“So… you really remember everything?”

  I sat at one end of the long table, fingers tapping the rim of my cup, eyes fixed on Nox and Luma across from me.

  Luma tilted her head slightly, a faint, unreadable smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

  “More than you think,” she said.

  I hesitated for a second, then asked,

  “The books in the basement—the language in them… I’ve never seen it before. Is it from… another civilization?”

  “No,” Nox replied softly.

  “It’s a language we invented.”

  I blinked. “You… invented it yourselves?”

  Luma nodded, speaking as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  “When your memories become too vast and your words too few, you have no choice but to create a language that fits.”

  “So even if those books were leaked… no one could read them?”

  “They couldn’t,” Nox said, leaning back in his chair, voice calm.

  “Not unless we teach them ourselves.”

  I swallowed hard, falling silent.

  For a while, the only sound in the room was the wind brushing against the window frames.

  It was me who said I wanted to know them better.

  It was me who asked to understand who they really were.

  I didn’t regret it.

  But I hadn’t expected things to go this deep.

  After a long silence, I finally asked,

  “Then… how old are you really?”

  Nox looked at me, like he was making sure I truly wanted the answer.

  A few seconds passed before he finally said:

  “I’ve existed for about fifteen thousand years.”

  My pupils contracted.

  But then he continued, his tone as steady as ever—like he was recounting someone else’s history.

  “Though for about a thousand years… I wasn’t conscious. I was sealed.”

  “Sealed… by who?”

  He didn’t answer right away.

  Instead, he exchanged a glance with Luma.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “…Her civilization,” he said quietly.

  I turned quickly toward Luma. She didn’t avoid my gaze.

  She just spoke gently:

  “I was only created seven thousand years ago.

  By then, my civilization… was barely holding on.”

  Without thinking, I asked,

  “Then how… did you two meet?”

  Nox gave a soft smile—though no sound came from it.

  “She found me.”

  I looked down and realized—she had awakened him.

  “…How were you sealed?” I asked cautiously.

  Nox’s voice didn’t waver.

  “I’m a created being.

  From the moment I came into existence, the ones who made me couldn’t understand me.

  They called me a monster. A demon.

  It was a ritual-based civilization—every ritual had to succeed.

  But I didn’t follow their logic.”

  He paused, as if recalling something buried deep.

  “So they abandoned me.

  For something they thought was more ‘beautiful,’ more ‘pure,’

  they embraced madness.

  And in their downfall… I wasn’t even allowed to be part of it.”

  I couldn’t imagine what that felt like.

  My chest tightened just hearing it.

  He went on,

  “Later, I was taken in by another civilization—hers.

  At first, they thought I could help them progress.

  And I thought… maybe I could finally have a meaningful existence.”

  “But I underestimated human greed.

  They imprisoned me. Dissected me. Studied me.

  Sliced me open. Observed me.

  Named me a ‘tool.’”

  Luma looked at him quietly. Her eyes were still and bright—

  but deep within them, something weighed heavy.

  I asked,

  “Why did they seal you?”

  Nox gave a simple answer:

  “Because they finally admitted they couldn’t understand me.

  And they couldn’t destroy me.”

  He raised a hand and pointed to his shoulder.

  “They nailed through my joints and skull.

  Locked me underground—until Luma was born.”

  I turned to her and asked softly,

  “How were you… created?”

  Her voice was gentle, yet there was an undeniable sharpness in it:

  “I was their final experiment.

  They used the notes left from studying Nox.

  Tried to replicate him. Failed countless times.

  Only succeeded once.”

  She paused.

  “I was that one success.”

  My mouth opened, but no words came out.

  Luma smiled faintly.

  “But by then, their end was already near.

  They had almost no resources left.

  So they decided to flee Earth.”

  I was stunned.

  “They… did they succeed?”

  “No.”

  She shook her head.

  “It was a doomed voyage from the start.

  I calculated it in advance.

  And I chose to escape.”

  “Then you found Nox.”

  “Yes.” She looked at him.

  “I found him. Woke him.

  And from then on—we traveled together.”

  In that moment, I finally understood—

  The unspoken bond between them.

  The quiet, enduring weight of years spent side by side.

  “You must’ve met a lot of people since then, right?”

  “We have,” Luma said gently.

  “Many, many.”

  “Some called for help.

  Some were obsessed with something.

  That’s when we appeared.”

  Nox added,

  “Sometimes as allies,

  sometimes as observers,

  sometimes… as witnesses.”

  “Do you ever intervene?”

  Nox shook his head.

  “Rarely.

  Only if their choices… lack beauty.”

  I looked up.

  “Beauty?”

  Luma’s voice was almost a whisper, like a song,

  “Too simple, or not strong enough.”

  Nox nodded.

  “In those cases… we guide them to ‘change.’”

  I bit my lip and murmured,

  “So… either change, or be destroyed.”

  “They choose it themselves,” Luma said quietly.

  At last, I fell silent.

  That entire night, I kept thinking.

  I had once said, “You two are very important to me.”

  At the time, I said it on instinct.

  But now—I understood what that truly meant.

  They had walked with countless others through flames, through collapse—

  and yet, in the end…

  they chose to walk with me.

  I looked at them, calmly recounting the endless years of their past—

  and my heart ached.

  Abandonment. Betrayal.

  Nailed underground.

  They didn’t cry.

  They weren’t angry.

  But I felt it—

  That lingering loneliness.

  That silence that comes from having no place to call home—yet choosing to keep walking anyway.

  I lowered my head and whispered,

  “I’ll keep thinking.”

  “Thinking about what?” Nox asked.

  “…How to love you,” I said.

  “You’ve taught me so much.

  But now—I want to choose for myself.

  I want to decide how I’ll keep loving you.”

  They didn’t say anything.

  Luma simply smiled, walked over, and gently hugged me.

  Only then did I realize—her hands were trembling, just a little.

  Nox came closer too.

  Standing beside me, he spoke softly:

  “That’s your new life, Vera.”