"This sound... why does it sound exactly like the ocean of souls?" Ayaan wondered aloud to himself, his eyes completely locked onto the polished artefact resting in the older man's palm. Intrigued and slightly fearful, Ayaan slowly stepped closer to the billionaire until they were standing mere inches apart.
"Sir, this stone... where exactly did you find this?" Ayaan asked, tentatively reaching out his hand. The very moment his fingertips brushed against the surface, a harsh sensation of pure ice shot up his arm. It was freezing to the touch, yet the deep, mesmerising blue light radiating from its core never wavered for a single second.
"This stone is an heirloom that has been preserved within our family for several decades," Finn Rivers explained quietly. "The legend goes that a wandering sage once came to our ancestral home seeking a quiet place to rest. Before he departed, he gave this object directly to the family head as a token of gratitude."
Ayaan kept his gaze focused entirely on the artefact. Slowly, a bizarre distortion altered his vision. The office walls, the furniture, and even Finn Rivers himself began to dissipate into a dark, formless void. The wooden floor beneath his boots completely vanished until nothing remained in his entire universe except the glowing blue stone. At that exact microsecond, a sharp, burning sensation flared right in the centre of his forehead. The heat didn't stay localised; it travelled rapidly down his spine and outward through his limbs before finally subsiding.
"Hmm... fascinating. The soul-guiding stone," the ancient voice inside his mind suddenly spoke up. The unexpected intrusion startled Ayaan, instantly shattering the vision and pulling him right back into the reality of the office.
'What is this soul-guiding stone? Can you actually explain it to me? 'Ayaan demanded mentally, his thoughts racing.
For the first time since they met, the entity didn't mock him. Instead, it gave a direct reply: "Hold it in your hands, and you will understand exactly what I mean."
Ayaan swallowed hard, his fingers constantly fidgeting with nervous energy as he looked back up at the billionaire. "Sir... is it alright if I actually hold that stone for a moment?"
"Of course. Here," Finn Rivers replied smoothly, tilting his palm and letting the artefact slide into Ayaan's grasp.
The moment the stone settled into his palm, the primary sensation was the exact same, biting coldness he had felt just moments before. He stood completely still, waiting for something profound to alter his reality, but absolutely nothing extravagant happened. Feeling a bit disappointed that the voice's promise hadn't immediately manifested, Ayaan extended his arm to hand the object back to the billionaire.
But just as he was about to let go, the freezing temperature of the stone violently spiked. The surface began to heat up rapidly, turning incredibly hot against his skin, only to abruptly plummet back into an icy, stagnant cold a second later.
Huh? Why the hell did it heat up all of a sudden and then instantly cool down? Ayaan asked the entity within him.
"That rapid fluctuation means your current frequency is completely incompatible with the stone," the voice answered dryly. "Not for now, at the very least."
Before Ayaan could press for more details or ask why his prana was rejected, the entity went completely silent again, retreating back into the recesses of his mind. Knowing it was useless to argue with a silent voice, Ayaan abandoned his internal inquiry and handed the deep blue artefact back to the older man.
"Sir, can you tell me a bit more about that city? I really need to know what it is," Ayaan requested, hoping human knowledge would fill the gaps.
"To be completely frank, my personal knowledge on the matter is quite limited," Finn Rivers admitted, placing the stone safely back onto his desk. "There are only cryptic mentions of this specific city scattered across ancient legends and forgotten scriptures. They refer to it as the 'City of Melody'. The texts claim that those rare individuals who successfully visit that place gain the permanent ability to perceive the true, hidden sounds of the universe."
Ayaan frowned slightly, analysing the response. "If it's only mentioned in vague scriptures and old legends, then how did you know for sure that I had managed to enter it? How did you know about the shifting sounds?"
