were dead.
Most of them.
A few hardy species had survived the years without proper maintenance, growing around the edges of the garden in tangled clusters.
His mother’s old cultivation table remained.
The surface was covered with dust.
Aryaan touched it.
His fingers came away grey.
He remembered her hands.
The smell of soil.
Her voice.
Don’t force it, Aryaan.
Plants don’t respond to impatience.
He smiled.
Then the smile disappeared.
Because his mother had been patient with plants.
She had been less patient with people.
Especially his father.
Ron walked past him.
“Your mother really liked plants.”
“She did.”
“What happened to them?”
“They died.”
Ron immediately looked uncomfortable.
Aryaan glanced at him.
“It’s okay.”
Ron nodded.
Then he pointed towards a dead plant.
“Can we not kill any more things while we’re here?”
Aryaan looked at him.
“Ron.”
“I’m just setting a goal.”
Lane walked towards the house.
The door was locked.
Aryaan scanned it.
Nothing.
Lane crouched.
“What?”
“Scratches.”
Aryaan crouched beside him.
Three marks were visible along the lower edge.
Fresh.
Aryaan touched them.
Metal had been scraped recently.
Ron crouched.
“Someone broke in?”
“Possibly,” Lane said.
Aryaan examined the lock.
“No.”
Ron frowned.
“How can you tell?”
“Because the lock wasn’t forced.”
“Then why are there scratches?”
Aryaan looked at Lane.
Lane’s eyes moved towards the side of the door.
“Someone opened it from inside.”
Aryaan stood.
“That’s impossible.”
Lane pointed.
“Look.”
The scratches weren’t around the lock.
They were around the lower hinge.
The door had been opened repeatedly despite the security system.
Someone had used a physical mechanism.
Aryaan stared.
His parents’ house had no reason to have one.
He placed his hand against the wall.
A faint pulse travelled through his palm.
He froze.
“There’s something here.”
Lane looked at him.
“What?”
Aryaan closed his eyes.
The pulse came again.
Not energy.
Not exactly.
A disturbance.
Something had happened here.
Recently.
Aryaan concentrated.
His temporal perception opened.
The garden shifted.
Dust vanished.
The dead plants became green.
The house brightened.
He saw his father.
Older than the last memory Aryaan had of him.
He was standing near the entrance.
His father looked exhausted.
He was speaking to someone.
Aryaan tried to focus.
The image broke.
He saw another scene.
His mother.
She was carrying a small jade object.
A pendant.
She placed it beneath the garden table.
Then she looked directly towards Aryaan.
The vision stopped.
Aryaan opened his eyes.
Lane was holding his arm.
“What?”
Aryaan stared at the garden table.
“My mother hid something.”
Ron immediately brightened.
“Now we’re talking.”
Aryaan ignored him.
He walked towards the table.
The structure was old.
Metal legs.
Composite top.
His mother had bought it from a Huaxian artisan decades ago.
Aryaan crouched.
Nothing.
He touched the underside.
A faint vibration moved through the metal.
“Here.”
Lane knelt beside him.
Aryaan ran his fingers across the underside.
There was a small depression.
He pressed it.
Nothing happened.
Ron looked over his shoulder.
“Maybe say please.”
Aryaan ignored him.
“Try Qi,” Lane said.
Aryaan looked at him.
Lane shrugged.
“You’re the one who found it.”
Aryaan closed his eyes.
He drew a small amount of energy through his meridians.
The depression glowed.
The table clicked.
A panel opened.
Ron leaned closer.
Inside was a piece of jade.
It was smaller than Aryaan’s palm.
Translucent.
Pale green.
Its surface contained tiny golden threads.
Aryaan stared.
He recognised it.
“That’s hers.”
Ron looked at him.
“Your mother’s?”
Aryaan nodded.
“She wore it all the time.”
Lane’s expression changed.
“Take it.”
He lifted the jade.
The instant his fingers touched it, the world disappeared.
He was standing in darkness.
Not physical darkness.
Astral darkness.
Aryaan did not know how he knew that.
He simply knew.
His body was somewhere else.
He could not feel his hands.
He could not feel the ground.
He could not even tell whether he was standing.
Then a light appeared.
A thread of golden energy.
It moved through the darkness like a river.
Aryaan instinctively followed it.
The sensation was different from his temporal perception.
When he saw the past through ordinary temporal resonance, he observed.
