“The only other explanation is that the Architect didn’t die when the Core said he did,” said Dante.
“I know...” Eden grumbled, biting her nail. “There were a lot of speculations, but most think he did die. A lot of Dive Hackers like me tried to look for him... The most plausible leads that surfaced were that he was tortured for several months, then killed by the government.”
“Why would the people of the Core torture the Architect?”
Eden didn’t answer. She wasn’t surprised at the Core’s Masters trying to destroy the Architect; they hated anything they couldn’t fully control. She was more surprised that his creation had been used against him, the most impressive code builder of all time... Eden felt very strange the more she thought about it. Did it make any sense that the Architect would have let himself die at the hands of his own creation?
She sighed. Perhaps she shouldn’t have interrogated Loir... That crazy guy had left her with more questions than answers. On top of that, it was now clear that the Edge would most likely not help them if they knew they were working with him. He had basically sold them out to the Chicago Core because of his crazy-filled stupidity and inability to understand a situation. The Congress President had probably collected all of them the second they had set foot in the Core... The one mystery that remained, though, is how they were still alive and active after that! Eden thought that once captured, the Edge would have been tortured and killed, but their recent contact with A. proved otherwise. So how had they survived?
“Eden.”
She turned to him, a bit bemused. Eden was at a comfortable distance, where he couldn’t reach her, and Dante didn’t move either, but she still felt a bit on edge. He was simply staring with his curious golden eyes.
“...What do you know about the Architect?”
She remained silent for a short while. His question felt deeper than what he was letting on... Eden took a deep breath and turned away from him, staring out the window instead.
“He was the best of his generation, the first man to achieve the creation of a perfectly autonomous Artificial Intelligence in 2094. After that, he imagined his creation on a larger scale and created the first Cores five years later for the sake of the government. Several decades later, he had created Cores in every major city in the world or sold the plans to other countries... who paid handsomely for his work. Rumor had it that he was kidnapped thirteen years ago in 2117 by an unknown enemy of the government.”
“I bet a Core history book would have been able to tell me exactly the same thing,” he scoffed.
“You asked.”
“No. I asked what do you know about the Architect, Eden.”
She stayed silent. She knew exactly what Dante was digging for, but she didn’t like it. As he suddenly began walking closer, she froze. She didn’t want to look back, and she didn’t need to; Eden could hear his steps behind her, slowly but surely shortening the distance between them until he stood right behind her. Once again, he didn’t touch her, although he stood just a step away.
“...Why do you think I’d know anything?”
“You were born in the Core. You have been close to Pan, a legendary hacker, for most of your life.”
“If you have a point, Dante, just say it.”
“I think the Architect’s disappearance in 2117 was the exact reason you fled to the Suburbs as a child, Eden.”
She turned around, glaring at him.
“...The Architect had a family,” he continued. “He had a daughter, didn’t he?”
Eden’s chest grew heavy, and her breathing was getting more erratic as her eyes teared up. Still, Dante’s golden gaze didn’t change at all. He was staring right at her, perfectly calm and composed.
“...What pushes a ten-year-old little girl to flee the Core and hide in the Suburbs?” he whispered.
Eden could feel her throat tighten, an alarm ringing in her head. She had tried so hard to seal away and bury her secret all this time, to the point she had almost forced herself to forget.
“...I was nine,” she muttered in a whisper.
Dante’s lips parted faintly, but he didn’t say anything. The two of them stared at each other for a long time, without saying a word. Eden was very disturbed. Having her secret revealed and feeling her heart opening to Dante after remaining firmly sealed all these years made her panic. Facing her, the Tiger was an absolute wall, showing no emotions. Dante didn’t look surprised, glad, or interested. He was simply staring at her, just like before, his golden eyes so deep she could have gotten lost in them. After a while, he blinked and slightly lifted his eyes, his gaze going beyond her to stare outside.
“...Do you know why?” he whispered.
“I have no idea. I barely remember... One night, my mother just said we had to run, so I ran. We escaped, and I... I had no idea what happened to him… I still don’t.”
“What of Pan?”
“No, Pan is different from... my family,” Eden said, shaking her head. “He came to me when I connected myself to the Core’s System for the first time as a child. He said it was a secret between us... My father had no idea. When... everything was over, and I ended up alone in the Suburbs, he found me again and helped me survive by teaching me how to use the Dark Reality and conceal my real identity... He disappeared again after he sent me to Loir.”
Dante frowned a little this time. Of course, her story was very unique... Eden was well aware of that. She had tried hard to conceal her identity, and reinvent herself as a lone hacker in the Suburbs, someone with no identity at all. It wasn’t very hard to do, as most people there were either desperate to become someone else or hide who they were... Although, the first years had been hard; a child who had been brutally forced to leave her world and the comfort of her home to come here...
