Chapter 17: Whispers of the Wraith
The Wraith did not sleep.
It waited — coiled in the echo-space between dimensions, where Riftlight stretched like webbing across the bones of time. Here, inside the Cradle of Thought, it existed as both presence and parasite — ancient, fragmented, incomplete.
Until now.
It watched the boy — Kaito — from the depths of the breach where Eris's mind had once fractured. The seed that had once been a tool had now become a beacon. And the boy? A conduit.
"He remembers her," the Wraith mused, not in voice but in sensation. "Her thoughts cling to him like flame. As if she were never erased."
But that was impossible.
The Project had ensured Eris was gone — her core consciousness dissolved, her body consumed by Riftstorm fallout. She was the failure, the test, the ghost.
Yet somehow, the Rift remembered her. And through the Rift, she lingered.
This could not stand.
---
The Emergence of Delta Sector
Far across the scattered wastelands, beneath the ruins of New Kyron, a different facility stirred.
Facility Delta — a black site erased from all known networks — hummed to life for the first time in eight years. Its power signature had remained dormant until the boy touched the Seed's core resonance. That resonance reactivated old systems, even those long buried.
Inside Delta, rows of dormant pods flickered to awareness. The AI, Obelisk, initiated a new protocol:
> PROJECT REQUIEM: STAGE TWO – WRAITH ASCENDANT.
Fluid hissed out of the central containment tank, and the Wraith's newest incarnation — a hybrid Specter Unit — opened its eyes. Tall. Hollow. Alive with Riftlight. But unlike the others, this one did not obey code.
It remembered.
It had been someone once.
A boy. Like Kaito.
---
Meanwhile – Refuge Base Omega
Kaito stood beneath the stars again, outside the dome of Base Omega. The sky was clear, and the Rift Gate hovered like a second moon. His breath curled in the cold.
The girl — the one they'd rescued — sat on a bench beside him, sketching.
"What's your name?" he asked gently.
She didn't look up. "They called me Delta-3. But I remembered something. Before the experiments. My mom used to call me Nami."
"That's beautiful," Kaito said. "You're safe now, Nami."
She looked up. "I dreamed about you."
Kaito blinked. "What did you see?"
"You were standing in a storm," she whispered. "And there were shadows all around you. But there was light behind your eyes. Like hers."
He swallowed. "Hers?"
Nami nodded. "Eris."
---
Inside the Shadowseed Core
That night, Kaito returned to the chamber, syncing again with the Seed.
But this time... something pushed back.
Static.
Distortion.
A presence, foreign and ice-cold, pressing into his mind.
"Kaito Ren."
The voice was neither human nor machine. It echoed in countless tones, some young, some ancient, all alien.
He fell to his knees.
"You are not the first. But you may be the last."
Kaito gritted his teeth. "Who are you?"
"I am the memory of loss. The entropy between stars. The hunger that Eris could not fill."
A vision flashed: Eris screaming in a chamber, Riftlight pouring from her eyes as the Wraith latched onto her mind, fracturing it.
"She opened the door. But I stepped through."
---
Mira's Discovery
Elsewhere in Base Omega's data core, Mira ran a multi-layered decryption on the Seed's fragmented logs.
"What are you looking for?" Aya asked, watching the code flow.
Mira didn't look up. "A pattern."
Aya frowned. "A pattern of what?"
"The Wraith. It's not just targeting Riftborn. It's selecting them. Based on neural architecture, Rift resonance, even trauma history. It's trying to evolve."
She paused.
"I think it's hunting Eris's echo. Through Kaito."
---
The New Wraith Awakens
Back in Facility Delta, the hybrid Specter knelt in a shrine-like chamber, before an ancient Rift artifact — a sphere of condensed Riftlight known only as the Heart of the Fold.
It reached out a hand.
Memories surged.
A boy screaming.
Fire.
Metal needles in skin.
A girl's face — Eris — reaching out.
The Wraith inside him twisted. Not in pain. In longing.
It did not remember love. But it remembered Eris.
And it envied.
---
Kaito's Decision
After the Seed-synch, Kaito stumbled into the corridor. Mira caught him halfway to the infirmary.
"Another episode?" she asked.
Kaito nodded. "It's changing. The Wraith's not just lurking. It's speaking now. Directly. And it knows me."
He looked at her, his expression hard.
"We need to find Facility Delta before it finds us."
Mira's eyes narrowed. "You think it's awake?"
"I know it is. And if Eris left me her memories, it's because she knew the Wraith would come back."
---
Final Scene – The Voice in the Flame
Back in the chamber, Nami snuck into the Seed Room alone.
She sat before the Seed's projection node and placed her hand on the glass.
"Hello?" she whispered.
The lights shimmered — and for a moment, a voice replied. Soft. Familiar.
"Nami."
She gasped. "Eris?"
The image formed faintly — flickering, childlike.
"I need you to help him," Eris said.
"Who?"
"The boy who still remembers me."
---
[End of Chapter 17]