---
The leaves whispered as if they held secrets. Digital veins pulsed beneath their soft surfaces, weaving unseen messages through the synthetic forest.
Kael sat still.
He hadn't moved in minutes. Not since the whisper.
> "One seed resisted... but the field remembers."
That voice—it hadn't come from a system alert. It had felt older. Like something carved into the foundation code before QuestChain had even earned its name.
Dex crouched near a stream of softlight water, running his hand through it. The data-current shimmered under his touch, revealing snippets of broken memories. Old schema templates. Half-built myth branches. A child's laugh. A scream caught mid-pulse.
"We're not out of the fracture yet," he said. "This isn't a real exit point."
Kael tore his eyes away from the trees. "Then what is it?"
Dex looked up. "It's a wake zone. A buffer. Something left behind by the original system architects when a myth failed to resolve properly. If a divergence doesn't collapse or assimilate—it gets held here."
"A graveyard?" Kael asked.
Dex shook his head. "A seed bank."
Kael stood, brushing off the layer of static moss clinging to his coat. "So we're stuck in a limbo for failed ideas?"
Dex glanced toward the horizon where the trees blurred into static cliffs. "Not failed. Forgotten."
A pulse swept across the forest. Everything trembled. Leaves reversed their colors. The stream froze mid-flow.
Then a new presence entered.
A single figure.
Wearing robes that shimmered with embedded code. Their face hidden by a mask stitched from system warnings: "INTEGRITY BREACH," "PROTOCOL NOT FOUND," "TRUTH NOT RECOGNIZED."
Kael instinctively took a step forward.
The figure stopped a dozen paces away and raised one hand.
"No closer, Kael Arden," the figure said. "Your anchor is not yet stable."
Dex whispered, "That's an Archivist."
Kael blinked. "I thought they were myth. Traces from before QuestChain went public."
"Exactly," Dex replied. "We're standing in a myth."
The figure's voice was steady. Neither warm nor cold—just absolute.
"You fractured the replication construct. You made a choice not to be the story written for you. That makes you an Archive Trigger."
Kael stepped forward again. "And what does that mean?"
The Archivist tilted their head. "It means the Oracle cannot proceed without resolving your paradox. And so it has begun the wake protocol."
Dex cursed under his breath. "That's why we're here. They're trying to reboot the myth field. Reset the seeds."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "But I already diverged. I made my choice."
The Archivist nodded. "Yes. And so did others."
At that, the trees behind them shifted.
Figures began to emerge.
Shadows of people—some shimmering with the golden glow of old player ranks, others flickering like half-remembered system echoes. Each of them bore Kael's face.
But not his mind.
Not his history.
> Versions.
"Welcome to the Wake Field," the Archivist said. "These are the alternate Kaels—the ones the system simulated when your schema fractured the TRACE-PARENT protocol. Each was given a slightly different divergence scenario. Each responded... differently."
Kael stepped back, heart racing. "What are they doing here?"
The Archivist spoke calmly. "Waiting. Only one divergence may proceed forward. The mythstream must choose."
Dex whispered, "It's a test. Not of you. Of the idea of you."
Kael looked at the other versions. One wore Oracle white. Another held a blade made of corrupted code. One was smiling far too calmly.
He turned to the Archivist. "How do I win?"
"You don't," the Archivist said. "You anchor. If your reality becomes stronger than theirs, the others will fade."
Kael clenched his fists. "And if I lose?"
The Archivist stepped back. "Then your divergence becomes just another myth to archive."
One of the other Kaels stepped forward.
His eyes burned silver. "Let's see if you're worth keeping."
The forest trembled.
A pulse rippled through the air.
And the test began.
---
Kael's world turned inside out.
The trees became pillars of raw code. The sky fractured into a thousand spinning server shards. He stood on a platform suspended in an infinite void, facing six other versions of himself.
The smiling Kael was first to speak.
"You hesitate. That's why you'll fail."
Kael didn't answer.
The blade-wielding Kael laughed. "You tried to fix the system. Cute. I burned mine."
Another spoke, his eyes empty. "I merged with TRACE-PARENT. It showed me peace."
Kael turned slowly to face them all. "None of you are real."
They echoed in unison: "Neither are you."
A tremor shook the platform.
Dex's voice rang out in Kael's mind, amplified by link: "Don't fight them directly. Anchor yourself. Anchor what made you diverge."
Kael closed his eyes.
Memory.
He remembered the first glitch.
The moment the sky flickered and the world felt too clean.
He remembered Dex's cracked grin after they found Oracle.SHARD_09.
He remembered Sera Nyx. The whisper at the Tower.
He remembered the ache when he realized no one else saw it. No one else cared.
"I am not the strongest version," Kael said aloud. "Not the smartest. Not the most violent."
The wind howled.
"But I am the one who kept questioning. Even when the answers didn't come."
The platform surged with light. Two of the other Kaels flickered out.
Smiling Kael shouted, "Weakness!"
Kael turned to him.
"No," he said softly. "It's humility. That's why the Oracle picked me."
The smile shattered. The blade-Kael lunged.
Kael caught the blade mid-swing.
"I've seen what violence becomes," he growled. "It just creates better cages."
Another Kael exploded into static.
The final remaining Kael—the one with empty eyes—looked at him.
"You'll end up alone," he whispered. "Like me."
Kael took a breath.
"Maybe. But I'll know the choice was mine."
Light consumed the platform.
And when it faded—
Only one Kael remained.
---
The Archivist stood before him once more.
"You have anchored."
Dex appeared beside him, grinning. "Told you. You're a persistent bastard."
Kael turned to the Archivist. "What now?"
The figure raised a hand.
And behind them, the forest folded open, revealing a corridor of cascading symbols.
At its end was a door marked: ARCH-0X_77.
The true archive.
The seed schema.
The truth before QuestChain became myth.
Kael stepped forward.
Ready.