The Fractured Vale wasn't on any stable map.
Lux said it used to be a skyforest—floating crystal-trees rooted in gravity wells, pulsing with data-rich light. Now it was a maelstrom. A place where time bled sideways and memory leaked into the terrain.
From above, it looked like a broken mirror carved into the earth. Dozens of floating shards hovered in air, each reflecting a different moment—past, present, and something in between.
Our dropship hovered at the edge of it. Kael and I stood at the open bay door, wind howling with static.
"You know," he muttered, "every time we go somewhere, it's somehow less safe than the last place."
"Yeah," I replied. "Maybe after this, we'll take a vacation. Someplace without quantum distortions."
He grinned. "You're getting funny."
I raised a brow. "I'm getting tired."
Then we jumped.
We landed on a levitating shard of obsidian glass. My boots hissed against the surface—solid, but shimmering with reflections that weren't mine.
"Alex," Kael said quietly. "The shadows here… they move wrong."
He was right. There was no sun in the Vale, yet everything cast a shadow—shifting, twitching, like memories trying to escape the ground.
The CHAOS Core pulsed sharply in my chest.
[Zone Entered: Cradle of Glass]
Reality Sync: Incomplete
Warning: Memory Leak Detected]
Suddenly, a voice rang out.
My voice.
"You left him behind. You let him run down the mountain."
Kael turned to me, confused.
"That's not me," I said.
The voice came again.
"You call it bravery, but it was fear. He survived. You didn't."
Then I saw it—a ghost of myself, walking across a mirrored bridge nearby. Same hoodie. Same tired eyes. Repeating that moment from the avalanche again and again.
Kael stepped forward, ready to engage—but I stopped him.
"No. These are echoes. Reflections. They want attention."
Lux's voice came over comms, distorted but audible.
"The Cradle is sentient. It's built from collective memory—personal and system-wide. Don't trust what you see. Especially not yourselves."
"Noted."
We moved deeper into the Vale, crossing fragments of frozen moments: a war-torn battlefield caught mid-explosion, a classroom full of children repeating code, a tree made of broken keyboards and glowing sap.
Then we found it—the Cradle itself.
A cathedral made of stacked memory shards, rising from a floating island. Its doors were open. Waiting.
As we approached, the CHAOS Core vibrated violently.
[Proximity Alert: Sigil Detected — Class: Echoframe]
System Instability: 89%]
Inside, the walls whispered. Literally.
Lines of dialogue floated in the air. Some mine. Some Kael's. Some completely alien.
The sigil floated above a pool of mirrored liquid. It spun slowly, emitting soft pulses of light that distorted the reflections below it.
Kael reached out.
The floor screamed.
Reality twisted.
Suddenly, we weren't in the Cradle anymore—we were back on Rebirth Mountain.
Only… wrong.
Kael was bleeding. The avalanche was frozen midair. My little brother stood there, unblinking.
"You could've saved me," he said.
"No," I whispered. "You made it. I remember."
"But do you know that? Or is that just what the Core wants you to believe?"
The world trembled.
[CHAOS Interference: Active]
[Sigil Defense Protocol: Psychological Overload Initiated]
Kael gritted his teeth, swinging his staff—but it passed through the air like it was water.
"Alex!" he yelled. "You have to break the illusion!"
I focused. Reached for CODEFLAME.
The heat burned through the memory like a match to paper.
The snow vanished.
The mountain crumbled.
And the Cradle returned.
The sigil was now pulsing erratically.
And beside it—
Nyra.
She stood calmly on the edge of the pool, arms crossed.
"Well done," she said. "You broke it faster than I expected."
Kael raised his staff, but I held out my hand.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Same as you," she said. "Claiming truth."
She extended her hand toward the sigil.
"You can take it if you want. But the more of these you gather, the more you'll unravel. Not the system—yourself."
I stepped forward.
"Maybe," I said. "But unlike you… I'm not burning the pieces. I'm putting them back together."
Her smile faded.
"Then let's see how long that lasts."
She vanished in a blink—no heat, no ripple. Just gone.
I turned to the sigil.
Its light was dimmer now. But it was still whole.
I reached out.
[Second Sigil Acquired: ECHOFRAME]
Function: Interface with memory-locked structures and echo-bound environments.]
Passive Unlock: "Mind Anchor" — resistance to illusion and memory attacks increased.]
System Sync: 63% → 74%
We exited the Cradle slowly, silence between us heavy.
Kael finally said, "She didn't try to stop you."
"No," I replied. "She wants me to see what she sees."
"And do you?"
I looked back at the Cradle, still whispering.
"No. But I'm starting to understand.