Riven stood at the edge of the metro ruins, staring into a mouth that shouldn't exist anymore.
The stairs below had been buried for years. Suppressed by collapse, overwritten by cleanup efforts, paved over by denial. But the anchor didn't care. It had bled its way back through, carving reality open just enough to be remembered.
A ripple. One that didn't want to be found.
He turned the [Stability Token] over in his hand. Its surface pulsed dim blue, synchronized with the invisible thread tugging at his spine — one that vibrated faintly with a name.
Aya.
He stared downward into the broken dark.
> [Anchor Fragment Location: Aurora District – Zone Redacted]
Status: Dormant / Flux-Encoded
Anchor Type: Memory Echo – Suppressed
Access: Grade II Required
Risk: Cognitive Desynchronization
Thread Fragment Detected: Aya Vale (Stability 22%)
Warning: Residual Signal Trap Confirmed
Riven exhaled through his teeth. "Of course."
This was the fourth time he'd chased her signal. Each time, deeper. Each time, more corrupted. The System knew exactly where she was — it just didn't want him to reach her.
He clenched his fist around the token and descended.
---
The moment his foot hit the first step, the air changed. Not colder — thinner. Like the ripple was holding its breath.
> [Anchor Zone Breach – Stability Token Consumed]
Access Granted: Tier II – Submerged Class
Anchor Core: Suppressed / Emotional Type
Zone Risk: High
Light warped. Tile cracked and softened. A locker turned into a desk. The stairs became asphalt. Then carpet. Then white linoleum smeared in something brown-red that didn't look like rust.
The System's overlay flickered, then gave up trying to parse it. All that remained was a quiet hum behind his eyes — the tug of memory growing stronger.
He passed by a wall covered in posters. Safety drills. Fire exits. School mascots.
Every single face on them had been scratched out.
---
The corridor opened into a distorted hall where gravity tilted sideways and silence clung to the air like mold. It smelled like scorched paper and something older — dust, rot, and static.
He pressed onward.
The anchor folded around him.
School hallways melted into hospital corridors. A mural of smiling children flickered and reversed into a chalkboard that read "Help us" again and again. Desks floated above the floor, frozen mid-fall.
Then — a sound.
Soft. Real.
A whimper.
Riven stopped.
Not an echo. Not static. Not System playback. A living sound.
He followed it.
Around a bend where lockers bled into steel vines, through a sagging door into a room that had once been a playground.
A slide arched up through the ceiling. A swing hovered upside down in the air. A melted jungle gym fused into the wall, looped endlessly with one flickering image: a girl, sitting alone.
And beneath the broken slide, in a corner choked with soot and scorched grass—
A child.
No older than ten. Curled around a one-eyed bear. Knees to her chest. Ash clinging to her cheeks. Her face unreadable.
Her eyes open.
Watching him.
Not afraid. Not moving.
Just... waiting.
The System shuddered.
> [Unstable Echo Detected – Collapse Recommended]
Core Status: Phase Risk / Memory Unstable
Collapse Protocol: Ready
Companion Link: Not Present
Override Possible
He knelt beside her.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "I know you're still in there."
The anchor trembled.
Color drained from the walls. A desk caught fire and vanished. Light curled upward like water reversing.
Still, she didn't move.
Her eyes locked to his.
Golden.
He reached out a hand.
The air screamed.
Static ruptured through his eardrums. The System flooded with error messages. Debris hung in mid-air. Sirens wailed through empty walls.
But her hand moved.
Just slightly.
Toward his.
They didn't touch.
But something between them did.
> [Collapse Override Accepted]
Phasekin Bond Detected
Emotional Thread Type: Singular Link
Loyalty Thread: GOLD
Companion Formation In Progress
Light broke over the space — soft, silver-gold, warm like breath.
The girl dissolved into ash and memory.
And in her place stood a creature.
Small. Four-legged. Fur cream and gray. Ears far too big for her head. Golden eyes, just like before.
She padded toward him.
And pressed her head gently to his chest.
Riven knelt there for a long moment.
He closed his eyes.
"Kaia," he whispered.
The name didn't come from nowhere.
It had always been hers.
> [Phasekin Companion Created – Kaia]
Classification: Threadborne
Status: Bonded
Loyalty Trait Pending
Companion Trait: Memory-Locked
She curled up beside him.
And for the first time in too long, he didn't feel like a weapon.
---
They moved through the ripple together now.
Kaia stayed close, tail low and steps soft. Her gaze never stopped scanning the shifting world.
The anchor no longer twisted in rage. It yielded — barely — but enough to walk through.
They passed half-burned classrooms, a cafeteria roof ripped into an open sky that didn't exist. Time here didn't flow. It frayed.
And at its heart, behind the remains of an auditorium-turned-church, sat a cube of light.
Flickering. Glitching. Familiar.
Aya.
Her thread pulsed like a heartbeat caught between failing systems.
Kaia growled softly.
Riven stepped forward and touched the light.
Pain. Gravel under his knees. Wind in his ears.
Aya's hand in his. Then slipping away.
A scream he couldn't stop.
Gone.
> [Thread Fragment Acquired – Partial Sync (10%)]
Additional Fragments Required
He staggered back.
Kaia caught him, pressing her weight into his side.
He buried a hand in her fur and nodded. "We're not done. Not yet."
---
They climbed out together.
The zone sealed behind them, folding in like a page being turned. Smoke rose from where the ripple used to be, but the thread remained steady.
Aya was still calling.
And now, Kaia walked beside him.
He looked at her once. She looked back.
A memory given form.
A bond.
---
> [Trait Unlocked – Threadbound I]
You chose a companion over collapse.
Loyalty threads resist deletion.
Phasekin companion gains passive resistance to memory degradation and anchor corruption.
He straightened.
Kaia yawned and trotted to his heel.
They stepped into the ash together.
And the world, just for a moment, felt a little less lost.