Location: Oth'Rel Exarchy – Inner Sanctum, Clocktower of Silence
Time: [Absolute Drift Anchor Zone – Noise Level: 0.00db]
The doors closed behind them with a sound that wasn't a sound.
More like a pause in the concept of sound.
One moment: echoes of the city.
Next moment: utter vacuum.
Inside the Clocktower of Silence, there was no air current. No footstep sound. Even thoughts felt like they moved slower — like they had to tiptoe.
They stood in a massive atrium, shaped like the inside of an hourglass… only instead of sand, it was light falling upward.
Floating platforms spiraled into infinity above.
People drifted on them — walking, meditating, arguing silently through hand gestures or timed blinks.
Each wore a Time Ring keyed to their personal chrono-flow.
REN (whispering):
"So… what is this place, really?"
A local woman floated past. Her skin glowed with glyph-tattoos, and her voice arrived like a whisper folded through a thousand wind chimes.
WOMAN:
"People come here to undo mistakes.
To find the minute they lost.
Or… to steal one someone else had."
FROST (stiffly):
"That's illegal in twelve dimensions."
SNARKSTEEL (quietly):
"Yeah, and? So is jaywalking in Solmerea and I've done that six times."
BLAZE:
"Wait. These people are here to rewind time? Fix their regrets?"
REN (staring up):
"They're not fixing... they're bargaining."
At the center of the atrium stood a circular dais, humming with pre-Verge driftlight — the oldest tech Ren had seen since Kael's tomb.
Above it spun a slow, golden ring: a living chronoglyph.
It pulsed once.
And the world around Ren flickered—
And then he was alone.
No Blaze.
No Frost.
No voice.
Just him—
—and a figure stepping out of the shimmer.
Dressed in faded blue, with hands behind their back.
THE FORGOTTEN MINUTE
Formless. Faceless. Dressed in time itself.
The administrator of silence.
FORGOTTEN MINUTE (calm):
"You come bearing a piece of the system.
Looking for your other part."
REN (quietly):
"Yeah. You know where he is?"
FORGOTTEN MINUTE:
"We knew what he was.
A fragment. Not whole.
Not lost.
Reborn."
Ren's heart slowed.
REN:
"…He's not gone?"
FORGOTTEN MINUTE:
"No.
The Riftborn was split across the Verge, but his Echo stabilized.
A birth not guided by Drift — but reaction."
REN:
"Then why didn't Kael… survive like that?"
For a moment, the Clocktower felt sad.
Even without emotion.
FORGOTTEN MINUTE:
"Kael wasn't erased.
He gave his fragments to the Core.
He anchored Yxtrielle.
And the system only keeps what it can measure."
REN (low):
"He chose to disappear."
FORGOTTEN MINUTE:
"He chose to stop echoing."
A long pause.
Then the Forgotten Minute's voice shifted slightly — curious, almost amused.
FORGOTTEN MINUTE:
"You wonder why Seraval helped?"
REN:
"Yeah. They didn't seem like the warmest skeleton in the closet."
FORGOTTEN MINUTE:
"They were one of the first to fail.
Their own Riftborn fragment was corrupted.
So when yours passed by…
They saw a chance to help someone survive the thing they couldn't."
Suddenly—
the room shimmered. And Ren's allies returned — the suspended moment broken.
BLAZE (grabbing his shoulder):
"What the fuck?! You just blipped out!"
FROST:
"We scanned the room and you were there and not there."
SNARKSTEEL (waving his blade):
"I was so close to slicing the minute hand just to get you back."
REN (exhaling):
"I know where he is.
Or at least… what he is."
He turned back toward the exit.
Eyes burning.
Heart a little heavier.
REN (quietly):
"My other half isn't missing.
He's alive.
But we're on a collision course.
And only one of us gets to hold the Core when it's done."
GRAVITY (serious):
"You both were meant to be halves.
If he stays whole too long…
He becomes the whole system."
