I woke to static.
Not in the world—in my head.
It felt like someone had rewritten my spine in binary. Every breath pulled data where lungs should've been. Every blink rendered glyphs behind my eyes.
Lyra sat beside me on the grass, arms wrapped around her knees.
We were alive.
But not untouched.
[Status Effect: Tag Residue – Memory Thread Desync]Some functions may behave unpredictably.Do not report this issue. It has already been observed.
I pushed myself up with a groan. My limbs ached in ways the pain filters usually muted. Lyra's health bar was still glitching at the edges—soft flickers, like her avatar was being constantly redrawn.
She noticed me looking. "I'm okay."
"You're not."
"Neither are you."
Fair.
For a while, we just sat there. Neither of us knew what to say.
Then she broke the silence. "That thing. The one in the chapel... it didn't feel like a boss. Or a monster."
"It wasn't."
"What was it?"
I didn't answer.
Because I didn't know.
Eventually, we limped back into Duskridge proper. The village was quiet. Almost no players. Just a few low-levels grinding mobs in the fields nearby, oblivious to how close the zone had come to being unrendered entirely.
Aiden: "Nobody remembers it happened."
Lyra: "Because the SYSTEM made sure of that."
I pulled up the forum overlay.
No Results for: 'Nullwatcher'No Results for: 'Chapel Instance'No Results for: 'Zone Reset Anomaly'
Scrubbed.
Just like before.
We headed for the inn. I booked two upstairs beds using coin from the blacksmith quest payout. As we settled in, I noticed something odd on the HUD.
[New Memory Anchor Detected]Thread Sync – 67% | Glyph Feedback Channel: OPEN
The Lexicon pulsed inside my inventory.
It had changed again.
When I pulled it out, a new glyph was already forming—sketched in residual ink from the REMEMBER cast.
[Spell Evolving: THREADRETURN – Prototype]Effect: Anchor a local object or user to a custom memory state.Status: Unstable. Requires attunement.
Not just rewinding.
Rewriting.
Lyra noticed my expression and stood. "Show me."
I did.
She stared at the page for a long time, then said: "So you can bind the world to what you think it should be?"
"No. Not yet. But it's learning to."
She paced. "This isn't magic anymore. This is programming reality."
I said nothing.
But I thought about the way the Nullwatcher looked at me. Not like a threat. Not like prey.
Like a variable.
A question.
Back in the real world, I checked my bank account again.Still broke.Still screwed.
But something flickered—not on-screen, but in the back of my mind. A pulse of recognition. Like the tail-end of a SYSTEM ping that hadn't fully left.
A whisper more than a message.
[Thread Integrity Repaired.]Residual glyph memory stabilized. Listening escalated. Deviant confirmed.
I blinked. The feeling passed.
Maybe it was just dive fatigue. Maybe it was stress.
But even with the headset off, I could still feel the Lexicon.
Not as a game object. Just... as presence.