"Oh, that part is actually quite simple," Finn replied with a light chuckle. "It is explicitly stated in those exact same ancient records that whoever wields the golden eyes has successfully walked the path to that city. Those eyes are the literal proof. They are the only individuals who are even permitted to approach the gates; those who are deemed unworthy are utterly incapable of even finding the threshold."
Finn sighed, looking at the tattered documents on his desk. "It remains completely unknown how or why the city was originally constructed. Until I saw you standing in this room today, I truly believed the entire narrative was limited to standard mythology. But seeing you has completely proven me wrong."
"Then what about these golden eyes themselves?" Ayaan pushed further, his tone urgent. "Can you tell me anything concrete about them?"
"The golden eyes... yes, I possess some knowledge, but again, it is heavily fragmented," Finn Rivers said, walking back toward the sofa. "This world possesses a hidden history—a baseline of reality that is never mentioned in any modern textbook or academic curriculum. It is said that thousands of years ago, this planet endured a devastating, global war that wiped out more than half of the human population, bringing unimaginable destruction."
Finn sat down heavily on the cushions, pulling a silver case from his pocket and lighting a cigarette. He exhaled a thin plume of smoke before continuing. "Those powerful figures who managed to survive the cataclysm came together to rebuild society from the ashes. Their goal was to establish a unified, peaceful world that would never have to endure such a horrific conflict again. The individuals who spearheaded this movement eventually formed a massive underground organisation—a hidden sect, if you will—known as the All-Seeing Sect. They were comprised of ancient bloodlines possessing immense spiritual power."
Ayaan listened with absolute focus, his mind cataloguing every single detail.
"The original war," Finn continued, his voice dropping an octave, "was fought between humanity and an entirely different, invading species whose true nature I am completely unaware of. The legends say that human forces were pushed to the absolute brink of total defeat. But right when everything seemed lost, he appeared—a singular warrior wielding the golden eyes. The texts claim he single-handedly slaughtered nearly half of the invading forces using an immense, incomprehensible power. It is believed that individuals wielding those exact same eyes will be born into the world once more whenever humanity edges close to that same level of absolute destruction. And it is the sole, sacred responsibility of the All-Seeing Sect to locate and guide them."
Ayaan processed the heavy lore, but a specific choice of words instantly caught his attention.
"You just said 'them'," Ayaan pointed out, leaning forward. "Does that mean... there are more people out there like me? More people with these eyes?"
"Yes, there are," Finn Rivers confirmed bluntly. "But as to who they are, where they are currently hiding, or what their specific roles are... I have absolutely no idea."
Saying that, the billionaire stood up once more, walking over to his storage cupboard. He pulled out the tattered sheet of yellow paper covered in the strange, geometric handwritten symbols and brought it back, placing it directly on the table in front of Ayaan.
"This document is a genuine fragment of that lost history, something I personally recovered during my extensive travels across the continent," Finn explained. "It took me nearly an entire decade of research just to decipher this small, singular portion of the text. The summary I just gave you is translated directly from these lines."
Ayaan leaned down, studying the intricate, alien script, hoping his newly awakened senses might automatically translate the text. But to his frustration, it was to no avail; the characters looked like complete gibberish to his eyes. He couldn't comprehend a single syllable.
"This historical record is essentially half the reason I requested your presence here today," Finn Rivers said, interrupting Ayaan's spiral of thoughts.
Ayaan looked up from the incomprehensible yellow paper, meeting the older man's serious gaze. "Then what is the other reason, sir?"
Finn set his cigarette down in an ashtray, his expression hardening. "Tell me, Ayaan... over the past few weeks, have you suddenly felt an immense, suffocating wave of fear gripping your entire body out of nowhere?"
Ayaan's chest tightened as he recalled the paralysing dread that had physicalised into red threads at the central square. "Yes. I have. What about it?"
"There is a very real, very dangerous structural reason why you are experiencing that sensation," Finn Rivers said, his voice deadly serious. "And based on what you are capable of seeing now... I think you are the only one who can help us stop what's coming."