The first thing I realized was that the silence was wrong.
Not empty—compressed.
It pressed against my ears, my chest, my thoughts, as if the Forgotten Node had sealed itself around me the moment I crossed the threshold. The Outer Veil's wind was gone. The distant pulse of the world faded. Even the Warden's presence—so overwhelming before—was cut off entirely.
I was alone.
Or so I thought.
The ground beneath my feet was smooth, mirror-like stone, reflecting a sky that didn't exist. Above me hung a vast lattice of golden threads, intersecting and diverging endlessly, like a nervous system stretched across the void.
Each thread pulsed.
Each pulse matched my heartbeat.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
My mark burned.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Environment Identified: Forgotten Node
Status: Isolated Memory Zone
Synchronization Threshold: Active
I exhaled slowly, steadying myself. The moment I did, the lattice responded—threads tightening, shifting, aligning around me.
This place wasn't just reacting.
It was listening.
I took one step forward.
The reflection beneath my feet rippled, and suddenly the surface wasn't stone anymore.
It was a memory.
A massive Hall rose around me—far older and grander than the Silent Hall. The walls were carved with runes so dense they bled into one another, glowing with restrained power. Wardens stood in rows that stretched into the distance, their golden eyes dimmed, their bodies motionless.
At the center—
Someone stood with their back to me.
My shoulders stiffened.
Same height.
Same posture.
Same faint glow around the right hand.
The figure turned.
I felt my breath leave my lungs.
It was me.
Not younger.
Not older.
Sharper.
His eyes were calm to the point of emptiness, as if emotion had been burned out and replaced with clarity alone. The mark on his hand was fully formed—intricate, complete, nothing like the fragment I carried.
"You shouldn't be here yet," he said.
His voice echoed inside my skull rather than the air.
"Then why does this place feel like it's been waiting for me?" I asked.
He studied me for a long moment. "Because you're late."
The memory trembled.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
Identity Overlap Detected
Cognitive Pressure Increasing
Pain lanced through my temples, but I didn't look away.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
He tilted his head slightly. "The part of you that stayed behind."
The Hall around us shifted. The Wardens knelt in perfect unison.
A chill crawled down my spine.
"You're the erased one," I said slowly.
He didn't deny it.
"I am what remained when you chose to flee," he replied. "The anchor. The lock. The price."
Images flooded the air.
I saw myself standing before the Hall's core, golden light tearing through my body as seals snapped into place. I saw entities—vast, formless things—screaming as they were forced back beyond the Veil. I saw the Outer Veil bending, stabilizing, reshaping itself around my presence.
I saw the moment of choice.
Split… or be consumed.
"You couldn't survive carrying everything," he continued. "So you discarded me. Or perhaps… I discarded you."
My fists clenched.
"That's not true," I said. "I didn't choose this."
His gaze sharpened. "Didn't you?"
The mark on my hand flared violently.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Memory Layer Two: Unsealing
Synchronization Progress: 22%
I staggered as fragments slammed into me—training I didn't remember, commands spoken in a voice that sounded like mine but colder, decisions that reshaped worlds.
I dropped to one knee.
"You were never meant to be ordinary," he said. "You were built to interface—Hall, Veil, Warden, World. A living convergence."
I forced myself upright. "Then why erase yourself? Why leave the Hall to rot?"
For the first time, something flickered behind his eyes.
Regret.
"Because I was becoming something the world would eventually need to destroy," he said quietly. "And I refused to be that."
The Hall shattered.
The Forgotten Node reasserted itself, threads tightening like restraints.
[SYSTEM WARNING]
Veil Stability Fluctuating
External Entities Reacting
"Your presence is triggering the Outer Veil," he continued. "The Wardens sense reintegration. The Hall remembers its master."
Master.
The word settled heavily in my chest.
"What happens if we merge?" I asked.
He didn't answer immediately.
Instead, the lattice above us descended, forming a spiral of light and shadow between us.
"Then you stop being chased," he said. "And start being bound."
The spiral pulsed.
I felt it pulling—not physically, but deeper, tugging at memories I didn't yet own.
"And if I refuse?"
"Then the Veil will continue testing you until either you break…"
He paused.
"…or the world does."
Silence followed.
I thought of Xian Yu, of Shuang, of the way the Warden bowed—not in threat, but recognition. I thought of the Hall whispering my name, not as prey, but as something returning.
I had never been running from danger.
I had been running from responsibility.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Decision Point Detected
Reintegration Option: Partial
I stepped forward.
"Not all of it," I said. "I won't become what you were."
He smiled faintly.
"Good," he said. "Neither could I."
The spiral surged.
Light engulfed us both.
Pain exploded through my body as memories stitched themselves into me—fast, brutal, incomplete. I screamed, but the sound vanished into the Node.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Partial Reintegration Successful
Synchronization Level: 37%
New Status: Veil-Linked (Unstable)
The Forgotten Node began to collapse.
Threads snapped. Memories burned away. The Hall faded into fragments.
The other me stepped back, already dissolving.
"This is as far as I go," he said. "From here on… it's your burden."
"What happens to you?" I asked.
He looked at me one last time.
"I become what I was always meant to be," he replied. "A memory."
The Node imploded.
Light swallowed everything.
And somewhere far away, the Outer Veil answered.