Here, he felt.
He could sense the structure of the jade.
Its memory.
Its imprint.
A voice came through the darkness.
His mother’s.
“Aryaan.”
He stopped.
His heart clenched.
The voice was unmistakable.
“Mom?”
The darkness shifted.
His mother appeared.
Not as a ghost.
Not as a physical body.
As an astral imprint.
She looked younger than Aryaan remembered from the last years before her disappearance.
Her face was tired.
But she was smiling.
Aryaan took a step forward.
“Mom.”
The recording reacted.
Her image remained still.
She could not see him.
It wasn’t a conversation.
It was a memory.
His mother began speaking.
“If you’re seeing this, then the jade seal has responded to you.”
Aryaan swallowed.
“So you knew.”
The recording continued.
“Your father and I discovered that the structure beneath Mokshabhumi is connected to the temporal disturbances we’ve been tracking.”
The scene changed.
A projection appeared beside her.
A three-dimensional model of Mokshabhumi.
Then the model expanded.
The station was surrounded by concentric rings of energy.
Aryaan stared.
His mother’s voice continued.
“The station was built around an older structure. We initially believed it was an ancient navigation system. We were wrong.”
The image changed.
The door beneath the Academy appeared.
Then another image.
A planetary core.
A network of energy lines extended from it.
“The structure appears to interact with planetary resonance.”
Aryaan’s attention sharpened.
His mother continued.
“We believe the same principle is connected to the phenomenon the Huaxian texts call the nomological force.”
The recording shifted.
Old Taoist symbols appeared.
Then modern equations.
Aryaan stared.
His mother had combined them.
Ancient cultivation theory with modern physics.
“The old texts described the universe as governed by patterns that must remain in balance. Modern researchers describe something similar through physical law. The terminology differs, but the underlying phenomenon appears to overlap.”
The image changed.
A planet.
Its core pulsed.
Then the planet’s energy began flowing outward.
“The Orions learned how to exploit this.”
The planet collapsed.
Aryaan’s stomach tightened.
His mother continued.
“Instead of resonating with planetary codes to strengthen themselves, they discovered how to extract the energy directly.”
The image changed again.
An Orion vessel appeared.
The design was unlike anything Aryaan had seen.
It was enormous.
A central spine ran through the ship, surrounded by concentric structures.
His mother’s voice continued.
“Their technique does not merely destroy planets. It destabilises the surrounding temporal field.”
Aryaan suddenly understood.
“The loop.”
His mother continued.
“The destruction of enough planetary systems eventually caused temporal instability in their universe. We believe that instability contributed to the fracture that allowed the Orion civilisation to reach parallel universes.”
The recording paused.
Then his mother said:
“However, we found something more disturbing.”
The image changed.
Earth.
Then Svargnagari.
Then Mokshabhumi.
A line connected them.
Aryaan stared.
“The same resonance signature exists beneath Svargnagari.”
His mother’s expression became serious.
“Which means the Orions may eventually find it.”
Aryaan’s pulse quickened.
“Your father believes the structure beneath Mokshabhumi can be used to locate the original temporal loop.”
A second figure appeared.
His father.
He was working at a console.
“The problem is that activating it may expose the location to anyone capable of detecting the resonance.”
Aryaan suddenly understood.
His parents hadn’t simply disappeared.
They had been investigating something dangerous enough to hide.
His mother’s voice continued.
“We have decided to leave Mokshabhumi temporarily.”
Aryaan’s heart stopped.
“Temporarily?”
The recording continued.
“We cannot tell you where we are going because any conventional record may be compromised.”
Aryaan felt his throat tighten.
His mother looked directly at the recording device.
“But there is something you need to know.”
The image shifted.
Three signatures appeared.
Aryaan recognised one.
His own.
The second was different.
Spatial.
The third was chaotic.
Elemental.
Aryaan stared.
His mother’s voice softened.
“You, Lane and Ron have all demonstrated unusual resonance since childhood.”
Aryaan whispered:
“You knew.”
“You have each shown abilities that normally emerge much later in cultivation.”
His mother’s image smiled sadly.
“We don’t know whether these are inherited traits, mutations, or a consequence of your exposure to the station’s resonance.”
Aryaan stared at the three signatures.
His mother’s voice continued.
“Do not rush to cultivate them.”
The recording became distorted.
Aryaan’s attention sharpened.
“Your abilities are not free.”