The group turned toward the atrium exit, Ren still absorbing everything:
Seraval's aid.
Kael's silent sacrifice.
The truth: his other half wasn't lost…
He was reborn.
And now, he was somewhere close.
The lights dimmed slightly.
The clock ring above spun slower.
And Ren felt it — in the core of his soul.
Like a reflection without a mirror.
A pull.
A hum inside his bones.
Not pain.
Not glyphs.
Something... familiar.
REN (turning slowly):
"…He's here."
AETHERIUM CORE:
> SIGNAL IDENTIFIED: [????]
> Status: Unstable Signature Match
> Drift Alignment: 100%
> Conclusion: Riftborn Variant Detected
And then he saw him.
Standing casually on one of the spiral walkways above, leaning on the rail, watching them.
No dramatic entrance.
No glowing eyes.
No evil twin outfit.
Just… calm.
Like he'd been there the whole time.
He looked exactly like Ren —
but older, sharper in posture, wearing Voidtech-stitched robes and a small shard-device on his right gauntlet.
No blade.
No Core signature.
But his presence?
Felt like gravity with opinions.
Ren stepped forward.
REN (softly):
"…You."
The other Ren smiled.
Tilted his head.
OTHER REN (calm):
"Found me faster than I expected."
BLAZE (whispering):
"…That's not just him. That's years of difference in one heartbeat."
FROST:
"He's synced. Controlled. He's been living with that piece of you like it was his own core."
SNARKSTEEL:
"I don't like his eyebrows. Too smug. Too clean. Definitely evil."
REN:
"You're my other half."
OTHER REN:
"No. I was your other half.
Now? I'm something else entirely."
He walked slowly down the spiral — not threatening, not fast.
OTHER REN:
"I don't need the Core.
Not like you do."
REN (narrowing his eyes):
"Then why are you drawn to it?"
The other paused.
OTHER REN:
"Because it's ours.
And the system doesn't like fragments wandering loose."
He lifted his hand.
A ripple passed through the air — not attack, not spell — just recognition.
AETHERIUM CORE:
> SYNC BREACH DETECTED
> UNREGISTERED VARIANT = CODE: RIFT-NULL
OTHER REN (smiling faintly, stepping closer):
"You've felt it, haven't you?
That pull toward wholeness. Completion.
You're tired of carrying it.
Tired of choosing."
He reached out — hand open, steady, fingers relaxed.
OTHER REN:
"So choose me."
REN (blinking):
"Choose you...?"
OTHER REN (calm, but firm):
"I'm ready.
Give me the Core.
Let me carry what you were never meant to hold."
Ren hesitated.
The Aetherium Core pulsed inside his chest — not resisting.
Not yet.
His fingers twitched toward the override interface.
Just a thought.
Just a touch.
AETHERIUM CORE (sudden CODE RED):
pgsql
CopyEdit
> ⚠ DIMENSIONAL TRANSFER SEQUENCE DETECTED
> TARGET IDENTITY: INCONSISTENT
> WARNING: USER = FALSE HOST
> DANGER CLASSIFICATION: PARASITIC MIMIC [TYPE-NULL]
> ACTION REQUIRED: ABORT ABORT ABORT
Ren froze.
His hand hovered inches from the glyph trigger.
Other Ren's expression didn't falter.
Not anger.
Not panic.
Just… an eerie stillness.
Like someone waiting for a door to open that he knew had no lock.
Then—
Black static shimmered at the edge of his eyes.
A shape. A code.
Something behind the Core's interface.
The Rift pulsed.
OTHER REN (quietly):
"We'll talk again, Kaelreth."
And he turned, smile still intact—
Not walking away this time.
But folding inward, like reality had made room just for him to slip back inside it.
SYSTEM STATUS: STANDBY...
USER ALERT: CONNECTION ATTEMPT LOGGED
PROXIMITY BREACH — TEMPORARILY STABILIZED