Location: Outside the Clocktower of Silence – Oth'Rel Exarchy, Planet 10 (Solmerea)
Time: [Core Stabilizing… Emotional Sync Recalibrating...]
Ren sat on a stone ledge just outside the Clocktower.
He was still breathing fast.
Still hearing the words:
"Choose me."
Still feeling the Core's cold, code-screaming panic that something was wrong.
He hadn't given the Core away. But gods, he almost had.
BLAZE (arms crossed, pacing):
"I told you. Too smooth. Too quiet. Anyone that calm with your face is either your evil twin or your tax collector."
FROST (hands glowing with scan light):
"I still don't know how he got in. That signature was Riftborn-adjacent, but the drift pattern? It was... broken. Wrong."
REN (low, to himself):
"He knew exactly what to say. How to stand. He felt like me, but… hollow. Like he remembered things I didn't live."
AETHERIUM CORE (less panicked, but still testy):
pgsqlCopyEdit> STATUS: TEMPORARY THREAT CONTAINED > IDENTITY MATCH: 47% = POSSIBLE DIVERGENT COPY > RISK LEVEL: EXTREME > SUGGESTION: DO. NOT. TRUST. THE. SMUG. COPY.
SNARKSTEEL (hanging off Ren's back, still in sword form):
"Bro, you were this close to handing me to anti-you. You know how awkward it would've been being wielded by someone with no soul and perfect posture?"
Ren let out a breath and finally stood. The sun was dim behind the mist, but the city kept moving, ticking forward like nothing had happened.
He looked at the others.
REN:
"We need answers. Real ones.
Not riddles. Not ghost-messages. I want to know who—or what—that thing is."
GRAVITY (calm, serious):
"He's part of you. But not from this you.
He may have started as your other half… but something got to him first."
TIME (mischievous whisper):
"Someone corrupted your echo. Turned your 'what-if' into 'oh-no.'"
REN:
"So what now? We chase a shadow through the Verge?"
FROST (pointing at the Core screen):
"No… we dive into you."
She tapped the Aetherium Core's display interface. It flickered once, then pulled up a node called:
🔍 CORE LAYER: MEMORY VAULT
Subtype: Riftborn Split Event [LOCKED]
Access Status: Denied
Unlock Key Required: ∅
BLAZE (squinting):
"What the hell is '∅'? That's not even a number. That's like math giving up."
REN (reading aloud):
"'Refraction Point.' That's where it all split. The moment the system decided two of me were better than one."
AETHERIUM CORE (text flickers in):
pgsqlCopyEdit> UNLOCK KEY = LOCATION MATCH: DEEP SPIRE ARCHIVE (VANYRESS) > ESTABLISH CONNECTION TO OPEN FRACTURE FILE
Everyone went quiet.
Then…
SNARKSTEEL:
"Of course.
We gotta go poke ancient Vanyress ruins now.
Great. Definitely not cursed. No haunted books. Zero chance of tentacle libraries."
REN (sighs):
"Then that's our next stop.
The Deep Spire Archive.
I want to know what happened. I want to see how I split.
Because that... thing… it's not just another me.
It's trying to replace me."
GRAVITY:
"If it gets the Core…
It won't just replace you.
It'll rewrite everything."