The Dark Rabbit Origins

CHAPTER 1: THE CHAINS OF TRUTH

COUNCIL CONFRONTATION

The chains cut into Elias’ wrists; their cold metal contrasted sharply with the fevered heat running through his veins. Crystalline spires soared towards the council chamber’s high ceiling, their flawless surfaces refracting harsh light into kaleidoscopic patterns on the marble floor. At his feet, the Alpha-7 bottle pulsed with an eerie violet brilliance, sending writhing shadows across the Council members’ faces.

High Chancellor Anthony’s countenance remained etched in stone, but his eyes revealed a flash of something worse.

“You dare bring contraband into these sacred halls?” said a Council member, his voice echoing around the chamber.

Elias remembered Laboratory Seven’s containment field failure: the screaming, the surge of raw force, and the truth that had wrecked his existence. The bottle’s light became brighter, as if responding to his thoughts.

“Sacred?” Elias laughed harshly, bitterly. “You built this paradise on the Vaelari genocide. Their blood runs through these very walls.”

Gasps echoed around the chamber. Guards shifted, gripping their rifles more tightly.

High Chancellor Anthony’s words pierced like ice: “Mind your tongue, scientist. Your accusations border on treason.”

Elias pointed his chin towards the throbbing bottle. “The evidence is right here. Their essence, their memories — all trapped in your precious Ethereon. They weren’t test subjects. They were people.”

His sight fell on Seraphine among the assembled nobility. Her silver-white hair reflected the violet light, and despite her deliberately neutral expression, he noticed a little trembling in her clenched hands. She knew. She’d always sensed something was wrong.

“The architect’s vision built this city,” Anthony exclaimed, rising from his seat to tower over the chamber. “Would you rather we still lived in the wastelands?”

“Not at the cost of genocide.” As Elias went closer, the chains rattled. “Not at the cost of our humanity.”

COUNCIL CONFRONTATION: SERAPHINE’S PERSPECTIVE

Seraphine’s fingers dug into her silk-covered palms, nails piercing flesh as her countenance remained a picture of aristocratic calm. The council chamber’s crystalline walls gleamed with their typical magnificence, but the sight of Elias in chains reduced the splendour to ash in her mouth.

“The architect’s vision demanded sacrifice,” said High Chancellor Anthony, his voice echoing throughout the assembly.

A memory burst through: Elias’ laughter reverberating in Laboratory Three, his eyes bright as he revealed his most recent breakthrough. He caressed her palm as they sifted through study documents late at night. Cold steel now shackles the identical hands.

Her father’s photo sat with the other council members, who had “built their shining future.” She’d grown up looking at it, believing in his legacy of development and enlightenment. But Elias’ comments blasted away the gold, revealing the rot beneath.

The Alpha-7 bottle in Elias’ hands caught the light, and its contents swirled with an ethereal radiance. Seraphine recognised the shimmer; she’d seen it in every power core and energy conduit in the city. The essence of a slain race drives its ideal civilisation.

“You built this city on their bones,” Elias’ voice interrupted her thoughts.

Her eyes widened before she could control herself. A noblewoman two seats ahead turned to see her sudden intake of breath, and Seraphine pulled her features back into their perfected mask. But her heart pounded against her ribs, each beat a reminder of the fact she couldn’t escape.

The council chamber’s grandeur, once a symbol of humanity’s accomplishment, now felt like a monument to evil. Every shining surface told of the Vaelari’s doom. Her father’s legacy, her entire world, shattered with every devastating word Elias spoke.

COUNCIL CONFRONTATION: ANTHONY’S POINT OF VIEW

High Chancellor Anthony’s fingertips brushed against the cold metal of his ceremonial throne, observing the show with trained patience. The chains that bound Elias clinked with each of the scientist’s frantic moves, a sound Anthony enjoyed despite its futility.

“Your evidence means nothing,” Anthony said, breaking the tension in the chamber. “The architect’s vision elevated us beyond such primitive concerns.”

His glance shifted to Seraphine. The slight tremble in her hands and the constriction around her eyes revealed subtleties. The girl possessed her father’s strength but her mother’s vulnerability for emotion. What a shame.

Elias’s Alpha-7 vial caught the violet light from the chamber. Anthony’s knuckles whitened against the throne’s arm, not in wrath, but in anticipation. Every charge and revelation fit his objective flawlessly.

“You built this city on bones,” Elias said angrily.

Anthony permitted himself a slight smile. The young scientist’s fury had a darker, more primal tone. As expected, the Ethereon surging through Elias’ veins responded to his emotions.

Anthony pondered, studying Elias’s eyes with a subtle violet sheen. The vessel develops right on schedule.

A shadow moved in the chamber’s corner. Captain Wong stood ready, his hand resting on the weapon. Anthony gave him the simplest nod. Everything was proceeding as planned.

The council members shuffled uneasily in their seats, but their unhappiness was irrelevant. They were pieces on a board that moved exactly where Anthony needed them.

He leaned closer, savouring the moment as the trap tightened around the prey.

DESPERATE VISIT

Five days earlier

Elias leaned his back against the moist tunnel wall, counting heartbeats until the patrol’s footfall stopped. The undercity’s maintenance passageways snaked beneath Haven’s immaculate streets like arteries, each turn bringing him closer to Professor Oris’ hidden sanctuary.

His boots splashed through shallow puddles as he navigated the maze of passages he remembered from Ruth’s old study papers. Decades of rust and inactivity obscured the professor’s lodgings behind a phoney maintenance panel. Elias pounded his knuckles against the metal, following the pattern Oris had shown him years before.

The panel pulled away with a pneumatic hiss.

“Inside. Quickly.” Oris’ grizzled face appeared from the darkness.

Ancient books towered from floor to ceiling, with cracked and faded spines. Digital archives hummed alongside disintegrating paperbound volumes, forming a forbidden library of untouched history. The air was laden with the musty aroma of rotting paper.

“I discovered something in the lab.” Elias took the Alpha-7 bottle from his coat. “The molecular structure is organic. Living tissue.”

Oris’ fingers trembled as he brought the bottle up to the light. “The Council claims Ethereon is synthetic.”

“They lied. These energy signatures match descriptions in Ruth’s journals. The ones about the Vaelari.”

Oris laid the bottle down. “Your mother’s shadow lingers in this.”

“What about her?”

“She wasn’t fully human. Her father was Vaelari — one of the last. The violet in her veins, her sensitivity to Ethereon – signs of her heritage.”

The revelation struck Elias like a physical blow. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

“We are here to protect you. Ruth discovered alternative energy methods to power Haven without relying on traditional sources...” Oris’s voice stopped. “We do not harvest sentient beings. We preserve her research in the archives.”

Heavy boots reverberated across the corridors outside. They froze, holding their breath, as a security sweep passed by their hiding place. The footsteps got distant.

“The archives are sealed,” Elias said quietly. “How-”

“I know someone. Meet them tomorrow at the Commerce Exchange, northern entrance. Look for—”

A crash boomed throughout the caverns. This time, we’re closer.

Oris slapped a data crystal into Elias’ palm. “You must go. Now. This is Ruth’s final research. Keep it safe.”

“Professor-”

“Go. Use the maintenance shaft. Three levels up, then west to the market district.”

Elias clutched the crystal. “Thank you.”

“Your mother died protecting these truths. Don’t let her sacrifice be in vain.”

The panel slid shut behind him, and Elias dissolved back into the tunnels, Ruth’s legacy searing like a brand in his pocket.