When Kael woke, the world felt… wrong.
He was lying on the academy roof, sunlight pressing against his eyelids. The same sky, same city skyline — yet the quiet hum beneath it was gone. No trace of that faint mechanical vibration that had followed him since his first day here.
For a moment, he thought he'd dreamed it all. The Core. Seren. The Rewrite collapsing. But when he looked at his hands, faint silver lines still glowed under the skin — dimmer, fading, but still there.
Lira was sitting beside him, her jacket torn and hair a mess. She looked half asleep but alert enough to punch anyone who tried something stupid.
"You're alive," she said flatly.
"Barely," he replied, his voice dry.
"Good. That means I can yell at you later."
He gave a small grin. "Can't wait."
They sat there quietly for a while, the wind moving slow across the rooftop. Everything below looked normal — students heading to class, banners fluttering, the bell tower ringing. Too normal.
Lira tilted her head. "Doesn't it bother you?"
"What?"
"That none of them remember."
Kael's gaze followed a group of students crossing the courtyard. They laughed, arguing about something meaningless. "Maybe that's for the best."
"Still. We almost lost everything."
He nodded slowly. "We did. Just not in a way they can see."
---
Down below, the academy had returned to its usual rhythm, but there were cracks if you looked closely. The statues near the courtyard were different now — not the same faces as before. One had Kael's faint outline, blurred as if painted over. Another bore Lira's crest insignia on its base.
Small things. Impossible things.
Kael and Lira stood at the edge of the fountain, watching water rise and fall in calm arcs. The surface shimmered once, showing flashes of a place that wasn't there anymore — the vault, the pillar, Seren's face fading into light.
Lira knelt, touching the water. "It's still bleeding through."
Kael's tone stayed calm. "Residual memory. Fragments that refused to be rewritten."
She looked up at him. "Like you."
He didn't answer. The truth was, he could feel it — something inside him was no longer stable. His Crest pulsed irregularly, sometimes burning, sometimes going cold. A trace of the Rewrite still lingered in him.
> System Log: Resonance pattern unstable. Adaptive state active.
He closed his hand, willing the glow to fade. "It's holding for now."
"For now," Lira repeated. "You ever going to tell the others?"
"What would I even say? 'Hey, the world almost got rewritten into a simulation, but we fixed it, mostly'?"
She chuckled. "You could shorten it."
"Yeah. 'We survived.' That works."
---
That night, the dorms were loud again. The others didn't notice anything off — they were too busy preparing for next week's field trials. Ryn was arguing with Taro about formation drills; both sounded like they hadn't slept in days.
Kael watched them from the corner, quiet as usual. When Taro noticed him, he waved. "Oi, Silver boy! You vanished all day! Thought you finally quit trying to be mysterious."
Kael shrugged. "I got lost on the roof."
Ryn groaned. "You? Lost? You could probably find your way through a maze blindfolded."
Kael smirked. "You'd be surprised."
They went back to arguing, leaving him in peace. He was glad for that. Pretending things were normal took more effort than fighting did.
Lira entered a bit later, dropping a folder on his desk. "Mission briefing," she said. "We're being sent to the outer ruins tomorrow."
"Already?"
"The headmaster's pushing the schedule forward. Apparently, the mana readings around the ruins changed after the recent surge. They think some artifact caused it."
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly. "Of course they do."
She folded her arms. "You think it's connected?"
"Everything is."
He opened the folder and froze. The report described the ruins as remnants of a "pre-collapse research site." No one knew what it originally studied, but the symbol in the attached photo made his stomach tighten.
A circle intersected by three lines — the same symbol from the vault.
Lira leaned in. "That look on your face isn't comforting."
He shut the folder. "We're not done with the Rewrite."
---
The next day, the transport pods dropped them near the eastern cliffs. The ruins looked harmless from afar — half-buried buildings covered in vines and dust. But as they moved closer, Kael could feel the faint hum again. Not loud. Just enough to raise the hairs on his neck.
Ryn whistled. "Creepy place. Bet it's haunted."
Taro grinned. "If it is, the ghosts will be bored to death fighting us."
Lira ignored them, scanning the perimeter. "Kael. Anything?"
He crouched, brushing aside debris. Underneath, faint metallic lines ran through the stone — circuits, old and corroded, still pulsing with weak light. "This wasn't just a research site. It was a fragment node."
Lira frowned. "Fragment of what?"
He stood. "The Rewrite network."
The ground rumbled faintly.
Taro looked around. "Uh, was that supposed to happen?"
The circuits lit brighter. Then the air shimmered. A figure stepped out of the distortion — human shape, but hollow, transparent, and glitching every few seconds.
Ryn swore. "Is that a ghost or…"
Kael's stomach dropped. "It's an echo."
The figure raised its head. Its voice was static, layered and distant. "Identity pattern… Kael Draven. Resonance recognized."
Lira pulled her weapon instantly. "You said it was gone!"
Kael's Crest pulsed violently. "It was. This must be a leftover construct — the Rewrite trying to rebuild itself through fragments."
The echo flickered again, forming a rough copy of his face. "Rewrite incomplete. Core restoration priority active."
Ryn whispered, "It's you."
Kael's pulse steadied. "No. It's what the Rewrite thinks I am."
The echo tilted its head, repeating softly, "Preserve. Rebuild. Rewrite."
Then it lunged.
Kael barely had time to block as a surge of force exploded from its palm, sending him sliding backward through the dust. His Crest flared, reacting on instinct. Lira dashed forward, intercepting with a burst of energy that cut through the echo's form, scattering pieces of light.
It reformed almost instantly.
"Kael!" she shouted. "Any plan?"
He gritted his teeth. "One."
He pressed his palm to the ground, channeling his resonance into the old circuits. The light around them pulsed, and for a moment the echo hesitated, flickering.
He shouted, "This isn't your world anymore!"
The circuits turned white-hot. The entire ruin trembled. Then — silence. The echo shattered into particles, dissolving into the air like dust.
Everyone stood still, breathing hard.
Ryn finally muttered, "So… that's normal now?"
Kael wiped blood from his lip. "If that was just one echo, then we've got a problem."
Lira looked at him sharply. "How many?"
He met her eyes. "Enough to rebuild the system if they connect."
She exhaled slowly. "Then we stop them first."
Kael nodded. The wind picked up, carrying faint whispers through the broken stone — not voices, not language, just memory trying to find form again.
He looked toward the horizon, where the sun dipped low and the light caught the silver lines still faintly glowing in his hand.
The Rewrite was gone. But its memory wasn't.
And memory always found a way back.