Kael sat alone on the edge of the shattered plaza, his back against a blackstone pillar
the echo of the battle still lingering in the cracks of the ground.
The Threadhunter was gone.
But the scars weren't. Not the ones on the marble. Not the ones on his arms. Not the one forming slowly inside his soul. Across from him, Nyra sat silent. She hadn't spoken since the fight ended. Her hair, once flowing silver, was dimmer now like something inside her had burned just from remembering him. "You really remembered me…" he whispered.
She looked up. A storm flickered in her eyes.
"I wasn't supposed to."
"Then why did you?"
"Because I did twelve times before this one."
Kael froze. "…what?"
Nyra's lips trembled not from fear.
From exhaustion.
"Every time the world resets… Every time they rewrite everything…You still die."
"And I still remember."
Kael's breath caught.
His fists clenched.
"Who are they?"
Nyra looked toward the tower its rings still spinning, slowly now. Above them, the words that once laughed had vanished.
"The Editors. The ones behind the Narracode. They don't write stories. They edit outcomes. Erase players. Patch pain."
"And you…" she paused.
"…you're not supposed to exist beyond failure."
Kael looked down at his hands.
Still faintly glowing red. So I really am a mistake… "But then why help me?"
Nyra stood up slowly, brushing off her coat.
"Because if this version survives…
You'll be the first to finish the story."
"And maybe…" she looked at him with quiet fire,"…the last to control the ending."
❝SCRIPTFORGE SYSTEM NOTICE:
All Year XII students report to Warroom Vault Seven.
Witness-Class priority.
Unstable Threads under escort.❞
Kael followed her into the side corridor beneath the plaza. Steel doors flickered open as they approached runes pulsing red as they scanned Nyra's thread mark… and glitched when they tried to scan Kael's.
❝ENTITY: NULL
Access: Not recognized
Override: Witness Escort granted❞
Inside, the Warroom was circular walls filled with moving panels of timelines, maps, and fragment scans. Twenty students stood inside each one marked with a colored sigil glowing on their collar. Purple. Green. Silver. Gold. Kael had none. Whispers broke out as he entered.
"Is that the Unwritten?"
"He survived a Threadhunter?"
"I thought he was just a glitch!"
"Why is a Witness protecting him?"
And then a new voice. Sharp. Cold. Commanding. "Silence."
A girl stepped forward from the center platform hair braided in obsidian threads, eyes glowing blue and black like galaxies folded in. Her badge read: Command Class: Thread Strategist.
Name: SAI VELDRA.
"Null-Class anomaly," she said, not blinking.
"You are now under system surveillance."
She turned to Nyra.
"And Witness Veilthorn,
for breaking Sovereign Protocol twice...
you now owe the system one future."
Kael stared at the glowing command badge on the girl's chest.
SAI VELDRA.Thread Strategist.
Thread Tier: Black-Level Sovereign Candidate. She stood with military posture every strand of her obsidian-black braid folded like it had been ironed by discipline itself. Her eyes didn't show judgment. They showed calculation. Nyra didn't flinch.
"One future?" she asked, her voice quiet but steady.
Sai nodded once.
"You broke Sovereign Protocol twice linked yourself to a NULL-Class anomaly… and paused an active deletion code mid-cycle.
The system doesn't kill you for that."
"It does worse."
"It makes you pay."
Kael stepped forward.
"Wait. What does that even mean?"
Sai's gaze didn't shift to him. She simply raised her hand. A system panel opened in midair, displaying a glowing contract written in high-tier glyphs. At the center: Nyra's name… next to a red mark labeled:
DEBT OWED: ONE FUTURE
"She now belongs to the Editor's Vault," Sai said calmly. "Until she repays her violation by giving up one of her possible futures."
"Her freedom?" Kael asked.
"Worse."
Sai finally turned to him.
"A future is not just freedom. It's potential.
Joy, love, legacy… choice.
The system won't erase her…"
"It will simply remove her from anything that was meant to make her alive."
The room was dead silent. Even the gold-threaded elite students looked away. Kael's fists clenched.
