They moved slowly, cautiously, back through the canyon with the fragment stored securely in Arix's pack. The air had shifted after the encounter in the basin. It was heavier now—more charged. Even the wind felt like it was holding its breath.
Selis slept restlessly on the stretcher, her wounds partially stabilized but far from healed. Calyx walked beside her, a limp in her step, one hand on her holster and the other clenched into a fist. Kael took rear guard, ever watchful, the barrel of his rifle sweeping like a metronome.
Arix led, but his mind was not entirely present.
The vision had burned into him. He kept seeing the shadow of himself in the flames, the Rift singing in his blood, and the people he cared about breaking beneath the weight of what he could become. The fragment in his possession pulsed faintly with every step—as if waiting.
> [Echo Fragment: Status – Dormant]
[Binding Signature: Incomplete]
[System Sync: Suspended Until Further Input]
The terrain began to change as they ascended. Redstone gave way to pale, flat rock, and the silence of the canyon deepened into something unnatural. There were no animal sounds, no breeze through stonebrush, just the low thrum of distant Rift interference.
Calyx broke the silence. "What did you see in there?"
Arix didn't answer at first.
When he did, his voice was hoarse. "Myself. But not me. Something I could become."
"You looked… different when you stepped out."
Arix exhaled through his nose. "Because something followed me out. Not a creature. A path."
Kael joined them at the front, glancing back at Selis. "How dangerous is that thing you took?"
"I don't know yet," Arix said. "But it's tied to whatever the shard is hiding. It knew me. Or someone like me."
> [System Advisory: Internal Archive Lock – 2 Remaining Keys Required]
They reached a ridge and paused to rest. The sky above flickered with distant stormlight—pale, unnatural streaks that cut through the dusk like slashes.
Calyx sat beside Arix, unstrapping her brace and rubbing the stiffness from her leg. Her eyes wandered back to Selis, who remained unconscious.
"Do you think she'll make it?" she asked.
Arix nodded, though uncertainty coiled in his gut. "Kael won't let her go. And neither will we."
"I hate this place," she muttered. "The silence. The weight of it. It's like the world's holding its breath, waiting to swallow us whole."
"I know the feeling."
Kael returned with a look of grim resolve. "There's movement along the northwest edge. Low frequency. Could be wildlife—or something worse. I'll set a motion trap."
Arix studied the horizon. "There's another key. I felt it during the vision. West. Close."
Kael pulled up a scan. "There's another relay ruin two klicks from here. Could be our next stop."
"We go at first light," Arix decided. "No more risks tonight."
They set up a temporary camp in a narrow alcove beneath the ridge. Kael deployed two drones overhead, their soft hum fading into the background. Arix dug a shallow fire pit, and Calyx assembled a small warming unit from a portable cell. The soft glow it gave off painted their faces in flickering amber light.
Later that night, while Kael took first watch, Arix and Calyx sat together near the edge of camp.
"You meant it, didn't you?" she asked. "Back there. When you said it knew you."
Arix stared into the dark. "It did. Or it knew what I might become."
"I saw your face when you came out. You were somewhere else."
"I was in the middle of a future I couldn't control. A version of me… burning everything down."
Calyx was quiet for a moment. "If the shard is leading you toward that, why keep following it?"
"Because not following it is worse. Ignorance won't save us. If I'm walking toward the edge of something, I'd rather see it coming."
She nodded slowly. "Then we'll watch your back. No matter how dark it gets."
Their eyes met—brief but certain. The silence between them felt different now. Not empty. Not heavy. Shared.
---
Morning came gray and cold. Selis stirred but didn't wake fully. Kael administered another dose of stimulant, and the team packed what little they had. The wind had picked up again—now carrying flecks of ash from a distant burnstorm.
They followed the ridge west toward the old relay. The ground became more treacherous, sloping downward through a field of jagged rock formations. The terrain forced them to slow, especially with the stretcher.
Arix's shard pulsed with every step closer.
> [Resonance: Increasing – Key Fragment Detected Within 500 Meters]
"Eyes up," Kael said. "The last one was buried. This might not be any different."
The relay structure came into view—half-collapsed, long abandoned. Vines of hardened synthroots clung to its exterior. The door was twisted open, the hallway inside shadowed and narrow.
Arix motioned for Kael to stay with Selis. He and Calyx advanced together.
Inside, the air was stale, but dry. Signs of past scavengers were visible—scratches, old blood, shattered panels. In the center room, a column pulsed faintly.
The shard surged in Arix's chest.
> [Fragment Interface Detected – Initiating Sync]
Arix approached slowly. The console flared, projecting a new hologram. This time, it wasn't a man.
It was a child.
A boy, no older than ten. His face was hollow, scared. He wore a tag on his wrist that read: OBSIDIAN SUBJECT 31.
"Are you here to take me back?" he asked, voice barely a whisper.
Arix froze.
"No," he said. "I'm here to listen."
The boy blinked. "No one listens. They all scream."
The vision hit like a wave.
A lab. Cold. Metallic. Filled with children strapped to monitors. Shards forced into flesh. Screams echoed through sterile corridors. Scientists scribbled notes. Watched. Smiled.
And then—an explosion.
A black surge of Rift energy as one of the children opened a door they were never meant to touch.
The relay burned.
The boy disintegrated.
And then the chamber returned to stillness.
> [Key Fragment Integrated – 1 Remaining]
Arix collapsed to his knees, gasping.
Calyx helped him up. "What did you see?"
"Obsidian made these shards. But they didn't understand them. They tested them on kids."
Kael's voice came over comms. "Movement outside. Big. Multiple legs."
Arix rose. "Then we run."
The echoes followed them as they fled into the dust, the past closing behind them—but never far enough.