This is how the ????? ends.

  Not with a scream. Nor a wail. Nor a whimper.

  A single ????.

  ??? comes for us all.

  “Any progress?”

  Adelia sighed, dragging a finger across the fading page of the tome she’d been pouring over for the past few days. “Not much.” She said, handing the partially-translated notes over.

  The sharply-dressed man—her partner for this project—frowned slightly as he read it over. “An omen, perhaps?” He wondered. “It reminds me of the myths regarding the Dousing.”

  She nodded. “That’s what I thought as well.” She rubbed her eyes. By the sun, she was tired. When was the last time she’d gone back to her room to sleep?

  Her partner frowned. “I assume you’ve not slept.” He said, entirely disapproving of her disregard of her own health.

  She shrugged. “Our project is due in a week. And I can’t afford to fail.”

  He smiled wryly. “The sentiment is shared.”

  She returned a tired smile. They were both students in this prestigious university, and unfortunately, they fell into the minority who entered via their scholarship. They didn’t have the backing of centuries-old families to ensure they remained here. The moment the university found them not worth keeping, they would be left to rot.

  And unfortunate for them both, they both pursued Archeology; a truly horrendous choice in hindsight. She should’ve just picked something simple. Like Botany. Or Engineering. Or Astral Sorcery.

  Archeology was no easy field, especially with the rising interest regarding the truth behind this world. Of the disaster that caused the destruction of the people that came millenia ago, leaving their ruins to rot, infested by beasts and monsters only the bravest would dare face. Eternity’s End, they called it; a reference to all the recovered media that suggested that the previous civilization had lasted for tens of thousands of years.

  It’d been merely a passing interest back then—her degree chosen by instinct. Now she wished more than anything to go back and plunge a knife through her previous self’s back. For the new could only be uncovered by venturing into said ruins, and she was but a girl barely capable of aiming Steamcoil Rifle to defend herself.

  “-attempt to decipher it as well.”

  She blinked, his voice snapping her out of her thoughts. “You do that.” She said, and then asked, “You have your own copy, right?”

  He sighed. “Just because I lost it once.”

  She grinned. “And I’ve never lost mine.”

  “That’s because you would scratch the eyes out of anyone who dared to even glance at your possession.” He quipped back.

  She crossed her hands and harrumphed. “It’s called being frugal.”

  “If you say so.” The man turned to leave, but then stopped as he grasped the door. “Please do rest, Adelia.” He said, his eyes narrowed at her. “Your enthusiasm is greatly appreciated, but I’d rather you be well. It’d be horrifying if I had to one day arrive to discover your corpse.”

  She rolled her eyes. Always so dramatic, he was. “Yes, yes. I’ll follow your grand advice.” He frowned at her tone, and she quickly amended her statement. “I harbor no intention to lie. Truly. I proclaim so under the Sun’s gaze.”

  He sighed. “I place my hope on you once again.” He pulled the door open, and he smiled. “Good night, Adelia.”

  She winked back. “Night, Silas.”

  He rolled his eyes as he shut the door behind him, and their office room went quiet as his steps faded into the background. She smiled quietly as she stretched, feeling her bones literally creek as she pulled back from her desk for the first time in nearly a day. “Maybe he’s right.” She whispered, staring at the elusive tome on the desk, its secrets kept behind the language she and many others were still trying to decode.

  …

  She grinned. “Just one more.”

  She flipped onto the next page. More text showed itself, written in that elusive language she’d spent a year learning to translate. Most of the esoteric vocabulary remained unknown to her, but from what she could translate, it seemed to be a continuation of the dark omen she’d partially translated before.

  But then, as she neared the bottom of the page, the tone shifted, for a lack of a better word.

  A cycle, stretched to ????????.\

  The beginning ends. The end begins.

  An unshattered ????? of red.

  Reversed only by the ???????? ???.

  She hummed. That last line—the words she couldn’t quite translate read differently than the others. Its structure was different, almost as if it was a word they often didn’t use during their speech. A name, perhaps? Or a title of some sort?

  She recognized some of it; a part of the character meant ‘a lack of’. And though the rest of the character didn’t quite match any that she knew, it almost looked like the word for ‘faith’. So maybe it meant someone that lacked faith? But considering the context being set up throughout this particular chapter she was translating, that didn’t quite make sense. It seemed to her—and most of her peers—that it was exactly the lack of faith that doomed this old civilisation.

  Perhaps she ought to expand her reach. Though ‘faith’ was indeed the closest to these elusive characters, the old civilization’s word for ‘destiny’ came a close second. Perhaps then it meant a…lack of fate? But what does something like that even mean in this context?

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Hmm. Say she interpreted it differently. Perhaps it was not strictly a lack of Fate, but that Fate itself was lacking? In that sense, the word could be twisted into ‘someone untouched by Fate’. It certainly made more sense than her previous conjectures. And the more she thought of it, the more convinced she became. A being unbound by Fate; the only one capable of averting the predestined end of the-

  She blinked when the night sky beyond her window suddenly lit a bright white, as a Falling Star sped across the sky. She smiled slightly. Falling Stars were a common fixture of myths and legends. Some tell tales of how wishes would be granted if you catch sight of a Falling Stars. Others see it as the Heavens’ warning of a future calamity.