"Then take mine."
Everyone looked at him. Even Nyra. Sai didn't laugh. She didn't even blink.
"You have none."
Kael froze.
"What?"
Sai stepped forward, her voice sharp as a scalpel.
"You were born without one. No fate line. No past. No outcome.
You exist in a blank margin. And now that you've survived your first rewrite…
You're contaminating the page."
Kael wanted to scream. Not out of anger. But because she was right. I'm not real to them.
I'm just a malfunction...a fire that refuses to go out.
Sai turned to the room.
"Listen carefully, all of you."
"This year's Sovereign Cycle will not be like the last. Rewrite activity has spiked. Thread corruption is rising. And now…"She motioned toward Kael.
"We have a glitch that breathes."
"You may hate him. Fear him. Or ignore him."
"But one of you will either kill him…"
"...or follow him into a war against the Editors themselves."
Kael said nothing. But inside his chest, a flame ignited. Not rage. Not revenge. Resolve. Because even if he didn't have a fate...He was going to write one with his own blood.
❝Initiating: Peer Consensus Protocol.
Threaded Candidates may cast verdict.
Target: NULL-CLASS ENTITY KAEL ARCLIGHT.
Verdict Type: PERMISSION TO REMAIN.❞
Sai's voice echoed across the chamber. Her fingers waved once and glowing circles of light formed beneath every student present. Each circle was color-coded by thread rank. Kael stood on bare marble. No sigil. No code. Just void. A spotlight fell over him like a silent accusation.
"You're putting this to a vote?" Kael asked quietly.
Sai's reply was ice.
"Not for justice.
For data."
"The system needs to see what the future rulers of ChronoValis believe should be done with a glitch... that refuses to die."
Nyra clenched her fists, but said nothing. One by one, students stepped forward. The first was a boy with a golden-threaded coat.
He looked like royalty and spoke like a prosecutor.
"He shouldn't be here. He corrupted a Threadhunter.
He's a timebomb that doesn't know it's ticking."
"DENY."
The next was a tall girl with frost-lined gloves. "What happens if he breaks more rules? What happens when the system stops giving him Rewrite Points and starts using him as one?"
"DENY."
Another. "He's the Editor's toy. We just haven't seen the teeth yet."
"DENY."
Kael stood still. Three votes. Three attacks. Not one person looked at his face just his classification.
NULL.
Then someone unexpected stepped forward. A boy with silver-thread tattoos on his neck. Eyes like a cracked screen. Voice like crushed glass.
"I watched the footage.
He fought a Threadhunter with no skills, no stats...and still lived."
"That's not corruption.
That's survival."
He nodded once.
"APPROVE."
Whispers filled the chamber. Another girl followed.
"I don't care about fate.
I care about story.
And his... is insane."
She smiled slightly.
"APPROVE."
More footsteps. Two votes for approval. Three against. Then silence. Only one person hadn't spoken. Nyra. Sai raised her hand. "Witness-Class does not hold voting power. But the system allows one declaration."
Nyra stepped forward. Faced the entire room. Faced Kael. Her voice didn't tremble.
"I declare Kael Arclight as... my Anchor."
Gasps filled the chamber. Sai narrowed her eyes. "Do you know what that means?"
"Yes," Nyra answered.
"I bind my thread to his.
If the system tries to erase him it erases me too."
A deadly hush swept the chamber. And then the final screen floated in the air:
❝TOTAL VOTES:
DENY: 3
APPROVE: 2
ANCHOR DECLARATION: VALIDATED
SYSTEM VERDICT: DEFERRED.
FURTHER OBSERVATION REQUIRED.
NULL-CLASS GRANTED TEMPORARY RIGHT TO REMAIN.❞
Kael didn't speak. He didn't move. He simply looked at Nyra…and whispered:
"You just made yourself a target."
She smiled not with joy. With understanding.
"I already was."
Above them, unseen by all...The Editor watched. And chuckled.
"How poetic.
A story that was never supposed to begin…
now survives by becoming someone else's ending."