Codewrights were the only runners who could dream. That's what they taught us as children—like it was a comfort. We were the special ones.
The others couldn't stitch memory into story. Couldn't see what we saw when the lights went out. They had never had nightmares or known the kind of fear that creeps into the mind when it was idle.
I imagined Rebel and those eyes would be in mine tonight.
I'd been led into the shell of a home that once belonged to Rebel and Priya. I helped her toward the bed, but she hesitated, stopping at its edge like it might bite.
"He's still in this room, I feel him everywhere," she whispered, voice thinned by grief. "And I can't reach him."
She sat down on the floor and crumpled. I pulled her against my body and she leaned on me. She felt so fragile, like a baby bird.
"I don't even know your name… and I'm crying on you like a fool." Her fingers curled into fists, trembling.
"Alis De Aura, but call me Alis," I told her in gentle tones.
"Priya Ray, but people just call me Priya," she said in a low voice.
I nodded. "How did you—"
"Become corrupted?" Priya sagged further. "I was corrupted when I left the village to gather supplies. Rebel warned me not to go out into the forest alone, but I thought I could help. I slipped—fell on a tree root. The tree had been turned to rot and it got into my skin. Just... like that."
She sank further to the floor with a slow, sinking exhale, like her body couldn't hold itself up anymore. She lay down and I let her put her head in my lap. As I brushed her hair with my hand, I imagined she was Vivid for a moment.
I felt the tangles in her hair and started to unknot them. A gentle song came to mind and I hummed it.
Priya lay still, listening to me and sobbing noiselessly. I felt as though this had become my forever, caring for the lost ones. Vivid, Priya, Priya and Vivid.
When she finally spoke, it was as if a spell had broken.
"He tried everything to save me," she said, barely audible. "If I'd known what the code would cost... I would've let it take me. He was supposed to survive. He was the strong one. The village needs him."
"He was the leader?" I asked, though I realized a moment later how foolish this question was. I had seen how his people admired him from the moment we arrived.
She nodded just slightly. "Without him, the rot will creep back in, the Rotcastors will come down from the north, and we'll lose what little we have left. It's all my fault. I should have let myself die."
Her tears fell steadily, forming a glimmering puddle on the wooden floor. Tears of my own joined hers, mixing together in a soup of sorrows. I hadn't known Rebel long, but I'd seen the love he felt.
I'd missed feeling love like that, and the memories seemed so faint now. The love I had felt for my family had gotten murky over the time I'd been lost.
I reached for her hands and held them firmly so that she looked at me. "Rebel made a choice," I reminded her. "He did it because he loved you, Priya. Because you were worth saving."
She let out a whimper but I cut her off.
"You are worth saving. Honour him and live on, for both of you."
We both fell silent for a beat. We continued our staring contest, but one of us would blink and give in. Priya did.
She rasped, "Why did he melt into code? Why didn't he even say goodbye to me?"
I didn't have an answer. I only shook my head.
"Sometimes the world just takes," I murmured. "Even the best of us. Sometimes it doesn't make sense."
I thought of Vivid, the moment she vanished, and shook my head slowly.
Her eyes were distant, haunted. "I thought I was hallucinating. But I'm still awake. I'm whole. And he's still gone."
"I know how it feels," I swallowed. "He rewrote reality for you. You were everything to him."
She nodded slowly, as if trapped in a trance. "How did you meet him?"
I replied, "I was being hunted. A spider, almost the size of a house. He came and cut it up just before it got me."
She didn't blink. Didn't look surprised at her late husband's bravery. "He always found the strays. He was special that way… Everyone in our village is an outsider."
I remembered how he gave me the apple. The kindness under the tough exterior. That was the real Rebel Ray, a genuinely good person who'd hardened because of his surroundings. Now he was dead.
Something shifted behind her eyes. A spark of something brittle. Desperation, maybe. Or resolve.
"Help us," she said suddenly. She had sat bolt upright and was clutching my arm. "You're a Codewright, too."
I hesitated. "I—yes. But I'm not him. I've never purified anything. I'm not ready—"
"You don't have to be," she said, grabbing my shoulders. She shook me back and forth. Her voice had gone sharp, urgent. "You're here. That's what matters. He brought you here. Don't you see? He meant for you to stay. It's destiny."
I thought of Hexa. Of the Elites. Of the target I carried everywhere I went. But I also thought of how long I'd been running. Of how exhausted I was. Of Vivid.
I still had to find Vivid. I needed to find out where she might have gone before that thing found her.
Priya's grip tightened and it pulled me back. "We need a Codewright. You're our last one. We will die without you."
Then she looked down.
That's when I noticed it. The slight swell beneath her tunic. A tremble in her hands as she rested them on her belly.
I felt my heart tearing in two.
"Priya..." I whispered.
Tears traced down her cheeks again. "Rebel's child. And I'm alone now."
I closed my eyes, and I saw Vivid's face again. The moment she vanished. Her eyes locking with mine. Her hand slipping from my grip.
And now—Priya. Still here. Still holding on. I thought of the child curled inside of her, the child who belonged to the one who'd saved my life.
Those two parts of my heart ached, one for the girl in front of me, and the other for myself and my quest that had been fruitless so far.
I felt a surge in my chest. I didn't have to choose. I'd find a way to do both. Hadn't I always?
"I'll stay," I said.
Priya pulled me close, clinging like someone half-afraid I might dissolve next.
"Thank you," she breathed. She pressed my hand to her stomach. I swore I felt something move. "If it's a boy, I'll name him Ryder. Rebel loved that name."
"Ryder Ray," I said softly. "Keep it. No matter what."
Priya stood shakily and gestured to the bed. "Please. Rest. You look half-dead."
The moment my head hit the pillow, I slipped into the dream.
It wasn't memory. Not quite.
It began again—the unraveling. Rebel melting into code like wax near fire, his silhouette flickering away like a bad rendering. The dark thing in the distance, watching. Waiting.
The moment I bowed. And was spared.
Now I walked a path made of raw code, the lines breaking and reforming beneath each step. Searching. Always searching.
For my sister. For a trace. For hope.
It was useless.
Then the scene rewound—again and again—to the moment I'd reached for her. Vivid. Her fingers brushing mine. Her eyes.
Then the strange vision in cyberspace… The ghost of a girl…
Where are you, Vivid?
The dream offered no answer. Only the dark.
I was startled awake by a sharp, all-too-familiar voice.