  She leaned into her chair. Gave the tome one last glance as she reached for her bag.

  Changing the past was impossible. She was stuck on this path of Archeology, whether she wanted to or not.

  She just wished it would open itself to her a little more. Make her job just that bit easier, so that she didn’t need to offer her entire coffer just to buy a single artifact from the Underground Market.

  Ha. If only.

  She stood from her desk soon after. And snuffing out her desk lamp, she made her way out of her office. She locked the door as she left, and all fell silent as she made her way back to her dorm.

  Had she stayed for just a bit longer, she would’ve noticed the tome glow for a moment.

  Adelia groaned as she pried her eyes open. By the sun, her eyes hurt. It felt like she was nursing a hangover, though she distinctly remember not drinking any alcohol once she returned to her dorm. Not that she had any—there was no reason to spend what little she had left in her coffer for a momentary reprieve. But the pain in her eyes was very much real.

  What happened?

  She rose from her bed, and indeed she found herself facing her room. It was spartan at best, with little aside from her bed, her dresser, and a desk. If any of the richer students saw her room, she’d surely be laughed out of the university-

  “...what in the…?” She reached out, and her finger phased through the orange panel that floated right before her eyes. She would’ve dismissed it as some hallucination if not for the chilly feeling in her fingers as it phased through the panel. Then, by accident, her finger grazed one of the boxes, and she nearly shrieked as the panel suddenly expanded.

  Her eyes went wide. Those elusive characters at the bottom-! They were the exact same ones she’d spent a year trying to learn!

  Did-, that mean that this strange panel had some connection to the tome she’d been trying to decode!? Or even further, could this hold some connection to the ancient civilisation she and many others were trying to learn of!? Because if that was truly the case-!

  Her finger moved to one of the other boxes.'

  She barely resisted the urge to clap her hands. There it was again! Naturally, she couldn’t read it either, but it hardly quelled her rising excitement. Because at this point it was practically guaranteed that this panel was connected to that ancient civilisation. And if that be, would that not mean that she had uncovered something many others had not?

  For a moment, she considered telling this to her professor. She’d no doubt pass this project with flying colors if she did.

  But at what cost?

  Her smile faded as she fell back onto her bed. Yes, it’d probably be smarter if she kept this to herself. She’d heard of what others were willing to do to become the first in discovering the secrets of the past. If she put herself out there, there was a high chance she’d be placed into some shady laboratory.

  Out of curiosity, she pressed the last box offered to her, and then gaped as the panel expanded into a massive wall, filled with characters she recognized but could not decipher. She gulped as she slowly stood up; from a glance, she could easily see that there were over a thousand different modules. She reached out, and balked as the modules moved, showing that there were even more on this wall.

  By the sun, just how many of these ‘Achievements’ were there!?

  She blinked as she finally reached the very top corner of the wall, and there she found one Achievement that was unlike the others. It was glowing periodically, almost as if to signal her to press it. So she did, and the panel shrunk as new words formed across it, written in the same language of old.

  She narrowed her eyes as she began to slowly decipher its words. She wrote down her findings in her notebook, and soon she had a rough grasp on its meaning.

  [Beginning - ???????]

  Embark on the Journey towards ???????? (Forever/Eternity?).

  Acquire?

  She turned back to the floating panel, and tilted her head. Acquire, was it? A sort-of reward for completing an Achievement, perhaps? Fascinating! For what reason did this strange panel need to lavish her with gifts? Maybe as an incentive to push those not in her field to join in?

  Hmm. Well, those were thoughts to be pondered for later. For now, she reached out and pressed the box with the ‘Acquire’, and then gasped as she felt this energy course through her body. As if lightning itself had descended from the sky and coiled within her muscles. It lasted barely a second, but to her, it felt as if it lasted a lifetime.

  Her train of thoughts crashed out the window as she read those words. Her magic had increased? Such a notion would’ve sounded impossible had she not felt that incredible infusion of energy just seconds earlier. Magic was not a thing that was so easily built—it was a muscle, trained over months and years and decades of constant practice, and one with limits.

  She’d discovered hers early on. Though magic was commonplace, few actually had enough Essence to use it for more than common household uses. The most she could do was call on a few sprites to light the darkness whenever she went exploring, and even that stretched what meager Essence she had at times.

  She brought forth a finger, and whispered, “Sprites.”

  And from her hand rose tiny blobs of light, glowing bright against her dim room. That had not changed at least, but the ease at which she’d called for it; it was as if the proverbial pipeline of her Essence had been expanded, bypassing the struggle she often had in the past.

  She gulped.

  By the Sun, what was this? What was this? Now, stripped of her previous excitement, she could not help but wonder just what it was she had stumbled upon. This was no mere tool of the ancient civilisation—it could not be. Something as powerful as this had to have had a purpose. A trinket, perhaps? Or maybe even a blessing? Or an omen of some kind?

  She did not know. She wasn’t sure she’d ever know.

  …

  Ah, but first, she supposed she should freshen herself. This bed hair of hers was truly horrendous.