The amber corridor widened suddenly, opening into a vast hexagonal chamber unlike anything they'd encountered so far in the maze. Pedestals of varying heights filled the space, each holding an amber specimen with a small circur indentation at its base. Along the walls stood empty dispy niches, each marked with symbols that appeared to represent different time periods.

  "It's a sequence puzzle," Alexander said, approaching the center of the room where a stone tablet bore inscriptions in the same ancient nguage they'd seen at the maze entrance.

  Lyra traced the symbols with her finger. "This mentions 'order of emergence' and 'time's proper flow.' We need to arrange the specimens chronologically."

  Elijah walked among the pedestals, his fingers occasionally brushing against specimens that seemed to respond to his touch with subtle illumination. "They span millions of years of evolution. Look—this one's a primitive fish, and here's what might be one of the first amphibians."

  Alexander quickly took charge, pulling up his interface to create a grid pattern. "We need a system. Let's create a timeline matrix and pce each specimen where it logically fits." His fingers moved rapidly, establishing evolutionary branch points. "Main trunk for common ancestors, branches for divergent evolutionary paths."

  The first few pcements seemed straightforward—simple single-celled organisms clearly preceded more complex creatures. But as they worked deeper into the puzzle, the distinctions became increasingly subtle.

  Riva lifted a specimen containing what appeared to be an ancient predator fish. She studied it with narrowed eyes, then moved confidently to another pedestal holding a different fish species.

  "This one came first," she said with certainty, pcing the second specimen in an earlier time niche.

  "How can you tell?" Alexander asked.

  Riva shrugged. "Look at the jaw structure. This predator evolved to hunt the other species. The prey always evolves first, then the predator adapts to catch it." She pointed to subtle details in the preserved specimens. "You see a lot of this in combat training—studying how predatory tactics evolved."

  Alexander added this information to his timeline matrix, impressed by Riva's intuitive grasp of evolutionary retionships. Her practical knowledge was proving invaluable.

  Meanwhile, Elijah had gone completely still beside a specimen containing what appeared to be an early bird-like creature. His hand rested on the amber, and his eyes had taken on a distant quality that Alexander recognized from previous whisper-episodes.

  "Late Jurassic period," Elijah said suddenly, his voice sounding slightly different—deeper, almost academic. "Approximately 150 million years before pnetary evacuation. This species represents a transitional form between terrestrial dinosaurs and true avians, with features including..."

  He continued with a detailed description that sounded more like a scientific lecture than Elijah's normal speech. When he finally fell silent, he blinked several times, looking disoriented.

  "That was... intense," he said, his voice returning to normal. "It wasn't just whispers this time. It was like I was experiencing a complete memory of this creature—when it lived, how it evolved."

  Alexander added this precise dating to his matrix, noting with concern how these whisper-experiences seemed to be growing more immersive.

  Lyra had moved to a separate pedestal containing what looked like insects preserved in various stages of evolution. She was examining them with a level of scrutiny that went beyond casual observation, occasionally making notes on her interface.

  "These specimens show the evolution of compound eyes across fifteen distinct stages," she said, pointing to nearly imperceptible differences between specimens. "The facet arrangement in this one indicates an adaptation to low-light environments, while this variation developed for precise motion tracking."

  Alexander watched her work, adding her observations to the matrix while quietly noting that such minute morphological distinctions would typically require specialized training in evolutionary biology—training that shouldn't be avaible to someone from an Unaligned background.

  As they pced more specimens, patterns emerged in Alexander's matrix. Several hours of intense work ter, they had arranged approximately half the specimens in what seemed to be the correct chronological order.

  When the final specimen of their first sequence was pced, a low humming filled the chamber. The correctly arranged specimens glowed in sequence from earliest to test, and a doorway materialized in the far wall.

  "Well done," came a voice from behind them.

  They turned to find a tall figure that hadn't been there moments before—an elderly man in robes adorned with timepieces of various designs. Unlike standard NPCs, he moved with a fluid grace that suggested something different.

  "I am the Ancient Timekeeper," he announced. "Few solve these sequences with such efficiency. Fewer still understand the significance of what they arrange."

  "What is the significance?" Alexander asked.

  The Timekeeper's eyes, amber-colored like all the specialized NPCs on this floor, regarded him thoughtfully. "History forgotten is destiny unknown. The Game preserves what might otherwise be lost." Without further expnation, he gestured toward the newly opened doorway. "Continue. Greater challenges await, as do greater revetions."

  He vanished as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving them to proceed into the next chamber.

  The subsequent room was twice the size of the first, with at least three times as many specimens. More concerning, they could hear voices from an adjacent chamber—another team working on a parallel puzzle.

  "Sounds like competition," Riva noted, rolling her shoulders in preparation for more work.

  "We need to refine our approach," Alexander said, already expanding his timeline matrix. "Lyra, focus on the morphological details. Riva, apply your predator-prey insights. Elijah..." He hesitated, looking at his brother. "Can you deliberately make those connections happen?"

  Elijah frowned. "I'm not sure. They seem to occur when I touch certain specimens that... respond to me somehow." He looked uncomfortable with the attention but determined. "I'll try."