The words echoed.
“Every time the body crosses a threshold, something must compensate.”
Aryaan remembered the headaches.
Lane’s memory problems.
Ron’s strange mishaps.
His mother continued:
“Strength without integration causes damage. The ancient yogic traditions understood this better than modern science. Kundalini cannot simply be forced upward. The body, mind, and consciousness must expand enough to carry it.”
Aryaan’s eyes widened.
She was talking about astral practice.
“The astral state is part of that process. It allows consciousness to experience states the physical body cannot yet sustain. But returning is as important as leaving.”
The recording distorted again.
His mother’s voice became faint.
“Aryaan, if you ever reach the stage where you can consciously travel beyond your body, remember this—”
The image flickered.
“—do not follow every light.”
The recording broke.
Aryaan stared.
His mother disappeared.
He was alone.
Then another presence appeared.
Not his mother.
His father.
He looked directly towards Aryaan.
This was different.
The recording was not pre-programmed.
His father seemed to be speaking to someone who might actually watch it.
“If you are seeing this, then Meera was right.”
Aryaan stared.
His father continued.
“You found the jade.”
A faint smile.
“I knew you would.”
Aryaan’s eyes burned.
His father continued.
“There is one thing we did not put in the first recording because we did not want it to be found by anyone else.”
The image changed.
A map appeared.
Not of Mokshabhumi.
Of Svargnagari.
A location was marked.
Aryaan tried to memorise it.
His father spoke.
“We discovered that the structure beneath Mokshabhumi is not a weapon.”
The map expanded.
The marker moved.
“It is a relay.”
Aryaan stared.
“A relay for what?”
His father continued.
“We don’t know yet.”
The image changed.
A second location appeared.
Gaia.
Then a third.
Vanta-3.
Then another.
A distant point beyond known human space.
His father said:
“These locations share the same resonance.”
Aryaan felt the significance immediately.
They weren’t isolated sites.
They were connected.
His father continued.
“Someone built a network.”
The recording distorted.
His father’s voice became faint.
“And we think the network predates the Orions.”
Aryaan froze.
The image went black.
Then one final line appeared.
FOLLOW THE FIRST RELAY.
Aryaan reached towards it.
The moment his fingers touched the words, something struck him.
A violent pulse.
His astral form shattered.
Aryaan woke on the garden floor.
Ron was shouting.
“Wake up!”
Aryaan inhaled violently.
He sat upright.
Lane was kneeling beside him.
Ron was holding the jade.
Aryaan immediately snatched it away.
“What did you do?”
Ron looked offended.
“Saved your life.”
“What happened?”
“You collapsed,”
Lane answered.
“You were unconscious for nearly four minutes.”
Aryaan stared.
“Four minutes?”
Ron nodded.
“And you were glowing.”
Aryaan looked at Lane.
Lane nodded.
“Your chakra points were active.”
Aryaan stared at the jade.
He could still hear his mother’s voice.
Do not follow every light.
He closed his fist around the object.
Ron leaned closer.
“What did you see?”
Aryaan looked at him.
For once, Ron wasn’t joking.
Aryaan hesitated.
Then he decided.
“No secrets.”
Lane looked at him.
Aryaan continued.
“We’ve already lost enough time because people decided we were too young to know things.”
Lane nodded.
Ron sat down.
Aryaan told them.
Everything.
The recording.
The planetary cores.
The Orions.
The temporal instability.
The network.
The relay.
And the fact that their parents knew about their unusual abilities.
Ron remained silent until Aryaan finished.
Then he said:
“So our parents knew we were weird.”
Aryaan frowned.
“That’s your conclusion?”
“It’s one of them.”
Lane looked at the jade.
“What about the relay?”
Aryaan’s expression became serious.
“We need to find it.”
“Where?”
Aryaan pulled up the memory of the map.
He closed his eyes.
The location appeared again.
He described it.
Lane immediately recognised the sector.
“That’s not far from the old observatory.”
Aryaan looked at him.
“You know it?”
“I’ve been there.”
Ron frowned.
“Why?”
Lane looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Aryaan stared.
“That’s becoming a problem.”
Lane shrugged.
Ron stood.
“Okay, so we have a mysterious relay, our missing parents, a creepy door, an ancient planetary network, aliens who eat planets, and apparently all three of us are walking biological plot devices.”
Aryaan stared.
“Never say that again.”
“Fair.”
