Celestine stood before the towering, dormant automatons, their obsidian cores darkened by time. The weight of history pressed against her chest. If Elias was telling the truth—if Noctis-Lux was built atop a buried civilization of sentient machines—then everything she had sworn to protect had been built on a lie.
Alistair remained at her side, his stance rigid. "If the Light Council knew about this," he said, "then they've spent centuries covering it up."
Elias leaned casually against a rusted console. "Not just covering it up," he said, watching Celestine carefully. "They destroyed them. Erased them."
Celestine turned to him. "And you expect me to believe this?"
Elias smirked. "Your city's gears turn on blood and secrets, Celestine. You were just never meant to see the cogs."
She wanted to deny it. Wanted to believe that the Council—the system she had spent years upholding—had not been built upon genocide. But the ruins spoke for themselves.
The woman with the mechanical eye stepped forward. "The Obsidian Order was formed by those who remembered," she said. "We have spent decades piecing together what the Light Council erased. These machines weren't just constructs. They were the first citizens of this world."
Celestine inhaled sharply. Citizens.
Not servants. Not tools.
People.
Alistair ran a gloved hand through his hair, frustration clear in his expression. "If this is true, then why come to us now? Why not reveal this to the world?"
The woman's cybernetic lens flickered. "Because the Light Council is preparing to finish what they started."
A heavy silence fell.
Celestine turned to Elias. "Explain."
Elias's expression darkened. "Noctis-Lux has been experiencing energy failures, hasn't it?"
She hesitated. It was true—there had been increasing power disruptions across the city, unexplained failures in even the most well-maintained districts.
Elias nodded, reading her silence. "That's because the Council is running out of fuel. The city's entire power grid was built upon stolen obsidian cores—the same cores that powered these ancient beings. And now, after centuries of leeching their energy, the supply is dwindling."
Celestine's breath caught. "You're saying—"
"They plan to find the remaining cores," Elias interrupted, his voice grim. "And drain them. Completely."
A chilling realization settled over her.
If the Council was desperate enough, they wouldn't stop at abandoned ruins. They would hunt down any remnants of the first civilization. They would eliminate any trace of the past.
Celestine had to return to Noctis-Lux. She needed answers.
And if the Council had truly betrayed its people, if they had lied to her—
Then she would burn their kingdom to the ground.
The wheels of fate had begun to turn.