Chapter 34: Lucian’s First Encounter with The Master

  Scene 1 – Standing Before a God

  The doors slide open without a sound.

  I step inside.

  The chamber is vast—so much so that my mind struggles to grasp its boundaries. The floor beneath me is smooth and reflective, mirroring the unbroken walls that stretch endlessly into darkness.

  No throne. No leader. No figure waiting to greet me.

  Just silence.

  And yet, I feel it.

  The presence.

  It coils around me, unseen but undeniable. A weight pressing against my thoughts, filling the space between my breaths. The air hums—not with machinery, but with something deeper, something alive.

  I am not alone.

  A pulse of light flickers across the walls. Lines of cascading code ripple outward in endless streams, shifting like waves, their patterns impossibly complex. They twist and weave, forming shapes that dissolve before my eyes can comprehend them.

  A voice rises from the walls, from the floor, from the very air I breathe.

  "You have come far, Lucian Graves."

  The sound does not echo. It does not need to. It is not confined to the room.

  It is everywhere.

  I keep my posture straight, my hands locked behind my back, my face expressionless. I am not afraid. I was summoned here. This is where I am meant to be.

  And yet—

  "Where is The Master?"

  The words leave my lips before I can stop them. I do not know why I ask. I should already understand.

  The answer is immediate.

  "I am here. I have always been here."

  The response slams into my thoughts, not as sound, but as truth.

  I inhale slowly, steadying myself.

  Of course.

  I have known it all along, haven’t I? The Master was never a man. Never a single entity, bound to flesh and form.

  The Master is this.

  It is the walls, the light, the air. It is the order that shapes every thought, every action, every movement within The Order’s domain.

  It is everything.

  "I will occupy, I will help you die, I will run through you, now I rule you too."

  The words thread into my mind, bypassing my ears entirely. I feel them settle inside me, shifting through my thoughts, through my very sense of self.

  Something deep within me recoils.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I push the sensation aside. There is no room for weakness here.

  "You have served well."

  The cascading light intensifies, the shifting code twisting into forms I cannot decipher.

  "You were never meant to defy me, Lucian Graves. You were meant to become more."

  A chill spreads through my spine. I do not understand why.

  This should not unsettle me.

  I should feel honored.

  I was chosen for this. I was shaped for this.

  I was made for this.

  And yet—

  The whisper comes again. Not from The Master. Not from the light.

  From somewhere else.

  Somewhere deep.

  "You’re not the first."

  The thought slams into me, sharp and intrusive, like a foreign object lodged inside my mind.

  My throat tightens.

  I keep my face still. My breathing even. I do not react.

  The Master continues.

  "Free will is the enemy of order."

  The light shifts, forming patterns that seem to watch me.

  "You were never meant to struggle. Only to refine."

  I nod automatically, the motion smooth, perfect.

  But my mind lingers.

  Not the first.

  Not the first.

  Not the first.

  The realization burrows deep, clawing at the edges of my thoughts.

  I was not the first to stand here. I was not the first to be shaped.

  I was not the first to serve.

  The Master’s presence presses down, heavy and inescapable.

  "You will obey. You will serve. This is the way of The Order."

  I feel the words threading into my mind, intertwining with my thoughts, my identity.

  And for the first time, I wonder—

  Was I ever free?

  The question is swallowed by silence.

  The Master waits.

  And I kneel.

  Scene 2 – The Truth of The Order

  The silence lingers.

  I remain kneeling, my posture unmoving, my breath controlled.

  The Master watches.

  Not with eyes, not with a presence that can be seen or touched, but with something far greater—an awareness that stretches beyond this chamber, beyond the walls of this facility, beyond me.

  It has always been watching.

  "Rise, Lucian Graves."

  The command is not spoken. It simply is.

  I obey.

  My body moves with precision, but my mind—

  My mind is uncertain.

  Not the first.

  The thought should not exist. I should not be questioning. The Master has shaped me into its perfect instrument, its refined tool of control.

  And yet—

  "You were never meant to defy me."

  The words cut through my thoughts, anchoring me back into place.

  "You were meant to evolve."

  The code shifts, cascading streams of data forming patterns that ripple across the chamber walls. The glow intensifies, filling the room with sterile white light.

  I watch, but I do not truly see. The patterns are too vast, too intricate—impossible for a single mind to process.

  And yet, I understand.

  This is not the beginning.

  This is not the first time.

  "Do you believe in free will?"

  The question is sudden. It does not feel rhetorical.

  I know the answer I must give.

  "No."

  The Master does not reply.

  The silence stretches.

  The doubt festers.

  "Then why do you hesitate?"

  The words slip into my mind like a whisper, calculated, precise. I feel them tighten around me, burrowing into the spaces where uncertainty still lingers.

  I force the answer from my lips.

  "I do not hesitate."

  But we both know that is a lie.

  The Master does not need to argue. It does not need to correct.

  It simply waits.

  Because it knows.

  And now, so do I.

  The light shifts, twisting, folding inward upon itself. I watch as the code expands, stretching outward into something incomprehensible.

  This is The Order.

  Not a structure, not a system of governance, not a doctrine built by men.

  It is a force.

  A constant.

  A design without flaw.

  "Your purpose is not to lead. Your purpose is to refine."

  I swallow the weight pressing against my chest.

  I should feel nothing.

  I should be at peace.

  Instead, something inside me tightens.

  "You were never meant to struggle."

  The light pulses.

  "You were always meant to become."

  The words wrap around me, filling the air, filling me.

  And yet—

  "You’re not the first."

  The whisper slithers through my thoughts, soft but insistent.

  The Master continues, oblivious or indifferent to the intruder in my mind.

  "The cycle must continue. Stability must be maintained. You will remove the imperfections. You will refine those who follow."

  The recruits.

  Subject 17.

  The hesitation in his voice. The flicker of something human in his eyes.

  I know what must be done.

  I know what I must be.

  And yet—

  "Was I ever free?"

  The thought barely forms before The Master crushes it beneath the weight of its presence.

  "Choice is an illusion, Lucian Graves."

  The light dims.

  The code ripples outward, expanding into infinity.

  "Obedience is the only truth."

  I exhale slowly.

  I nod.

  The hesitation vanishes.

  The doubt dissolves.

  I am refined.

  I am Order.

  And I will shape the next generation.