  They set to work on the more complex sequence. This puzzle included evolutionary dead-ends—species that emerged but didn't continue their lineage—creating additional complexity. Alexander's matrix began to resemble a complex tree with numerous branches terminating at different points.

  Lyra created a makeshift tool from items in her inventory—something resembling a magnifying device with amber fragments incorporated into its design.

  "This should help identify microfossil features," she expined, using it to examine tiny specimens that contained what appeared to be ancient cellur structures. "See this membrane configuration? It's clearly a precursor to ter multicellur organisms, pcing it here in the sequence."

  Several times, they heard sounds of frustration from the neighboring chamber, suggesting the rival team was struggling with their puzzle.

  Elijah continued touching specimens, experiencing increasingly vivid impressions. With certain pieces, he would suddenly speak in that strange, knowledgeable voice, providing precise dating information and evolutionary context. After each episode, he seemed momentarily exhausted.

  "It's like they contain... echoes," he expined after one particurly intense connection. "Not just physical preservation but... memory impressions of their time periods."

  Riva approached a particurly challenging section involving predator evolution. She arranged several specimens with confident movements, expining, "Combat is about adaptation. You see it in fighting styles too—each response creates a counter-response. This predator's teeth evolved to penetrate this prey's armor, which then became thicker in ter generations, which then led to these stronger jaw structures."

  Alexander incorporated all their insights, his matrix growing increasingly complex. When they encountered a particurly challenging sequence of twenty specimens that seemed nearly identical, Lyra stepped forward.

  "They're distinguished by progressive changes in the auditory structure," she said, examining each with her magnification tool. "It's a cssic example of adaptation to changing environmental sound frequencies."

  Alexander added this information while wondering how Lyra could recognize a "cssic example" of evolutionary adaptation without specialized training. The question persisted at the back of his mind, but he kept it there—their progress depended on her insights.

  After nearly five hours of intensive work, they faced the final sequence—a comprehensive arrangement that spanned the entire evolutionary timeline. As they pced the st specimens, Alexander made a critical error, transposing two simir-looking creatures.

  The chamber's lights dimmed warningly.

  "Wait!" Elijah called, rushing forward. His hand touched both mispced specimens, and his eyes widened. "These are wrong. They're separated by over twenty million years." He quickly corrected the pcement just as the chamber's lights had begun to pulse red.

  The corrected sequence triggered the activation sequence—all specimens illuminating in chronological order, creating a flowing river of light that converged on a central crystal. The crystal projected what appeared to be a partial map onto the floor.

  "It's a section of the maze," Alexander realized, quickly copying the projection into his interface. "Each completed chamber reveals another portion."

  A commotion from the neighboring chamber suggested the rival team was still struggling with their puzzle. After a brief team discussion, Alexander approached the connecting doorway.

  "We've completed our sequence," he called to the other team. "We can offer some methodology if you're interested."

  The rival team's leader, a hard-faced woman with the distinctive interface impnts of a Servicer css, appeared in the doorway. "What's your price?" she asked suspiciously.

  "Information exchange," Alexander replied. "Your map fragment for our sequencing approach."

  The deal was struck. Alexander shared their dating methodology while receiving the rival team's map fragment in return—a piece that connected perfectly with their own.

  As they prepared to enter the final chronology chamber, Elijah paused, touching a particurly ancient specimen.

  "There's something about preservation," he said quietly. "These whispers—or echoes, or whatever they are—they keep emphasizing how the amber doesn't just preserve physical forms. It preserves... essence. Information." He looked troubled. "I think there's something important about preservation itself that we're meant to understand from this floor."

  The final chamber presented their greatest challenge yet—a comprehensive evolutionary sequence spanning billions of years, requiring perfect arrangement to unlock the path to the maze center. For four intense hours, they worked as a seamless unit: Alexander maintaining the master timeline, Riva applying her intuitive understanding of biological retionships, Lyra identifying microscopic distinguishing features, and Elijah receiving temporal insights from specimen echoes.

  When the final piece was pced, the entire chamber transformed. The specimens arranged themselves into a spiraling pattern, rising toward the ceiling to form a DNA-like helix of evolutionary progress. From this, a complete map of the remaining maze projected onto the floor, revealing the direct path to its center.

  As they rested before continuing, Alexander found himself watching Lyra. She was examining one of the ancient specimens with a level of familiarity that seemed incongruous with her backstory. The questions multiplied in his mind, but he kept them there. Whatever the truth might be, she had proven herself an essential part of their team.

  "It's strange," Elijah said to no one in particur. "Why would the Game put so much effort into preserving an accurate evolutionary record? What's the purpose?"

  "History forgotten is destiny unknown," Lyra quoted the Timekeeper's words, staring thoughtfully at the spiraling specimen arrangement. "Whatever the Game's ultimate purpose, it seems preservation is fundamental to its design."

  Alexander added this observation to his growing collection of questions about the Game's true nature. For now, though, they had a maze to complete and a guardian to face. The center awaited, and with it, the challenges that would allow them to ascend to Floor 14.