The shard of Aya's memory still echoed behind Riven's eyes.
Not just a vision. A presence. A thread the System hadn't yet severed.
It pulsed quietly beneath his ribs as the group pushed into the broken remains of Zone 73b—an old industrial sector now drowned in ripple warps and signal noise. The sky above was a permanent dusk, flickering between static-laced clouds and glints of fractured color like a failing monitor screen. This place wasn't dead. It was decaying slowly, like memory rot.
Kaia's paws padded softly across buckled pavement. Brenn led the way with his tower shield up, Kalix moved ghostlike along the edges, and Nilo followed with eyes half-lidded, trailing threadlines with quiet focus. Every step they took felt like wading through the residue of something lost.
> [Thread Signal Detected – [Aya Vale]]
Status: Dormant / Anchor Imprint: Unstable
Risk Level: Thread Decay – HIGH
"Thread signature's strong here," Nilo murmured.
"It's not just strong," Riven said. "It's angry."
Kaia lifted her head and growled low, fur bristling slightly. She didn't bark often anymore. Her instincts were sharper now, more attuned. Riven didn't need System confirmation—if Kaia was on edge, something was wrong.
They passed a crumbling stairwell where old warning posters still clung to the wall, sun-bleached and torn: STAY INSIDE DURING FLUX. REPORT ANOMALIES IMMEDIATELY.
Brenn glanced over his shoulder. "We're heading straight into a trap, aren't we?"
Riven gave a dry smile. "Doesn't matter. Aya's thread cuts through here. We follow it."
No one argued. Kalix just drew one of her shorter blades and vanished into the shadows ahead.
They descended through a warped tunnel—its floor cracked like dried skin, walls thrumming with faint pulse-beats of echo static. Riven could feel the dissonance here. This was a place memory had tried to anchor to, but had failed. Now it was unraveling.
From ahead, a voice.
"You're not from this thread."
It was quiet. Not hostile. Just tired.
They turned to see a figure perched atop an old generator—slim, wiry, cloaked in scavenged patchwork gear. Her eyes were wide, wary, and glowing faintly from thread exposure. A faded Mark shimmered at her neck, barely intact.
Kaia growled again—but softly.
Riven stepped forward, empty hands visible. "We're not here to fight."
"Then why are you lit like a beacon?" the girl snapped. "You're pulsing. You're saturated with tether energy. You've got a Phasekin. Your thread's loud enough to wake the dust."
"We're tracking someone," he said. "Someone lost. Her thread runs through here."
The girl jumped down lightly. She looked young—but her eyes were old. Burned-out in a way that said she'd survived too much with nothing to show for it.
"Sahl," she said at last. "I was a Marked. Untethered now."
"You severed?" Nilo asked, stepping closer.
"Didn't have a choice." She looked at the others. "You all still connected?"
Kalix appeared behind her and made her flinch.
"Very," Kalix said.
Sahl stared at them, then shook her head. "You're a bonded unit. That's rare. Most groups fall apart after the third echo. You're what the Eaters want."
Riven felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. "Eaters?"
Sahl gestured around them. "Signal Eaters. Echo-warped things that feed on unstable threads. They're drawn to bond energy. They erase people—unwind their identities until there's nothing left but residue."
A scraping sound echoed from deeper in the ruins.
Kaia whined, and her fur stood on end.
Too late to run.
The first Eater slid into view—its body half-humanoid, but wrong. Faces shifted across its surface like bad dreams on loop. Its limbs moved like liquid—boneless and jagged all at once. Others emerged behind it. Dozens. Crawling, lurching, hungry.
System chimed.
> [High-Risk Thread Predators Detected – "Signal Eaters"]
Classification: Echo-Warped / Consumes Anchor Imprints
Target Priority: High
"They're not just hunting," Brenn growled. "They're remembering us."
The Eaters surged.
Riven moved first. Kaia was already glowing with golden energy as she launched into the front line. Her claws raked one Eater, slicing through its mirrored skin. Static burst from the wound.
Kalix blinked into motion—one blade high, the other low, carving elegant slashes between enemies. Nilo's fingers blurred, threads snaring one Eater and yanking it upward where Brenn's shield slammed into it with crushing force.
Riven dodged left, flaring [Hollow Flare I] from his palm. The blast burned through two of them, tearing open a path.
More came.
They moved like emotion itself—fast, erratic, grief-shaped.
Kaia took a blow to her flank, rolled, and came up snarling. Her body shimmered, light radiating from her chest. Riven shouted her name—
> [Kaia: Trait Awakening Triggered]
Companion Resilience Reached Threshold
Instinct Bond Deepened
"Stay with me!" he shouted.
Kaia roared—not a bark, not a growl. A full-bodied, soul-anchored roar that stunned the nearest three Eaters.
Brenn and Kalix held the line at either side. Nilo extended threadward, shielding Kaia.
Riven moved in a blur. His blade struck down an Eater just before it could latch onto Brenn's shoulder.
Sweat stung his eyes. Every breath burned. Every memory threatened to tear loose.
Then—
> [Trait Unlocked – Mental Fortitude I]
+6 Focus / +4 Echo Resistance
Effect: Reduced emotional bleed from anchor anomalies
He gasped. The static lessened. He could think again.
Together, the five of them turned the tide.
One by one, the Eaters fell—burning out into fragments of static and emotion that dissipated into the air.
The final one collapsed beneath Kaia's fangs, golden light pulsing from her chest as she stood tall and unshaken.
The silence after was brutal.
Riven dropped to a knee beside her, brushing her flank gently. "You okay?"
Kaia pressed her head into his chest, and the System chimed again.
> [Companion Evolution Imminent]
Current Status: Phasekin I → Nearing Threshold
Trait Detected: Loyalty / Emotional Bond Imprint
Awaiting Anchor Sync Event
"She's changing again," Riven said, breathless.
Kalix sheathed her blades. "So are you."
Sahl crept forward, disbelief in her face. "You fought them. You didn't just survive. You held together."
"We've done that before," Brenn muttered. "Even before the System."
"That's what scares them," Nilo added softly.
Kaia turned and walked toward Sahl—calmer now. She sniffed the girl's hand and sat.
"She likes you," Riven said.
Sahl's lips twitched into something close to a smile. "I haven't had a name in a long time. Not one that meant anything."
"You have one now," Kalix said simply.
They found shelter in the ruins of an old signal relay tower. Sahl used scavenged metal to seal the doors. Kaia curled up in the corner near Riven's pack, resting.
They sat around the flickering glow of a cracked memory shard for warmth.
"You mentioned an Orchard," Riven said. "L-Red Sector?"
Sahl nodded. "The Orchard of Rust. It's south of here. That's where the signal warps started bleeding into real anchors. Kids were found there—untouched, but wrong. Like they'd been frozen in time. Some say the place grows echoes now."
Aya's thread pulsed in Riven's chest.
He didn't need the System to tell him that was where she'd passed through.
"She's waiting," he said.
Kalix looked at him across the firelight. "Then we don't keep her waiting."
Brenn adjusted his shield straps and stood. "First light?"
Nilo didn't move. Just nodded.
And Kaia opened one golden eye, ears flicking.
Together, they would descend into the Orchard.
And find out what had been left behind.