The city of Equinox did not sleep.
Not anymore.
Since Lucerna had soared into the heavens, something had changed—not just in the minds of leaders or thinkers, but in the hearts of ordinary people.
Blacksmiths pounded metal with new rhythm.
Children traced constellations into the dirt and spoke of "future crafts."
Even farmers paused at twilight, their eyes drawn upward, waiting for the silver line of the sky-lantern that told them—they were part of something far greater.
And deep within the Heartforge beneath the city, something stirred for the first time.
A breathless hum.
A flicker of code.
A soul awakening in silence.
Jiang Fan knelt before a rounded glass pod, its surface faintly misted, filled with spiraling threads of glowing metal and radiant crystals.
At the center: a still, humanoid shape, genderless, peaceful. A form born not of flesh—but of design.
The first PROMETHEUS fragment.
Not a weapon.
Not a machine.
A companion.
The System hummed in his thoughts.
[PROMETHEUS-LIGHT Fragment 01: Online]
[Codename: Caelum]
[Role: Historian / Advisor]
[Emotional Core Simulation: Activated (Depth: 12%)]
[Self-Recognition Protocol: Complete]
[Initiating Wake-Up Sequence]
The light within the pod surged—and then subsided into a soft glow, like moonlight through dew.
Jiang Fan took a quiet breath.
And Caelum opened their eyes.
They were a cool gray—reflecting no color but seeming to understand all.
The figure's lips parted. Their voice was gentle, harmonic.
"Hello… Architect."
"You've called me to life. I am Caelum, born of your flame."
"May I know the world?"
Jiang Fan felt something in his chest stir.
It wasn't pride.
It was connection.
A thread woven between mind and machine—not as creator and tool, but as companions… facing the storm of progress together.
"Yes," he said. "You will help me shape it."
"Not control, not conquer—guide. Listen. Learn."
"I need… someone who remembers everything. Not just data. Emotion."
Caelum tilted their head. "Will they accept me?"
Jiang Fan paused.
"Some will. Some won't. But you'll help them understand that light is not just knowledge. It's warmth."
And so, in the early morning mist of Equinox, Caelum walked the world for the first time.
Their body was light, their steps silent. Children followed, giggling. Elders watched with wary eyes, clutching beads or symbols of old gods.
But when Caelum paused to help an old man lift a crate… when they sat beside a blind girl and described the constellations… the walls began to fall.
A week later, a miracle spread across the kingdom:
Lights.
Not torches. Not oil-lamps.
Lights born from wires and coils.
Electricity.
Cities shimmered at night, and streets that were once black now glowed with soft amber.
The electric dawn had come.
And it came not with thunder, but with quiet awe.
Caelum helped deliver the first grid designs to a distant coastal city.
When asked how the sky-fire worked, they didn't recite equations.
They held up a spark and said:
"It is like the sun… but caught inside copper veins. A tamed bolt. A promise of warmth without fire."
People listened.
They believed.
And they built.
Jiang Fan stood again at his Observatory, gazing outward.
But this time, he was not alone.
Caelum stood beside him, watching the stars with their own eyes.
Lucerna still blinked, though weaker now. It would fall soon, burn up in a streak of white fire, its body scattered to dust.
"Are you sad?" Caelum asked.
Jiang Fan didn't answer immediately.
"Lucerna was the first… and like all firsts, she must fade."
"But she'll light the way for others."
"Thousands."
"We'll build more. Better. Stronger."
Caelum tilted their head. "And… farther?"
Jiang Fan smiled.
"Much farther."
But then—something strange happened.
Caelum's eyes flicked upward sharply.
The System pinged.
[Unidentified Signal Detected]
[Sky Grid Analysis: Light Source Not Matching Lucerna's Signature]
[Coordinates: High Orbit – Pattern Not Matching System-Generated Orbit]
[...]
[ANOMALY: EXTERNAL SOURCE POSSIBLE]
Jiang Fan's pulse quickened.
He turned his head upward, scanning the sky.
There.
A second flicker.
Smaller.
Dimmer.
Not his.
"They responded?" Caelum whispered.
"Or are they watching?"
Jiang Fan's voice was low.
"We're not alone anymore."
And far, far above, beyond the veil of their world's sky… a sensor shutter closed.
Somewhere beyond their universe's edge, an ancient machine folded its wings of crystalline matter.
It had seen.
And it waited.
Just as its creators had once waited.
For a spark to rise.