Lane stood.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
Lane pointed towards the jade.
“Your mother said the seal responded to you.”
Aryaan nodded.
“And?”
Lane looked at the garden.
“The house recognised you too.”
Aryaan’s expression changed.
He looked back at the entrance.
The biometric system.
The scratches.
The physical mechanism.
He suddenly understood.
The house hadn’t simply remained accessible to him.
It had been waiting.
“For me.”
Lane nodded.
Ron frowned.
“Why would your parents build a house that waits for you?”
Aryaan looked towards the laboratory.
His father’s laboratory.
“I don’t think they did.”
Ron looked at him.
“What?”
Aryaan walked towards the house.
“I think they modified it.”
The laboratory was at the back of the house.
Aryaan had not entered it since childhood.
His parents had used it for research, but after their disappearance, the Academy had sealed it.
The door was still locked.
Aryaan placed his hand against the scanner.
Nothing happened.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Ron leaned against the wall.
“Maybe it doesn’t like you.”
Aryaan ignored him.
Lane examined the panel.
“It’s not receiving power.”
Aryaan frowned.
The house had power.
The laboratory didn’t.
“Why?”
Lane examined the wiring.
“Separate circuit.”
“Can we activate it?”
“Probably.”
Ron smiled.
Aryaan looked at him.
“Why are you smiling?”
“I like probably.”
“No.”
Ron stopped smiling.
Lane opened the maintenance panel.
A series of old mechanical switches appeared.
He studied them.
“These aren’t connected to the house grid.”
Aryaan leaned closer.
“Then what are they connected to?”
Lane followed the wiring.
“Something underground.”
Aryaan looked at him.
Ron groaned.
“Of course.”
Aryaan found a switch.
He pressed it.
Nothing happened.
He pressed again.
Still nothing.
Ron said:
“Try hitting it.”
Aryaan turned.
“Why?”
“Because that’s how machines work.”
“No.”
“It works for me.”
“That’s because you hit things until they become afraid.”
Ron looked pleased.
“That is a valid strategy.”
Aryaan ignored him.
He poured a small amount of Qi into the switch.
The system activated.
The laboratory door opened.
Dust rolled out.
Aryaan froze.
The room looked almost exactly as he remembered.
His father’s workbench.
His mother’s research equipment.
Old cultivation diagrams.
Scientific displays.
A shelf containing ancient Taoist texts beside modern engineering manuals.
Aryaan walked inside.
His childhood memories returned.
He remembered sitting beneath the workbench while his father worked.
He remembered his mother telling him not to touch anything.
He remembered touching everything anyway.
Ron entered.
“Your parents were serious nerds.”
Aryaan smiled.
“They were.”
Lane moved towards the main console.
“It still has power.”
Aryaan joined him.
The system was old but functional.
A single file remained accessible.
PROJECT: RESONANCE NETWORK
Aryaan stared.
Ron leaned over.
“Open it.”
Aryaan activated it.
A schematic appeared.
The network was enormous.
It connected multiple worlds and stations.
Earth.
Svargnagari.
Gaia.
Vanta-3.
Several locations Aryaan didn’t recognise.
And at the centre—
Mokshabhumi.
Ron stopped smiling.
“That’s bad.”
Aryaan nodded.
“Very.”
Lane pointed towards the bottom of the screen.
“There’s a note.”
Aryaan opened it.
His father’s handwriting appeared.
Not a recording.
A simple note.
The network isn’t transmitting energy.
It is transmitting information.
Aryaan frowned.
“Information?”
Another line appeared.
Planetary resonance patterns.
Then:
Someone has been collecting them for centuries.
Aryaan’s heart tightened.
The next line:
The Orions did not discover planetary extraction independently.
Silence.
Ron looked at Aryaan.
“So someone taught them.”
Aryaan nodded.
The next line appeared.
Find out who.
The file ended.
No dramatic voice.
No mysterious warning.
Just three words.
Find out who.
Aryaan stared at the screen.
It was the first clue his parents had left that felt like a direct instruction.
Not a prophecy.
Not a warning.
A task.
He understood why.
His parents had been investigators.
They had known that eventually someone would have to continue their work.
Aryaan looked at Lane.
Then Ron.
“We find out who taught the Orions.”
Ron nodded.
Lane did too.
Then the laboratory lights went out.
All three froze.
Ron whispered:
“Please tell me that’s normal.”
