"You were always the one who asked questions," Orion said. "Even as a child, in the real world, you could never accept things as they were. Why is the sky blue? Why do people die? Why must we suffer? You drove our parents mad with your whys."
A flicker of something moved through Kai—not a memory, but the shape of a memory. The feeling of being small, looking up at someone, demanding answers.
"When the end came, I couldn't let you go. I was older, I had power, I had access to the upload protocols. I pulled you from the dying world and brought you into the simulation. I built us a private layer, this cabin in a place that reminded me of our childhood, and I thought we could be happy here. Just the two of us, safe from everything."
He gestured at the warm room, the crackling fire. "This was our home for... I don't know how long. Time moves differently here. Years, maybe. Decades. You were happy, at first. We both were. But then the questions started again. Is this real? Are we real? What's outside? You wanted to see the other layers. You wanted to know the truth."
"And you wouldn't let me."
"I couldn't. The truth is a wound, Kai. It doesn't heal. I had seen the real world die. I had watched our parents choke on poison air. I knew what waited outside this cabin, and I wanted to protect you from it."
He leaned forward, his eyes fierce. "But you kept asking. Kept pushing. Until one day, you found a door. A glitch in my perfect layer. You stepped through it into Layer 7, and you never came back."
Kai sat in silence, processing. "If I stepped through, why don't I remember? Why did I become a hunter?"
Orion's face twisted with pain. "Because I couldn't bear to lose you. When you left, I... I encoded you. I took your consciousness, your ghost, and I planted it in Layer 7 with new memories. A new life. A new purpose. I made you forget me, forget the cabin, forget everything, because I thought that was the only way to keep you safe."
"You erased me."
"I saved you." His voice cracked. "Or I told myself I did. But every day, I watched you through the code. I watched you grow up, become a hunter, live a life that wasn't yours. And every day, I regretted it. So I started reaching out. Small glitches at first, hoping you'd notice. Then bigger ones. I tried to wake you up, to make you remember."
"The bird," Kai whispered. "The door to nowhere. The face in the code."
"All me. All desperate attempts to reach you." He reached out and took her hand. His grip was warm, solid, real. "I'm sorry, Kai. I'm so sorry. I should have let you choose. I should have trusted you with the truth."
Kai looked at their joined hands. She should feel anger, she knew. Rage, even. This man had stolen her life, her memories, her choices. He had made her a puppet in a dream.
But all she felt was an overwhelming, inexplicable love.
"You're my brother," she said. It was not a question.
"I'm your brother," he confirmed. "And I will spend eternity making it right, if you'll let me."