Chapter 17: Part One- The Revelation

The cave had smelled of ash and copper.

July, 1999. Limpopo- Yihizo Ye Langa

John’s boots crunched over dust as he and Miloslav descended into the hollow.

 The air here was thick, pressing against their chests, humming faintly with an energy neither of them yet understood.

At the heart of the cavern- was the seal.

A disc of obsidian stone, veins of silver running through it like cracks in a frozen lake. Strange markings spiralled outward, pulsing faintly as though with breath.

John’s jaw was tight. “You feel it too.”

Miloslav nodded, though his throat had gone dry.

They circled the stone, weapons lowered but hands ready. Neither of them spoke for a long while—until the silence was broken by a voice.

“The seal… who can open the seal?”

The words seemed to stretch time, to tug at their very thoughts.

John stepped closer despite himself. “Did you hear—”

“Who can open the seal?”

The sound rose, coaxing and commanding at once. Miloslav’s knees buckled. His body moved before his mind agreed. His hand reached out, trembling toward the obsidian surface—

And then—

Twenty-six years later.

Limpopo had grown silent. No birds, no insects. The land remembered.

Miloslav’s boots struck familiar ground as he led Ava, Christian, Helena, and Maya through the narrow gorge toward the cavern mouth. The jagged opening yawned before them like a scar left unhealed.

“Why here?” Helena asked, clutching her cloak tighter.

Miloslav didn’t answer at first. His eyes lingered on the black stone cliffs, as though he could still see the ghosts of smoke curling from them. Finally, he spoke:

“Because this is where it began.”

They glanced at him, puzzled.

“One hundred thousand lives lost in a single day,” he said flatly. “It started here- in this cave.”

The weight of his words settled heavy. Christian froze mid-step. Ava’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I was there,” Miloslav admitted. “I touched something I wasn’t meant to. I thought it would give us revelation. Instead, it tore the sky open. That was the day this cycle of Convergence began.”

Silence fell. The ash-choked wind hissed between the stones.

Ava’s voice finally cut through, sharp with accusation. “How do you know all this? You sound like… like one of them.”

Miloslav’s jaw clenched. Then, slowly, he answered:

“Because I was once a Gnostic. Before the AZO.”

Shock rippled through the group. Christian muttered, “That’s impossible…”

Helena’s face twisted as though she didn’t recognize him anymore.

Ava stepped forward, fury burning in her eyes. “Then you knew Aries? You knew about me and Anya all along?”

“No.” His denial came fast, firm. “I never met Aries. I never knew about you or your sister, at the time. The Order guard their truths even from their own. I left before I learned more than fragments.”

But Ava’s anger didn’t fade. Her hands trembled at her sides. “So what—now you’re leading us into the same trap you fell into back then?”

Before Miloslav could respond, the ground shuddered. Dust sifted from the cavern ceiling. The air thickened, humming with the same impossible vibration he remembered from decades ago.

And then came the voice.

“The seal… who can open the seal?”

Every muscle in Miloslav’s body went rigid. His breath caught in his throat. The same voice. The same cursed question.

Helena staggered back, eyes wide. Christian clutched his head as the words tore through his mind.

“Who can open the seal?”

The voice grew louder, hungry now, demanding.

And then—Maya stiffened. Her eyes glowed red, light spilling like blood into the shadows. Her lips moved, but it was not her voice that spoke:

“I can open the seal.”

Ava cried out, lunging toward her. Christian recoiled in horror.

“No!” Miloslav roared, slamming into Maya and knocking her to the stone. Her eyes flickered, the glow shattering for a moment as she gasped.

“Run!” Miloslav bellowed at the others. “Don’t listen—just run!”

The cavern erupted. The seal pulsed with violent light, cracks spider webbing across its surface as the voice howled louder, no longer coaxing but enraged.

They sprinted through the tunnels, the roar behind them rising to a fever pitch. The walls shook, stones raining down, the very air tearing with sound—

And then, silence.

They collapsed outside, gasping under the dim haze of the One Light. For a long time, none of them spoke.

Helena’s voice was the first to break, unsteady. “What… was that?”

Christian’s face was pale. “That wasn’t human.”

Miloslav didn’t speak. His hands still trembled.

Ava turned on him, voice shaking with fury. “You knew. You’ve always known. And you kept it from us.”

He met her eyes at last, weary, regret heavy on his features.

“Now you know everything …” His voice dropped. “Now that you’ve seen it too. Now that the Order won’t stop until they tear the seal wide open, will you help me stop them?”

 

Sahara Desert — Outside the Base

The sand was cold at night.

Anya hugged her knees as she sat on the slope of a dune, her boots half-buried in the sand.

The sky above wasn’t like it used to be. Not a ceiling of stars, but a torn fabric—black threads frayed, seams splitting. Between the constellations, pale slits of light bled through, like the heavens themselves were coming undone.

Cole dropped down beside her, his coat brushing the sand. For a while, neither of them spoke. The silence was heavy, filled only by the wind and the faint hum of the base behind them.

Finally, Anya whispered, “It doesn’t even feel like our world anymore.”

Her voice cracked, too soft to echo.

Cole didn’t answer right away. He pulled a flask from his belt, took a slow sip, then handed it to her. She shook her head, eyes fixed on the broken sky.

“Cole,” she said, tighter this time. “What’s the story? About the Zodiacs. About me. Everyone acts like I’m part of some great plan, but no one tells me why.”

He sighed, leaning back on his elbows. “You’re not supposed to know yet.”

“I don’t care.” She turned toward him, starlight glinting in her eyes. “I need to know.”

His jaw clenched. For a long moment, he watched the sky, as if weighing whether it would punish him for speaking. Then he exhaled.

“The Order believes the world we knew was false,” he said at last.

“Something built to keep us blind.”

 He looked up to the sky before continuing.

 “This is proof that there’s more beneath the surface. That creation itself wasn’t what it seemed.”

Anya’s throat tightened. “What about the Thirteenth?”

His voice dropped lower. “The witness. The one who can prove it. Whoever they are, they’ll have the truth locked inside them. And when the Order finds them, everything changes.”

She bit her lip. “But what does that have to do with me?”

“You’re one of the Twelve,” Cole said simply. “You’re not just part of the story—you’re the center of it. Your father knew that. And once the Thirteenth is found, all of this—will finally make sense.”

Anya stared at the stitches in the sky, pulling apart thread by thread. Her hands curled into fists. “Faith doesn’t keep me warm at night, Cole.”

Something flickered across his face—pain, guilt, maybe both. He reached out, resting a steady hand on her shoulder.

“Then trust me instead,” he said quietly.

“You don’t need every answer yet. Just hold on. Trust your father’s work.”

Anya didn’t answer. She just kept staring at the unravelling heavens, wondering if trust alone could hold anything together.