Aryaan looked towards the door.
“No.”
A soft sound came from the ceiling.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Lane reached for his weapon.
Aryaan activated his temporal perception.
The room shifted.
For a fraction of a second, he saw someone standing behind them.
A figure.
Tall.
Wearing a dark cloak.
Nothing.
“Someone was here.”
Ron immediately turned.
“Where?”
“Behind us.”
Lane moved towards the doorway.
The corridor was empty.
Aryaan frowned.
“Could have been an afterimage.”
Lane shook his head.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Lane pointed towards the floor.
A footprint.
Fresh.
Not theirs.
Ron stared.
“Okay.”
He looked towards Aryaan.
“I vote we leave.”
Aryaan almost agreed.
Then he noticed something.
The footprint had been made by a boot.
But the dust around it had not moved.
Aryaan crouched.
He touched it.
His temporal perception activated.
He saw the person.
Not clearly.
A shadow.
Moving through the laboratory.
Then the figure stopped beside the main console.
The image sharpened.
Aryaan saw a hand.
A ring.
A symbol.
Three intersecting lines.
The same symbol from Vanta-3.
The figure touched the console.
Then looked directly at Aryaan.
The vision ended.
Aryaan opened his eyes.
“Someone accessed this terminal recently.”
Lane crouched beside him.
“When?”
Aryaan closed his eyes again.
He calculated.
“Three days ago.”
Ron frowned.
“But the security lockdown started yesterday.”
“Exactly.”
Aryaan stood.
“Someone knew about this place before we came.”
Lane looked towards the door.
“Someone from the Academy?”
“Maybe.”
Ron looked horrified.
“Please don’t say that.”
Aryaan turned.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want our list of enemies to include teachers.”
Aryaan smiled faintly.
“Fair.”
Lane looked at the console.
“There’s another file.”
Aryaan turned.
Lane had found a hidden directory.
The title was simple.
ASTRAL OBSERVATION LOGS
Aryaan stared.
Ron looked confused.
“What?”
Aryaan opened it.
A list of dates appeared.
Most were from years ago.
The earliest was from before Aryaan had been born.
The latest—
Yesterday.
Aryaan’s expression changed.
“Yesterday?”
Lane nodded.
Someone had used the laboratory after the chamber incident.
Aryaan opened the file.
A recording began.
His father appeared.
But this time he wasn’t alone.
Devdutt stood beside him.
Aryaan froze.
His father’s voice came first.
“If this record is being accessed, then the house has already recognised one of the boys.”
Devdutt looked at him.
“Which one?”
His father answered:
“We don’t know.”
Aryaan stared.
Devdutt looked younger than he remembered.
More serious.
His hair had far less grey.
His face was tired.
His father continued.
“The resonance is increasing in all three.”
Devdutt crossed his arms.
“Then the Academy must accelerate their training.”
“No.”
Devdutt frowned.
“They’re children.”
“Exactly.”
Aryaan’s heart tightened.
His father continued.
“Teach them how to survive first. Power can come later.”
Devdutt looked towards the camera.
“And if the Orions arrive before then?”
His father didn’t answer.
The recording shifted.
A second scene.
Devdutt was alone.
He was meditating.
Aryaan watched as Devdutt’s physical body remained seated inside the laboratory while another form slowly emerged from it.
Astral travel.
Aryaan leaned closer.
Devdutt’s astral form moved through the room.
He passed through the wall.
The recording followed him.
He travelled downward.
Through the station.
Past layers of metal.
Past stone.
Past the Academy.
And into the ancient structure.
Aryaan’s breath caught.
The chamber.
Devdutt entered it alone.
He approached the door.
But this time, the door did not open.
Devdutt placed his hand against it.
The symbol appeared.
Then something unexpected happened.
A second symbol appeared beneath his hand.
Devdutt’s face changed.
He stepped backwards.
The recording ended.
Aryaan stared at the blank screen.
Ron looked at him.
“So Devdutt knew about the door.”
Aryaan nodded.
“Obviously.”
Lane looked at the screen.
“But he couldn’t open it.”
Aryaan’s mind raced.
That mattered.
If Devdutt, a senior cultivator capable of conscious astral travel, couldn’t open the door— then Aryaan had.
Not deliberately.
But the door had responded to him.
Ron sat on the edge of the desk.
“So the door likes Aryaan.”
Aryaan looked at him.
