Location; Seoul, South Korea – Haengnim Private Medical Institute
The skyline of Seoul glittered with deceptive calm. Beneath its neon charm and order hid archives of horror stitched into flesh and memory.
Nora's boots echoed in the hospital corridor as she followed an aging nurse named Soo-min. The woman moved with the grace of someone who had buried too many secrets in silence. They passed doors labeled in both Korean and Russian, flanked by biometric locks that whispered of past alliances never meant to exist.
"This is where your mother disappeared to in 1992," Soo-min said, her voice low. "She wasn't a victim. She was part of the experiments."
Nora's heart raced. "What kind of experiments?"
Soo-min hesitated, then opened a concealed door.
Beyond it lay a sealed archive chamber. Inside, reels of surveillance footage, cryo-stored blood samples, and a wall-length digital registry flickered on. Nora stepped forward. Her mother's name appeared beside a dozen others—global elite surnames she recognized from the Council of Eight.
Damien, watching from a monitor in Tavara, leaned forward. "She was embedded?"
"More than that," Layla's voice said. "She was one of the origin researchers of the Vox Divina project. Seoul was its second cradle—after Prague."
Meanwhile, in Moscow...
Viktor Orlov knelt before a shadowed figure whose voice echoed through layered static.
"I failed to secure the Vox Divina," Viktor confessed, placing a glowing shard on the table.
The figure leaned forward—female, veiled in obsidian fabric and crowned in Siberian emeralds. Her identity: still unknown. Her power: unmistakable.
"You gave me blood," she said. "I expected results."
"You will have both," Viktor vowed. "The shard alone contains enough resonance to unlock sleeper nodes in the Council."
The woman touched the shard. It pulsed faintly—alive.
"Then let the awakening begin."
In Tavara, Damien watched his mother as she sat in the garden, her eyes distant, her hands trembling as she sipped tea.
"You knew about Seoul," he said quietly.
She didn't deny it.
"They were building something beyond psychic control," she whispered. "Your uncle wanted power. But I—I wanted protection. Your father… he walked away when he learned the cost."
Damien's fists clenched. "And what was the cost?"
She looked up, tears lining her gaze. "You."
Back in Seoul, Nora unearthed the final file. Her mother's alias: Mi-Ra Han. Korean intelligence had once classified her as both an asset and a liability. The last entry was dated three weeks ago.
"She was here recently," Nora muttered. "And she left with someone. A man named Elias Kyro."
Damien's voice shot through the comms. "That's Archer's Eurasian identity. He's not done."
Nora closed the file, her resolve burning. "Then neither are we."