Читать книгу Universe Aeternov. Book two. The Shadow that Remembers the Light - Группа авторов - Страница 7

“We thought that the Darkness came from outside.

But she was born in a place where no one heard the baby crying.”

1. THE VISION FROM THE CRACK.

After the team returned from 1995, the “Heart of Tomorrow” suddenly went quiet.

It didn’t break.

Not tired.

But it was hiding, as if it had seen something.

“What’s going on?” Andrey asked, putting his palm on the case.

The ship responded not with a voice, but with a memory.

Not to everyone individually.

Everyone at once.

The characters simultaneously fell into the chrono gap, a place between the lines where time does not flow, but groans with loss.

And there they saw her.

Not Alina.

And the Chrono Shadow is in its original form.

A tall figure with blurred features, wearing a cloak made of ashes and a broken watch. The eyes are empty, but Knox is reflected in their depths.

“Is that… him?” Elira whispered.

– No, – Alina replied, trembling. “That’s who he was… until no one loved him.”

2. THE BIRTH OF THE SHADOW.

The vision unfolded.

Before Aeternov.

See you with the team.

Young Knox is neither a hero nor a villain. A lost boy whose village was wiped off the map because it “had no strategic value.” His mother died in the fire, screaming, “Someone help!”

No one came.

He survived. But the soul was not healed.

It’s festering.

Years later, as an adult, he learns about the Chrono-Heart. And he thinks,

“If time can be stopped… maybe I can bring her back”?

He doesn’t want power.

He wants a mom.

But the Sand of Time does not obey. Then he begins to tear the fabric of reality, trying to get closer to the moment before the fire.

And the second he tears out a piece of time, a Shadow bursts out of a wound in the fabric of the world.

Not An Absolute Evil.

And his pain, taking shape.

The Chrono-Shadow is not born out of malice.

She is born out of desperation.

“I’m not a villain, – Knox whispers in the vision, looking at his reflection in the mirror of cracked time. “I’m just… too lonely.”

And at that moment, the Shadow embraces him.

Not to destroy it.

But to become one.

3. THE FIRST MEETING

The vision is changing.

The team sees the first meeting – what happened in the first Book, when they were not yet united.

Andrey is Odin, the newly awakened Chronos.

Alexey is a soldier who lost his daughter.

Elira is a singer who is afraid of her own voice.

Inna is a ruler who sees all the ways, but does not know which one to choose.

And in front of them is Knox in the guise of a Chrono Shadow.

He doesn’t attack.

He says:

“Do you think I want to destroy the world?” No. I want my world back. And if it can’t be returned… let no one be happy. Because this happiness is a lie for those who have lost everything.

Andrey doesn’t understand then. He tries to separate the Darkness and Knox with a sword.

But the blade cuts through the Shadow – and cuts his own childhood memory.

Elira sings. Her voice flies to the Shadow… and is reflected, erasing the name of her first teacher.

“She’s not an enemy, – Inna whispers then. “She’s a wound. And a wound cannot be killed. It can only be healed.

But no one knows how yet.

Until one day Elira remembers:

“Everyone who cries in the dark… had a mother who once sang a lullaby.”

4. THE TRUTH ABOUT KNOX

The vision ends.

The crew returns to the ship. There are tears in everyone’s eyes.

“So, he was always a Shadow?” Alexey asks quietly.

“No, – Alina shakes her head. “He gave birth to a Shadow… but he didn’t become one. He continues to carry her around in order to understand her pain. And that is why Absolute Evil cannot possess him completely. Because Knox remembers where she came from.

“He didn’t betray us,” says Andrey, clutching his watch in his hands like fragments of the past. “He accepted it. How a father accepts a sick son.

– And now… – Inna whispers, – Absolute Evil wants to use his body to be born in the First World… as a new Knox, but without tears. Without pain. Without a choice.

“Then we have to stop this, – Elira says firmly. “Not as warriors. And those who remember his mother.

5. THE SOLUTION

The team gathers in the ship’s control center.

“We are flying to 1978,” says Andrey. “Not to change the past. And to protect the moment when I chose the child… and when Knox first felt that good was possible.

– And if the Darkness is already there? Ziggy asks.

“Then we’ll remind her,” Alina smiles, “that even the Shadow had a mother. And her lullaby… has not been forgotten yet.

The “Heart of Tomorrow” lights up with a soft light. Not military, but domestic.

Because this time they’re not going to war.

They fly to save the one who once created a Shadow… so that they can heal it.