“Don’t phrase it like that.”
“I’m just saying.”
Lane looked towards the jade.
“Your mother said the same thing.”
Aryaan remembered.
The seal had responded to him.
The door had responded to him.
The house had responded to him.
Three separate systems.
One common factor.
Him.
Aryaan stared at his hands.
His mother’s warning returned.
Every time the body crosses a threshold, something must compensate.
His headache suddenly became worse.
He stumbled.
Lane caught him.
“Again?”
Aryaan nodded.
Ron stood.
“That’s not normal.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean really not normal.”
Aryaan looked at him.
Ron pointed towards Aryaan’s hand.
A thin line of blood was running from his nose.
Aryaan wiped it.
He stared at the blood.
Lane’s expression tightened.
“We’re stopping.”
“No.”
“Aryaan.”
“We have a lead.”
“You have a concussion waiting to happen.”
“We have a lead.”
Lane’s voice hardened.
“And if you collapse?”
Aryaan looked at him.
Lane continued.
“Then what?”
Aryaan opened his mouth.
Nothing came.
Ron stepped between them.
“Okay. Nobody’s winning this argument because both of you are idiots.”
Lane stared.
Ron raised both hands.
“Respectfully.”
Aryaan sighed.
Ron continued.
“We have the map. We have the recording. We know the network exists. We know our parents were investigating it. We know the Orions didn’t invent planetary extraction themselves.”
He pointed towards Aryaan.
“And we know your head is bleeding.”
Aryaan touched his nose.
Ron lowered his voice.
“Maybe that’s enough for tonight.”
Aryaan looked at the console.
For once, Ron was right.
He hated that.
“Fine.”
Ron smiled.
“Thank you.”
Aryaan pointed at him.
“Don’t enjoy this.”
“I am absolutely going to enjoy this.”
Lane walked towards the door.
“Come on.”
They left the laboratory.
Aryaan looked back once.
The room was dark.
His parents had left behind a path.
Not an answer.
But a path.
For the first time since their disappearance, Aryaan felt that he was not simply searching for ghosts.
He was following investigators.
And that changed everything.
They did not notice the fourth person in the house.
The figure stood in the garden.
Behind the old cultivation table.
Watching them leave.
The figure waited until the boys had disappeared beyond the gate.
Then stepped forward.
A woman.
She was wearing a simple dark coat.
No weapon.
No visible technology.
She looked towards the house.
Then towards the direction in which the three cousins had disappeared.
She touched a small device at her wrist.
A holographic image appeared.
The same resonance map Aryaan had just discovered.
The woman studied it.
Then opened a communication channel.
“Confirming.”
A voice responded.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Which one accessed the network?”
The woman looked towards the house.
“Aryaan.”
A pause.
“Did he find the relay?”
“Not yet.”
“Good.”
The woman closed the channel.
She looked back at the house.
For a moment, she seemed almost sad.
Then she whispered:
“Your parents were right about one thing.”
She touched the old garden table.
“The children would come looking.”
Across Mokshabhumi, Devdutt sat alone.
He was inside a meditation chamber beneath a small Taoist shrine.
The room was almost completely dark.
A single lamp burned before an ancient statue.
Devdutt sat cross-legged.
His breathing was slow.
Controlled.
His consciousness gradually loosened from the physical body.
He entered the astral state.
The world changed.
The shrine disappeared.
Mokshabhumi became translucent.
He could see the station’s layers as overlapping fields of energy.
The ancient structure beneath the Academy glowed faintly.
Devdutt travelled downward.
He reached the sealed chamber.
He stopped.
The door was still there.
Closed.
But something had changed.
Devdutt approached.
A faint symbol appeared.
Not the one he had seen before.
A small human hand.
Devdutt’s face hardened.
He touched it.
Nothing.
Then he heard a sound.
A child’s laughter.
Devdutt’s astral form immediately withdrew.
He returned to his body violently.
His eyes opened.
He inhaled.
Blood trickled from his nose.
Devdutt wiped it away.
For several seconds he remained still.
Then he reached for a communicator.
“Anahita.”
His sister answered almost immediately.
“What happened?”
“He found the jade.”
Silence.
“Who?”
Devdutt looked towards the shrine.
“Aryaan.”
Anahita exhaled.
“You were supposed to stop this.”
“I tried.”
“Then try harder.”
Devdutt’s expression hardened.
“I can’t stop something that has already started.”
