Chapter 80 — The Last Seed Keeper

The messenger arrived at Vom Cat at dusk, a thin young man with shoes worn from three days of walking, carrying a small package carefully wrapped in several layers of oilcloth to make it waterproof — an old method of communication but safer than the potentially eavesdropping radio waves, which Doanh Ba Thong had recommended for the most important information.

“I was paid to carry this package to the Grainkeeper of the Green Dome, no one else,” the young man said, handing the package to Khe Mien with a care that showed he understood, even without knowing the details, that its contents were of special importance.

Inside the oilcloth layer was a much thicker set of documents than Doanh Ba Thong had ever delivered before, accompanied by a brief handwritten letter.

*I took more risks to get these pages. Canh Ba Tuyen was becoming more and more suspicious of me, and I wasn't sure how much longer I had before I was completely discovered. Use it wisely. This is all I found in the Private Archives about the true origin of the Great Change.*

Khe Mien gathered Bach Lam, Diem Quynh, Kien, along with Cau Bach Thinh and Diep Ba Nhan in a private office, and together they read through each page of documents under the light of an oil lamp, the atmosphere in the room gradually becoming heavier with each page turned.

"This is an internal report from the Thien Ho Group," Diem Quynh said, her voice trembling as she read a particular paragraph, "written just a few months before the Great Cataclysm. It talks about a 'global resource restructuring plan' — they knew in advance that the climate system was on the brink of collapse, and instead of warning publicly, they quietly built the most fortified shelters for themselves and those they chose, while continuing to exploit resources until the end of time." last moment.""

"They didn't just know in advance," Bach Lam said, his voice choked with indignation as he read another page. "Look here — they have calculated that a controlled collapse, concentrating the remaining resources in the hands of a few, will provide far more lasting power than trying to save the entire old system. They call it 'the most effective long-term solution'."

A horrified silence filled the room as the full meaning of those words sank into each person's mind — not an inevitable natural disaster as the Chronicle of the Great Change taught in every school of every Arch, but a cold, calculated decision, made by men who chose their own survival and the future domination of their descendants over saving the rest of humanity.

"Upper Dome," Cau Bach Thinh said softly, his voice as if he had just been punched in the stomach, "was built exactly on what they had prepared in advance. It was not a random community of survivors like Cat Dome or Green Dome. It was a pre-planned plan."

Khe Mien flipped to the last page of the document, where a list of names was listed—the highest-ranking board members of Thien Ho Group at the time of the Great Change—and her finger stopped at a name marked with the same symbol of two curved lines embracing a circle that they were so familiar with.

"Here," she said, her voice barely able to form words. "Loi Bach Dat's great-grandfather was not just an ordinary CEO. He was the Chairman of the Board of Directors — the person who made the final decision for that entire 'restructuring plan'."

Kien, reading over Khe Mien's shoulder, felt an anger that he had never experienced in his life rising in his heart. “So everything we lost,” he said, his voice shaking, “the fall of the Mist Dome, the settlements burned by the Salt Dome, Mr. Ngan The Binh… all of it came from a family's decision, passed down through the generations to continue to control what was left?”

"That's what this document suggests," Khe Mien replied, trying to keep her voice calm even though her heart was also churning with the same anger. "We still need to verify more, find more evidence so that no one can refute this fact as a slander. But I believe, this is the final piece of the puzzle explaining why the Central Council always seeks to centrally control all resources, why they fear any independent sharing network like what we are building."

Diep Ba Nhan, silent throughout most of the discussion, finally spoke, his voice taking on a new seriousness. "If this were to be made public," he said, "it would completely change the way every Dome views the Central Council. No longer as a neutral force seeking order, but as the direct descendants of those who caused the Great Cataclysm for personal gain."

"But announcing it now, when we are not strong enough to resist the backlash that will surely come, could be a fatal mistake," Bach Lam warned, recalling lessons from his own battlefield experience. "We need to choose the right time, when the alliance is strong enough to withstand the storm that will come."

Khe Mien nodded, closed the document and held it tightly in her hand as if holding the weight of the truth that she had pursued since the first day she heard the name Thien Ho glimpsed in Co Diem Ninh's vague account, many years ago, when she was still sick and lying in a hospital bed at the Green Dome.

“We will keep it safe,” she said, “and continue to strengthen our alliance. But now, I think, we are no longer just fighting for abstract justice. We are fighting to reveal a truth that has been buried for generations, a truth that could completely rewrite what the rest of humanity believes about its own history.”

That night, after everyone had left to rest, Khe Mien was left alone in the office, a file of documents placed in front of her next to the seed box that had always accompanied her throughout the journey. She opened her frayed notebook, turned to a blank page, and began to write, not for the Council or the alliance, but for herself, to record this moment as a milestone she knew she would need to remember in the difficult days to come.

*I found out the truth that Co Diem Ninh only dared to hint at with a vague name, many years before I was old enough to understand its weight. The Great Transformation was not an inevitable disaster. It was a choice, made by those who consider power more precious than the lives of billions of people. And those people, or their descendants, still sit on the throne of the post-Great Cataclysm world, using the fear they created to continue to control what remained.*

*I don't know if I have the strength to overthrow that or not. But I know, I'm no longer alone in trying. Gravel Dome, Moss Dome, Stone Dome, Sand Dome — every day, this alliance grows a little stronger, even at the cost of some of the best people you've ever known. I think about the first seed I held in my hand at the Granary, many years ago, and I understand, now more than ever, that a seed never grows alone — it needs soil, it needs water, it needs other seeds around it to create a garden that can truly feed a community.*

She closed the notebook, stood up, and stepped out onto the balcony overlooking Vom Cat Square, where the fires from dozens of tents of coalition representatives still flickered in the night, each small flame representing a community that had chosen to believe in something larger than itself.

Bach Lam came to her side, and the two stood silently for a long moment, without words, just feeling each other's presence between the weight of what they had just discovered and what lay ahead.

"What's the next step?" he asked finally.

Khe Mien looked toward the distant horizon, where, although she could not see it from this distance, she knew the Upper Dome still stood tall, its proud light concealing a dark truth that had buried so many lives over the generations.

“We keep building,” she said, her voice carrying a determination forged through loss, through war, through everything they had been through since the day they left the Green Dome. “Until this alliance is strong enough to not just survive the Central Council, but strong enough to face it head-on, and finally, bring the whole truth to light — not just to the Green Dome, not just to those Arches who have joined the alliance, but to all who remain in this post-Great Cataclysm world, so that they have the right to know exactly what happened to the world they lost, and who is truly responsible.”

Bach Lam squeezed her hand, and the two stood there under the night sky, between the fire of a growing alliance and the darkness of a truth that had not yet been fully revealed, knowing that the road ahead would be long, that more losses might await, but also knowing that, for the first time since the day Khe Mien stepped out of the Green Dome gate carrying a box of seeds and a fragile belief, they were no longer alone on that road.