The caravan wasn't supposed to go this way.
It was a beginner quest—escort three NPC wagons from Elderfall to the windmill fields. No real danger. No ambushes. Just a slow walk, an XP payout, and some copper coins.
But tonight, the NPCs didn't follow the road.
They wandered off-path.
And I followed.
I hadn't planned to take the quest. Not again. But when I spotted the script trigger embedded in the escort contract—an old hexstring that didn't match the default AI template—I knew something had changed.
This was not the same code as my first timeline.
And when I accepted the quest, the SYSTEM stuttered.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Local Tag Sequence Recompiled]Threadbind Residue Detected.Adjusting Escort Path...
Adjusting?
The wagon path twisted north.
The NPCs never commented. They kept walking like they always had—smiling, humming, one of them joking about "that time the flour caught fire." But they were leading me into an untagged grove, one I'd never seen before.
And I wasn't alone.
She dropped from the trees behind the third wagon, light on her feet, a staff across her back. Red cloak, asymmetrical armor, eyes sharp with suspicion.
Her nameplate floated a few feet ahead of her:
[Player: LyraFenwick] – Level 3 – Class: Emberweaver (Uncommon)
She noticed me noticing.
"You're not supposed to be here," she said, not unkindly.
I shrugged. "Funny, I was going to say the same about you."
She glanced at the Lexicon floating at my side, then narrowed her eyes.
"That book. Is that from a class quest?"
"No," I said. "It's from before the class quests."
She blinked once. "Okay. Weird flex."
The grove narrowed. Trees bent inward.
The lead wagon froze in place. The NPCs stopped walking—but they didn't idle. They just stared forward, frozen mid-step. A sound built in the air. Faint static, like a dial turned between stations.
[SYSTEM WARNING: Local Instance Integrity Compromised]Attempting to restore memory threads...Failed.User-Driven Reconstruction Recommended.
Lyra raised her hand, a spell forming between her fingers.
"What the hell is this?"
I didn't answer. I stepped forward instead and opened the Lexicon.
[Glyph Cast: Binding Seal – Rank F+]Target: Anchoring Node (Stabilizer Thread – NPC: Elric)
The glyph latched onto the NPC. He shuddered, then reanimated like a puppet finding its strings.
The caravan resumed movement.
"Did you just... reboot an NPC?" she asked.
"No. I forced the SYSTEM to remember he was supposed to exist."
She stared.
Then: "That is the coolest thing I've ever seen."
We walked beside the wagons now, not speaking much. She kept glancing at me sideways. Measuring. Calculating.
Finally: "You play solo?"
"Usually."
"Right. Mysterious Lexicon guy. Makes sense."
I smirked. "And you? Following caravans off-path for fun?"
"I go where the glitches go."
I paused. "You see them too?"
"Lately? Yeah. Thread flickers. Weird memory loops. NPCs talking backwards. Didn't use to be like this."
I hesitated. Then asked the question: "Do you remember anything you shouldn't?"
She didn't answer at first.
Then, softly: "Sometimes I wake up knowing spell patterns I never unlocked. Or I say names I don't recognize. Like I'm halfway logged in from somewhere else."
I stared at her.
I hadn't expected to meet anyone like me this early.
When we reached the quest marker, there was no XP payout. No completion notice.
Just silence.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Quest Marker Corrupted]Fragment Log: Recode Signature Present.Flagged for Moderator Review.
And then the lead NPC turned and looked at me.
Not past me. Not through me.
At me.
"You're not where you're meant to be," he said."None of you are."
And then he vanished.
So did the wagons.
[Quest Failed.]Reward: None.Memory Residue Transferred – Unstable.
I turned to Lyra.
She didn't speak.
Neither did I.
Later, back in town, we parted ways at the fountain.
She gave me a look—somewhere between curiosity and challenge.
"I'm going to figure out what your deal is."
"You're welcome to try," I said.
Back in my dorm, I sat in the dark.
The Lexicon wasn't with me—not physically. But I kept feeling it in the corner of my thoughts. Like phantom ink. Like an itch behind the eyes.
When I closed my eyes, I saw runes shaping themselves.And when I opened them, my screen flashed once—just a blink.
A new tag was already forming in my head.
[Threadbind – ???]Effect: Unknown. Risk Level: High.
The SYSTEM wasn't reacting anymore.
It was adapting.