Anahita’s voice became quieter.
“Does he know?”
“No.”
“What does he know?”
Devdutt thought about the recording.
“The basics.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Devdutt sighed.
“He knows his parents were investigating the resonance network. He knows the Orions learned planetary extraction from someone else. He knows Mokshabhumi is part of the network.”
Anahita was silent.
“And the relay?”
“Not yet.”
“Good.”
Devdutt stood.
Anahita asked:
“Where is he going?”
Devdutt looked towards the city.
“I don’t know.”
Then he stopped.
His expression changed.
“Wait.”
“What?”
Devdutt’s eyes narrowed.
“I know where he will go.”
Aryaan, Lane, and Ron were halfway across the transit sector when Aryaan stopped.
Lane turned.
“What?”
Aryaan looked at the navigation display.
Ron nearly walked into him.
“Why did we stop?”
Aryaan pointed.
The route they had been planning to take appeared on the screen.
A location marker pulsed.
It was the old observatory.
Lane looked at it.
“That’s where we need to go.”
Aryaan nodded.
Ron stared at both of them.
“You two are doing the creepy thing again.”
Aryaan ignored him.
He looked at the map.
His mother’s recording.
The relay.
The old observatory.
Something suddenly clicked.
His father had said:
Follow the first relay.
The first relay wasn’t necessarily a physical machine.
It could be a location.
A place from which the network had first been detected.
Aryaan looked at Lane.
“Have your parents ever taken you there?”
Lane frowned.
“No.”
Ron raised his hand.
“I have.”
Aryaan turned.
“What?”
Ron looked surprised by their reaction.
“The observatory.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Why?”
Ron shrugged.
“I got lost.”
Aryaan stared.
Lane stared.
Ron looked between them.
“What?”
Aryaan slowly smiled.
For once, Ron’s greatest talent had done exactly what it always did.
It had gotten him into something he didn’t understand.
And somehow, that something might now be useful.
“Ron.”
“Yes?”
“When you got lost…”
Aryaan’s smile widened.
“Where did you end up?”
Ron thought about it.
His face changed.
“Oh.”
Lane stepped closer.
“What?”
Ron looked at them.
“I think…”
He hesitated.
Aryaan waited.
Ron pointed towards the old observatory.
“There was a room under it.”
Aryaan’s smile disappeared.
“Describe it.”
Ron frowned.
“Dark.”
“Ron.”
“Old.”
“Ron.”
“Had a door.”
Lane’s eyes narrowed.
Ron looked at them.
“And…”
He scratched his head.
“I think I saw your parents.”
Aryaan went completely still.
The city moved around them.
Ships crossed the transit lanes.
People walked past.
Mokshabhumi continued its ordinary life.
But Aryaan heard none of it.
He looked at Ron.
“You saw my parents?”
Ron nodded slowly.
“I think so.”
“When?”
Ron looked uncomfortable.
“Before they disappeared.”
Aryaan’s heart began pounding.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Ron stared at him.
“I thought it was a dream.”
Lane looked at Aryaan.
Aryaan looked at Ron.
And suddenly the three cousins understood something that none of them had considered.
Their childhood memories were not merely incomplete.
They had been edited by time, trauma, cultivation, or perhaps something else entirely.
And Ron—the boy who trusted everyone, the boy who forgot half the things he did and accidentally stumbled into the other half—might possess one of the missing pieces.
Aryaan looked towards the observatory.
“We’re going.”
Lane nodded.
Ron sighed.
“Can we at least eat first?”
Aryaan stared at him.
Ron raised his hands.
“What? Ancient temporal conspiracy or not, I’m hungry.”
Lane looked at Aryaan.
Aryaan looked at Ron.
Then, despite everything, he laughed.
“Fine.”
Ron smiled.
“Finally. Leadership.”
Aryaan started walking.
“Ten minutes.”
Ron followed.
“Fifteen.”
“Ten.”
“Twelve.”
“Ten.”
“Eleven.”
“Ron.”
“Fine, ten.”
Lane walked between them.
For a few minutes, the three cousins looked almost like they had when they were children.
Almost.
None of them noticed the woman watching from the upper transit bridge.
She held a small communication device.
Her message was short.
They are going to the observatory.
The response arrived immediately.
Let them.
She frowned.
Then another message appeared.
The first relay was designed to be found.
She looked towards the three boys.
It is time they learned why.