Interlude – The Path to the Keystone
The path wound deeper into the Dead Orchard's heart, where the skeletal trees grew so tightly together that the sky was only a memory. The only light came from Kael's gauntlet lamp and Mira's flickering wrist-display, casting long shadows that made every branch look like reaching hands.
Ayla: "So, just to be clear—this relic we're hunting is under a cursed forest, guarded by something older than the Grid, and possibly connected to Rin's mind slowly unraveling?"
Thorne: "You forgot the part where it's probably a trap. Because it's always a trap."
Kael kept walking without turning.
Kael: "We can't afford to think of it as a trap. It's the only shot we've got."
Ayla slowed a little, her gaze drifting. "You mean the only shot to save Rin."
The way she said his name was softer—quieter—than before. Mira caught it, but didn't comment.
They made camp when the fog grew too thick to navigate. Thorne started a low blue fire in a shallow pit; Mira sat apart, working through schematics on her wrist display.
Ayla found herself staring into the flames. "Do you think he even knows we're coming?"
Kael glanced at her from across the fire. "Rin's stubborn. If there's a way for him to hold on, he's doing it."
She almost smiled. Almost.
Preparations
Mira finished configuring a stabilizer rod—a collapsible pike with three Grid anchors built into the tip.
Mira: "When we get to the relic chamber, these will hold back temporal instability long enough to extract it without collapsing the whole ruin. In theory."
Thorne: "Love it when you add in theory at the end."
Mira: "Would you rather I lied?"
They packed light, knowing the deeper they went, the less gear would matter. The Keystone was their lifeline—and their deadline.
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By the time they reached the mouth of the cavern, the air was unnaturally still, like the entire forest had been holding its breath for centuries.
A narrow stair spiraled downward, slick with condensation. They descended in silence, the walls closing in until even Kael's voice came out as a whisper.
The chamber at the bottom was vast—an underground cathedral carved from black stone. In its center stood a pedestal, and atop it… the Keystone. It wasn't just a gem—it was a prism of pure energy, rotating slowly within a lattice of light.
Kael: "No guards?"
Thorne: "Too easy."
The moment Kael stepped forward, the floor fractured like a spiderweb. Light erupted from the cracks, and from the shadows between the pillars emerged… them.
Not monsters. Not Amber Eyes.
Their own pasts.
Kael froze as he stared into the eyes of his fallen teammates—each one as real as the day they died. Mira's breath caught when a younger version of herself stepped forward, still wearing the outlaw insignia. Ayla's voice broke when she saw… herself, laughing, just before her world burned.
Thorne faced a shadowed version of himself in his villain days, eyes blazing with the cruelty he thought he'd buried.
A voice echoed from nowhere—deep, cold, inevitable.
Warden's Voice: "The relic does not choose the strongest. It chooses the one who can face the fracture without shattering."
The Trial
Kael charged first—because hesitation wasn't in his vocabulary—but every blow passed harmlessly through his fallen friends. They didn't fight to kill; they fought to remind.
Mira's double whispered all her worst failures in her ear. Ayla's laughed at her for pretending humor was anything but a shield. Thorne's… simply stared at him with that smirk he once wore when watching the world burn.
The chamber's light dimmed, the Keystone's spin slowing.
Ayla was the first to understand.
Ayla: "We can't fight them… we have to accept them."
Kael gritted his teeth, but finally dropped his blade, stepping forward to meet the gaze of his team. "I failed you. But I'm still here. And I'm going to make it mean something."
One by one, the doubles vanished—until the chamber was silent again.
The Keystone Claim
The Keystone's glow surged, and it lifted from the lattice, drifting into Kael's waiting hands. The moment his fingers closed around it, the ruin began to tremble.
Mira: "That's our cue to leave."
They ran—stairs shaking, stone cracking—but as they reached the surface, Kael swore he saw a figure standing in the treeline, watching.
The Warden. Silent. Still.
When Kael blinked, he was gone.
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