Chapter 13 - THE RESERVOIR
They went to the hydroelectric station on Ivy’s birthday.
Julian wanted to delay, but the memories had become unbearable.
Ivy woke screaming that morning with a sequence of numbers burned into her thoughts.
Celeste wrote down the same numbers before Ivy told her.
The archive was calling them.
The station stood beside a vast reservoir surrounded by forest. Its turbines had been inactive for decades.
A federal team secured the property.
Margaret remained at the guesthouse under guard. The woman believed to be Ellen was held for medical observation, though Ivy insisted she not be treated as a criminal.
Thomas joined the expedition.
So did Helena and Arthur.
Inside the station, Ivy and Celeste followed the route reconstructed from their shared memories.
Down three iron staircases.
Through a maintenance tunnel.
Past a control room flooded ankle-deep with black water.
At the end stood a red metal door.
Ivy’s dream.
Celeste inserted a brass key they had found inside the chapel files.
The door opened.
Beyond it, a passage descended beneath the reservoir.
Water pressed against reinforced glass panels on both sides. Fish moved through the dark.
Ivy held Celeste’s hand.
“I remember this.”
“So do I.”
At the end of the passage stood a circular vault.
Two handprints were engraved on its surface.
One large.
One small.
Clara and Rose placed their hands against the metal.
A scanner drew a line of light across their palms.
The vault opened.
Inside was not a room filled with documents.
It was a laboratory.
Modern lights activated overhead. Machines hummed to life. Screens displayed neurological maps.
At the center rested a transparent chamber shaped like a coffin.
A woman lay inside.
Celeste approached slowly.
The woman’s white hair floated around her face. Tubes ran from her arms into the machine.
She looked almost identical to the elderly Eleanor in the video.
The chamber opened with a hiss.
The woman inhaled sharply.
Her eyes opened.
“Clara?”
Celeste began crying.
“Eleanor?”
The woman lifted one trembling hand.
“You found Rose.”
Ivy remained near the door.
“Are you Eleanor or Evelyn?”
The woman looked at her.
“That depends on which memories they left inside me.”
Helena rushed to examine the monitors.
“She has undergone repeated neurological reconstruction.”
“Who did this?” Julian asked.
The woman looked toward a camera mounted above the vault.
“My sister.”
“Where is she?”
“Everywhere.”
The screens around the laboratory turned on.
Live images appeared.
Whitmore Mansion.
The guesthouse.
Saint Orison Hospital.
The detention facility where Sebastian lay unconscious.
The abandoned chapel.
Someone had maintained surveillance over every location.
A voice came through the speakers.
“Happy birthday, Rose.”
Ivy recognized the voice from her dreams.
Celeste stood in front of her.
“Evelyn.”
The voice laughed softly.
“You still assume I am Evelyn because Eleanor taught you to divide the world into heroes and villains.”
“Show yourself.”
“I am closer than you think.”
The woman in the chamber began convulsing.
Helena adjusted the machines.
“She has a device implanted near her heart.”
On the main screen, a countdown appeared.
Ten minutes.
Julian ordered everyone to evacuate.
The woman seized Celeste’s wrist.
“No. The archive will flood if you leave.”
“What are we supposed to do?”
“Complete the sequence.”
“What sequence?”
The woman looked toward Ivy.
“Rose knows.”
Ivy saw flashes.
A melody.
A row of symbols.
Her father’s voice.
The sun becomes whole when the daughters speak what the mother forgot.
She approached the central console.
Celeste stood beside her.
Symbols appeared on the screen.
Ivy recognized half.
Celeste recognized the rest.
Together, they entered the sequence.
The countdown stopped at nine seconds.
The machinery fell silent.
Then the floor opened.
A cylindrical container rose from below.
Inside were hundreds of glass data wafers.
The Meridian Archive.
A final screen activated.
Elias Vale appeared in a recording.
He looked exhausted.
“My daughters, if you have reached this place, then the separation failed.”
Celeste and Ivy stared at their father.
“I built Meridian believing memory could protect humanity from repeating its worst mistakes. Instead, powerful people saw a method of manufacturing loyalty, identity, and obedience.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“Eleanor tried to help me destroy it. Evelyn tried to control it.”
The woman in the chamber began sobbing.
Elias continued.
“But the greatest threat was neither sister.”
Julian moved closer.
“A third person directed the program from inside my laboratory.”
A photograph appeared.
It showed Elias, Eleanor, Evelyn, Helena, Margaret, and another figure whose face had been scratched away.
“I never discovered the director’s identity. I knew only that the director used the name Orpheus.”
Helena dropped her cane.
“No.”
Everyone turned toward her.
“You know that name,” Celeste said.
May you like
Helena looked toward the exit.
Then she ran.
