Chapter 84 — The Last Seed Keeper

The temporary stop that the neutral merchant group used to rest between Vom Thuong and Vom Cat appeared after two days of hasty travel, a cluster of tents built around an old well, discreet enough that Bach Lam decided this was the safest place for the group to stop for a few more hours, giving Doanh Ba Thong time to recover before continuing the remaining distance to Vom Cat.

"You need to rest more," Khe Mien said, observing Doanh Ba Thong sitting against a rock in the shade of the tent, his face still pale even though it was much better than the night they rescued him. "We don't need to be in this hurry."

"We need to hurry," Doanh Ba Thong replied, his voice was steadier after a full day of rest and food. "Because I believe, right now, Jing Bo Xuan is searching through the entire Private Archives to find out exactly what I took, and once he discovers the door leading down to the place I'm about to tell you about, everything that lies down there may be gone forever."

Bach Lam, Kien and Khe Mien sat around him, and in the late afternoon light filtering through the tent canvas, Doanh Ba Thong began to tell the story that he had kept secret for many months, ever since he discovered it by chance while searching for documents for a completely different mission.

“The Private Archives are more than just a place to store documents,” he said, his voice low as if he was still afraid to say these things out loud, even though they were dozens of miles away from the Upper Dome. "It was built on the foundations of a much older, pre-Great Cataclysm facility — one of the first bunkers that the Thien Ho Corporation built for its own board, before the disaster struck. I happened to find an old, almost forgotten door, leading down to a deeper level that no official Central Council document had ever mentioned."

"Have you been down there yet?" Bach Lam asked, the tension evident in his voice.

"Just once, and not for long," Doanh Ba Thong replied. "Enough to see rows of metal shelves stretching out into the darkness, and in the weak light of my flashlight, I saw... boxes exactly like what you once described to me, Khe Mien. Seed storage boxes."

Khe Mien felt her whole body freeze for a moment, and she had to ask again to make sure she hadn't heard wrong. "Seed?"

"Hundreds, perhaps thousands of boxes," Doanh Ba Thong confirmed, "are systematically arranged, more carefully preserved than anything I have ever seen, even in descriptions of the Grain Warehouses of other Arches. I did not dare stay long enough to read all the labels, for fear of being discovered, but I did see a large sign hanging at the entrance, with an inscription I will never forget."

"What text?" Kien asked, his voice tense.

Doanh Ba Thong looked straight at Khe Mien as he answered, as if knowing these words would mean the most to her than to anyone else in the group. “The Root Store,” he said. "Established by the Board of Directors of Thien Ho Group, to preserve the future of the worthy."

A heavy silence fell over the group, and Khe Mien felt tears suddenly welling up in her eyes, a complex mixture of indignation and an almost sense of shock at how the legend Co Diem Ninh had once told her, half a fairy tale and half a warning, had now turned out to be the truth — not just the truth, but a truth crueler than anything she had ever imagined.

“So the Root Store is real,” she said softly, her voice shaking. "It is not a legend. It is a stolen treasure, hidden by those who caused the Great Cataclysm, to be reserved for their descendants, while all the remaining Arches struggled with their dwindling lineages."

"That line says 'the worthy'," Bach Lam said, his voice carrying a cold indignation. "Not all of humanity remains. Only those they deem worthy — themselves, and those they choose to retain power with."

Doanh Ba Thong nodded, then took out the small piece of metal he had hidden again, placing it in Khe Mien's palm with respect as if he were handing over the fate of the entire alliance. "This is the key to that door," he said. "I got it from Jing Bo Xuan's own office, on one occasion when he left the keys unattended, weeks before I was discovered. I had intended to send it to you through normal communication channels, but realized the risk was too great if it was intercepted in the middle of the road. I decided to keep it with me, waiting for the most opportune moment."

“He carried it with him throughout the days of detention and interrogation,” Khe Mien said, her voice trembling with both admiration and horror at what he had endured to protect this small thing. "If they find it..."

"They didn't find it," Doanh Ba Thong replied, a tired but determined smile crossing his face. "And now it's in the hands of those who deserve to use it most."

Bach Lam, while sharing the group's outrage, maintained his characteristic practical head, turning the conversation to more pressing questions. "So what do we do with this information?" he asked. "We can't go back to the Upper Dome immediately to open that door — not with three of you and one just escaped from the cell."

"No," Khe Mien agreed, her mind already starting to shift from shock to strategic calculation, a skill she had learned over months of confronting situations more complex than anything she had ever prepared for as a mere Seed Keeper within the four walls of the Seed Store. “We need to return to the alliance first, mobilize enough force, and when we return to the Upper Dome, it will not be just a small group sneaking in the shadows anymore. It will be the full power of the Ash Network, coming to unlock this truth before everyone, not just us.”

"What about publishing the truth?" Kien asked. "We already have the documents about the Heavenly Guardian Group, about Loi Bach Dat's lineage. Now we also have evidence about the Original Seed Vault. But how can all the Arches, not just those that have joined the alliance, be made aware of this truth at the same time, before the Central Council has a chance to distort or deny it?"

Doanh Ba Thong, although still weak, sat up straighter when that question was asked, as if this was the last piece of information he wanted to share. "There's a system," he said, "called the All-Dome Broadcast, built right in the center of the Upper Dome, that transmits the Central Council's official messages to every Dome at the same time, through a network of relay antennas spread throughout the area. That's the tool they've been using to broadcast the Chronicle of the Great Change, to spread the messages about the Unification Treaty. If someone can take over that station, even for just a few minutes..."

"We can use their own propaganda tools to expose the truth," Bach Lam said, completing the sentence for him, his eyes shining with an idea that was gradually taking clear shape.

"Exactly," Doanh Ba Thong confirmed. "But that radio station is more heavily guarded than anywhere else in the Upper Dome, including the security zone where I'm being held. This is not a mission that can be accomplished by mere stealth."

Khe Mien looked down at the small piece of key in her palm, then looked up at the night sky that was gradually falling through the gap in the tent, the first stars began to sparkle above. She thought about Ngan The Binh, about the burned settlements, about Thi Ngoan Bay and the people of the Basement who had never seen the true light of the Upper Dome, about everything that had led them to this moment.

“Then we'll need more than a small group to sneak in during the night,” she said, her voice carrying a new determination, sharper than anything she had ever felt before. “We will need all the strength this alliance has built — not to conquer the Upper Dome by force, but to apply enough pressure, enough time, to open the door down to the Core, and hold the broadcast long enough for the truth to spread to every corner of this post-Great Cataclysm world.”

Bach Lam nodded, his eyes met hers with absolute agreement. “This will be the final battle,” he said, “not because we want war, but because this is the one time everything — truth, justice, and the future of all who survive — converges at the same point, at the same moment.”

That night, as the group continued their journey back to the Sand Dome under the starry sky of Dong Tro, Khe Mien clasped the small piece of key in her hand, clearly feeling that she was carrying not only a small metal object, but the weight of a truth that had been buried for generations, waiting for the right moment to be released.