Kael didn't sleep anymore.
Not because of the pain—though that never left him—but because each time he closed his eyes, he felt watched. Not just by the Wire's eyes, or the city's drones, or even the nightmares that haunted Jax's dreams.
Something older was looking at him now.
And it didn't blink.
---
He sat alone in the sanctum's lower levels, where data cables slithered like roots through water. The others slept. Jax, exhausted. Syra, curled up with her back to the wall. Even Bren had passed out mid-snack.
Kael stared at his arm.
The wound hadn't healed.
In fact, it had changed.
The veins around the burn had turned black—not from rot, but code. Glowing lines pulsed beneath the skin, tracing foreign runes in silent rhythm.
He peeled back the bandages again and saw something new.
A symbol burned just above his wrist. It looked like a spiral intersected by a line.
It pulsed once.
Kael swore softly and rewrapped it.
"Your body is rewriting itself."
He turned sharply. The Cipher Witch stood behind him, her eyes glowing faintly in the dark.
"What did they put in me?" he asked.
"Not they," she said. "It. The Eye."
"I didn't ask for this."
"No one does," she said. "But some of us are chosen. And you are being… rewritten."
Kael stood. "How do I stop it?"
She gave him a long look. "You don't. But you can shape it."
"How?"
She handed him a map. Not paper. A holograph etched into a shard of obsidian.
"What's this?"
"A route," she said. "To the Mirrorgate. A rift in the old world. A mirror between your fate… and the one you might choose."
Kael traced the glowing lines. The map led beyond the Underlayer—into the forgotten Echelon Ruins, a place no longer on any map.
"What's there?"
"Answers," she whispered. "And maybe… a key to shut the Eye."
---
They set out the next day.
Kael, Syra, Jax, and Bren.
The map shimmered with every step, showing paths through collapsing tunnels and security-swept dead zones. The city above roared on in ignorance. The resistance had no idea they were gone. The Cipher Witch stayed behind, her sanctuary flickering as she vanished into the veil.
They passed through old archives—libraries that no longer held books but walls of cryo-drives humming with broken data.
Kael led the way. He didn't tell the others how his wound burned the closer they got. Or how, each night, the Eye appeared in his dreams—not watching, but listening.
---
By the third day, they reached the Echelon Cradle.
It was a crater.
Massive. Filled with broken towers. Shattered spires. Floating fragments of buildings, locked in a gravity that no longer followed rules.
In the center, an obsidian gate stood half-submerged in silver sand. It was circular, split down the middle, with shards of mirror glinting like stars across its face.
The Mirrorgate.
Kael stepped toward it. The others followed cautiously.
"What is this place?" Bren asked, eyes wide.
Syra activated a scan. "No network. No pulse. It's like we're outside the system here."
Jax moved slowly, drawn forward. "It's humming."
The moment his fingers brushed the mirror's edge, the air shattered.
Not with sound—but with memory.
Each of them saw something.
---
Kael saw himself, older, standing at the head of a rebellion. Fire behind him. His eyes burning silver.
Syra saw Kael, but his hand was outstretched to her, his face twisted in pain. "I never wanted to leave you," he whispered.
Jax saw the Wire broken—torn down, its code unraveling into light. He stood alone among the ruins, crying.
Bren saw a future where he wasn't just comic relief—but a strategist. A leader.
The visions faded.
And then the gate opened.
---
Inside, they found a chamber.
Silent. Still.
In the center was a dais. Floating above it—a glyph-core. A perfect sphere etched with living code, flickering between languages, past and present.
Kael reached for it.
The sphere pulsed.
> "NAME YOUR FATE," a voice boomed.
He froze.
> "WHO CLAIMS THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE?"
Kael spoke before he even thought. "Kael Voss. Unwritten."
> "YOU STAND AT THE THRESHOLD. TO FORGE YOUR PATH, A PIECE OF YOU MUST BE LEFT BEHIND."
Kael clenched his fists. "Take the fear."
Silence.
Then—
> "ACCEPTED."
The sphere split open and embedded itself into Kael's chest.
He screamed.
Not in pain.
But in clarity.
He fell to his knees.
The symbol on his arm glowed—and changed. The spiral became a sigil of his own making. A blend of the Cipher Witch's runes, the Eye's mark, and something… new.
His.
Syra rushed to him. "What happened?"
He stood slowly, eyes gleaming silver.
"I think I just rewrote my fate."
---
But before they could celebrate, the Mirrorgate trembled.
From the broken spires, shapes emerged.
Not drones. Not Reapers.
But Echoed.
Wire-born phantoms. Shapeshifters. Remnants of those who tried to rewrite their fate… and failed.
They came silently.
Syra drew her guns. "Looks like the test isn't over."
Kael smiled darkly. "Good. I've got something to prove."