Chapter 1833

The older man didn’t answer.

Jude looked towards the women.

"Why are they all here?"

The older Jude lowered his eyes.

"Because the house remembers them too."

"Why?"

"Because you brought them here."

Jude frowned.

"I didn’t build this place."

"No," the older man said. "But you opened it."

The first Sol stepped forward.

"Tell him the truth."

The older Jude looked at the boy.

"You don’t want the truth."

"I want to know why you keep calling me home."

The older man’s expression tightened.

"Because you belong here."

Sol shook his head.

"I don’t."

"You were born here."

Jude looked at the boy.

Sol’s face had gone pale.

The older Jude continued.

"You were born beneath the tree, in the house that existed before the island became an island."

Jude felt the women gathering behind him.

He could hear their quiet breathing.

"Then why did I find him on the beach?"

The older man looked at him.

"Because you sent him there."

Jude stared.

"What?"

"You sent him away."

"No."

"You gave him a name."

"No."

"You told him to find you."

Jude stepped backwards.

The older Jude’s voice became quieter.

"And then you forgot."

Sol shook his head.

"That’s not true."

The older man looked down at him.

"Isn’t it?"

Sol’s eyes filled with tears.

"I remember the beach."

"Do you?"

"I remember Jude."

"Do you?"

"I remember the village."

The older man nodded.

"Then tell me."

Sol looked at Jude.

The boy’s lips moved.

He tried to speak.

But no sound came.

The silver crescent around his wrist began glowing.

Jude immediately grabbed his hand.

"That’s enough."

The older Jude closed his eyes.

"You see? He cannot remember without opening the door."

"Then we’ll never open it."

The older man looked at Jude.

"That’s what you said last time."

Jude felt the words strike him.

"What last time?"

The older Jude turned towards the corridor.

At the far end stood a wooden door.

It had no handle.

No lock.

No markings.

Only a small silver circle at its centre.

The fourteenth door.

The older man approached it.

"You have spent so long trying to understand why the house wants the child."

He placed his palm against the wood.

"But you have never asked why the child wants to find you."

Jude looked at Sol.

The boy was staring at the door.

"Sol?"

The boy stepped forward.

"Don’t."

Jude held his shoulder.

"Stay here."

Sol shook his head.

"I have to see it."

"No."

"Jude, please."

The older man turned.

"Let him come."

Jude didn’t move.

Then Layla spoke from behind him.

"Jude."

He looked back.

She was holding something.

A small folded piece of paper.

"I found this in my room."

He took it.

"What is it?"

"I don’t know. It was beneath my pillow."

Jude unfolded it.

There was a drawing of the shared house.

The central firepit.

The northern mountain.

And a little figure standing beside a wooden door.

The figure was holding a crescent pendant.

But beneath the drawing was a sentence written in a handwriting Jude recognised.

His own.

IF HE FINDS ME AGAIN, DO NOT LET HIM REMEMBER WHAT I DID.

Jude’s fingers tightened around the paper.

He looked at the older man.

"Did I write this?"

The older Jude nodded.

"Yes."

"When?"

"Before the first house was opened."

"What did I do?"

The older man looked at the boy.

Then at Jude.

And finally, he answered.

"You asked me to kill the child."

Nobody moved.

Even the distant firepit seemed to have stopped crackling.

Jude stared at him.

"What?"

"You asked me to make sure he never reached the first house."

Sol stepped backwards.

The older Jude continued.

"You said that if he remembered his name, the island would remember what happened beneath the tree."

Jude shook his head.

"I would never..."

"You did."

"No."

"You begged me."

Jude looked at the women.

Nobody spoke.

He turned towards the first Sol.

The boy was staring at him.

His expression was no longer frightened.

It was something worse.

Disappointment.

"Sol..."

The boy took a step away.

"Did you?"

"No."

The older Jude looked at him.

"You don’t remember."

Jude turned sharply.

"Enough!"

His voice echoed through the corridor.

The pictures on the walls rattled.

The silver circle on the fourteenth door began glowing.

The older Jude stepped away from it.

"Then perhaps you should see."

The door opened.

Beyond it was a small room.

A wooden bed stood against one wall.

A little table sat beside it.

There was a window overlooking a forest.

And on the bed lay a silver crescent pendant.

Jude looked towards the boy.

Sol was trembling.

The older Jude spoke softly.

"This is where you first met him."

Jude stepped into the room.

The wooden floor creaked beneath his feet.

He approached the bed.

On the table lay a small book.

Its cover was marked with the same symbol they had found near the northern path, on the silver disc, and in the cave.

Three curved lines surrounding a central point.

Jude opened it.

The first page contained a drawing of the island.

The second showed thirteen figures.

The third showed the first house.

The fourth showed a man standing beneath a tree.

Jude turned the page.

And stopped.

There was a drawing of himself.

Younger.

He was kneeling beside a small boy.

The boy was wearing the silver crescent around his wrist.

But the boy’s face had been carefully scratched away.

Beneath the drawing was a sentence.

THE FIRST PROMISE WAS MADE BY THE FATHER.

Jude turned the page.

Another drawing.

The same man.

The same child.

But this time the man was holding a key.

And the child was standing on the other side of a door.

The next page was almost completely blank.

Only one sentence had been written across it.

THE FATHER DID NOT FORGET THE CHILD. HE FORGOT WHY HE HAD TO ABANDON HIM.

Jude closed the book.

He turned towards the older Jude.