The ink dripped, splattered, and reformed. The words twisted on the page, rewriting themselves the moment they were read.
Yeaia Nolas blinked.
They were here again.
Where was "here"?
A grand archive, towering shelves stretching into infinity. Books upon books, endless tomes whispering their secrets in a language only the forgotten could understand. A dreamscape, painted with illusions so vivid they bled into reality.
No—this wasn't just an archive.
It was a prison.
A loop.
"…Klein?" Their voice was hoarse, as if they'd been speaking for hours, days, lifetimes.
Klein stood at a nearby table, a book open in his hands. His mismatched eyes—one filled with infinite knowledge, the other with untold horror—met Yeaia's. Something flickered across his expression, a crack in the carefully constructed mask.
"Have we…" Klein hesitated. His fingers tightened around the book's spine. "Have we done this before?"
The realization sent a shiver down Yeaia's back. The sensation of déjà vu, a creeping, suffocating feeling, took root in their mind.
How long had they been here?
How many times had they traced these same words, spoken these same lines, reached the same dead end?
The ink on the page in Klein's hands bled. It slithered across the parchment, the letters shifting, rearranging. A new sentence formed:
"You are noticing too soon."
The book snapped shut with an unnatural clap. Klein's breath hitched. Yeaia took a step back.
Something was watching.
Something was rewriting.
The moment fractured. The world rippled.
—
Yeaia stood in the Archive of the Unwritten, staring at the towering shelves.
Again.
Their mind felt sluggish, the details just slightly…off. Klein sat at a nearby table, a book open in his hands.
No. No, no, no.
Not again.
"…Klein?" Their voice was hoarse.
Klein's mismatched eyes lifted, meeting theirs.
A flicker of something crossed his face. A crack in the mask.
"Have we…" His voice wavered. "Have we done this before?"
Something was horribly wrong.
The ink on the page bled.
"You are noticing too soon."
The book snapped shut. The world rippled.
—
Yeaia stood in the Archive of the Unwritten.
Again.
Their mind felt sluggish. Klein sat at a table, a book open in his hands.
"…Klein?"
Klein's mismatched eyes lifted.
"Have we—"
The ink on the page bled.
The book snapped shut.
The world rippled.
—
Yeaia stood in the Archive of the Unwritten.
Again.
"…Klein?"
Again.
"Have we—"
Again.
The ink bled.
Again.
The world rippled.
Again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again—
A variable. A single difference.
A voice.
Not Klein's. Not theirs.
A whisper. A sound between the words, hiding in the spaces of silence.
"Wake up."
The loop cracked.
Something shattered.
And Yeaia remembered.
---
End of Chapter 61.
---