COLD STEEL, BLEEDING HEARTS
“Who are you? Why are you stealing the memories I gave the girls?”
Something moved in the shadows at the end of the hall. It was tall, thin, more liquid than solid, with no face—just a smooth, black stone where a head should be. As it glided closer, the floor rippled beneath it.
“We are the Keepers of the Source,” it said, its voice a chorus—old and young, human and not. “Humans stole a seed from our garden a long time ago. They put it in your blood. They tried to grow a Queen, but all they made was a thief.”