The sky split.
Not like lightning or storm—but like a page tearing from the center of a book.
A jagged rift opened above the Painted Tower, its edges rimmed with silver flames and floating glyphs that shimmered with absolute law. Through it, an inverted city could be seen—suspended upside down in an ocean of ink and stars.
It wasn't part of the world.
It was above it.
The Skyvault Archive.
A voice rang out—not in sound, but through the Codexes of every Sovereign on the continent.
"Aren Vahl. Sovereign-class anomaly.
You are hereby summoned under Directive 7.
Violation: Unbound Codex Growth. Unauthorized Memory Preservation. Emotional Defiance.
Sentence: Final Revision."
Aren stood at the base of the Painted Tower, looking up at the rift.
He didn't flinch.
Leiran, sword drawn, muttered, "We leave. Now."
Kaeliah stepped beside Aren instead. "He's not running."
Leiran turned. "Kaeliah. That thing in the sky is the Archivist's personal domain. No one enters and returns intact."
Aren's Codex pulsed.
"I'm not going to return intact," he said. "That's the point."
[New System Trigger: Skyvault Challenge Accepted]
Passive Granted: Sovereign Resolve – Resistance to narrative coercion +80%
Realm Transition Imminent – Codex Lock Required
Allies May Join (Max 2)
Warning: Upon entering the Skyvault, memory, time, and identity may be fragmented.
Kaeliah stepped forward. "I'm going."
Aren looked at her, unsure.
She nodded. "You told me to say your name. Let me remember it."
Leiran sighed and raised a hand. "Make it three."
Aren smirked. "Thanks."
"Not for you. I want to stab a god."
The moment they accepted, the Codex sealed around them in golden threads.
A soundless pull lifted their bodies into the rift—no transition, no sky, just conceptual displacement. Their senses unraveled.
When they re-formed, they stood in a place that defied architecture.
The Skyvault Archive.
Books floated like stars. Towers hung upside-down. Bridges folded in impossible angles. Logic had no authority here—only law did.
And waiting for them on a platform of ink-steel stood a being of impossible age.
Tall. Featureless. Draped in silver robes stitched with time-signatures and deletion marks.
Its voice was a whisper of turning pages.
"Sovereign Aren Vahl. Kaeliah of the Bound Flame. Leiran, Son of the Red Year.
Welcome. You now stand before the Archivist."
Kaeliah gritted her teeth. "You're the one behind the Reviser?"
The Archivist inclined its head. "The Reviser was a pen. I am the hand."
Leiran raised his blade. "What happens now?"
"You will each face a Trial of Self. The truth you fear most. Fail, and you will be edited into absence. Pass… and your Codexes will remain yours."
Aren narrowed his eyes. "And if I refuse?"
The Archivist answered with silence.
But behind them, the portal back closed.
There was no exit—only resolution.
The platform separated into three.
Kaeliah and Leiran were pulled away into mirrored spirals, vanishing from Aren's view.
He stood alone now, in front of a new mirror.
Not reflective—but recorded.
It showed him a memory he had never allowed himself to revisit.
A burning home.
His mother's voice.
A shadowed man in red taking her away while Aren hid beneath the floorboards, clutching a rusted lantern.
The image froze.
[Trial of Self – Aren Vahl]
"Confront what you truly fear: That you are not the Forgotten King… but the mistake that replaced him."
Aren's knees almost buckled.
"That's not true."
But the voice inside the mirror echoed back.
"Yes, it is. The real King was erased. You filled the gap. A draft. A footnote."
A new figure appeared in the mirror.
Aren Vahl—but crueler. Eyes sharper. Smile twisted. Wearing a crown of severed names.
"I'm the true Sovereign," the reflection said. "You're a sentimental rewrite."
Aren's Codex shook.
He remembered the words of the Echo in the Vault: "She'll betray you."
The reflection whispered, "You know who he meant. Not Kaeliah. Not Leiran. The silver-eyed girl in your dreams. The one who's guiding you."
Aren's eyes widened.
Veema.
"She's not what she seems," the mirror said. "She's writing her own Codex through you."
The mirror shattered.
[Trial Complete – Acceptance of Self Achieved]
Anchor Strength Increased
Warning: Mistrust Thread Activated – "Veema"
When Aren opened his eyes, he was back in the Skyvault center.
Kaeliah stood beside him—shaken, but alive.
Leiran knelt, eyes closed, muttering his mother's name.
Aren nodded to the Archivist. "We faced your test."
The Archivist didn't smile.
But it did raise its hand—and drew a single sigil of ink.
[Skyvault Judgment Complete – Deletion Delayed]
"You have earned time. Not freedom. The Codex watches still. Your path diverges soon."
"And the others know your name now."
Aren's eyes narrowed. "What others?"
But the Archivist did not answer.
The portal reopened.
They were thrown back into their world—falling through sky and wind, landing hard atop the Painted Tower.
Above them, the rift sealed shut.
Kaeliah was breathing hard. "What… what was that?"
Leiran spat blood. "That was a warning."
Aren looked down at his hands—where now, faintly, new marks appeared in the Codex's language.
One was a name: Veema.
And beside it, a question mark.