The canyon didn't feel like a canyon anymore.
It felt like a throat.
Lyle stood at its base, staring up at the jagged cliff walls, their ridges no longer stone but fragmented glyphs—pieces of ancient threads that shimmered faintly as though lit from within. The more he stared, the more it all seemed to shift. Not just the scenery, but reality itself.
The crack in the sky had grown.
The air carried a hum again—but not like before. This was deeper. Lower. It moved through his bones like a cold breath brushing against his soul.
Behind him, the Codex floated half-open, pages snapping without wind.
Juno stood a few paces away, arms crossed tightly over her chest, her expression still stormy.
"You shouldn't have gone that deep alone," she said.
"I didn't go alone," Lyle replied, rubbing his temple. "He pulled me."
"You let him pull you," she snapped. "There's a difference."
He didn't argue. He couldn't.
Because she was right.
And still… he would've done it again.
---
They moved at dawn.
If you could call this twisted light "dawn."
It came from the fracture now. The sky around it had taken on an unnatural hue—like someone was bleeding ink into water and letting it hang midair.
Lyle led the way along the cliff paths, following nothing but instinct.
Not the Codex.
Not a map.
But a pull—deep, unrelenting, and wordless.
Juno followed silently. Occasionally, she'd glance over her shoulder, as though expecting something to catch up. Or someone.
Finally, after nearly an hour of travel, she spoke again.
"Do you believe what he said?"
Lyle didn't need to ask who.
Valen.
"I believe the Codex is more than she lets on," he answered.
"But do you think she's… a prison?"
He hesitated.
Then nodded.
"I think she chose me not just to unlock her secrets… but to keep something in."
---
The path narrowed, forcing them to walk single file. Vines now twisted along the canyon wall—glowing faintly with rune-etched thorns.
Lyle brushed one with the back of his hand.
It pulled away.
Not like a plant.
Like a creature pretending to be one.
> [Codex Thread Analysis: Detected "Echo Root"]
Mana-reactive. Draws strength from unspoken memory.
Caution: Grows rapidly in guilt-heavy zones.
Recommended response: Minimal interaction. Suppression glyph preferred.
Juno grimaced. "This place reads you like a diary."
Lyle chuckled. "Welcome to my world."
They finally reached a wider plateau—flat and pale, bordered by fractured spires of obsidian.
And in the center?
A mirror.
Standing upright.
Perfectly still.
Its surface shimmered with unnatural clarity—no frame, no supports, just a vertical pane of memory that refused to reflect either of them.
Lyle stepped forward slowly.
The Codex didn't stop him.
But it didn't follow either.
---
> [Shatterglass Manifestation: ACTIVE]
Thread Anchor Detected.
Identity Match: Partial.
Initiate Memory Dive?
Lyle looked back at Juno.
She nodded, but her hand went to her sword.
He took a breath—
And stepped through.
---
For a split second, it felt like falling through velvet.
Not darkness. Not cold. Just… weightless nothing.
Then the world around him bloomed with color.
He stood in a field of mirrors—endless reflections spinning like wheels in the air. And in each one?
A different life.
One where he never unlocked the Codex.
One where he died in the academy entrance exam.
One where Juno wasn't a soldier—but something far darker.
And one…
Where he was Valen.
---
Lyle stared at that version of himself.
Same face. Same hair. But the eyes—completely black. Empty.
No fear.
No hope.
Just calculation.
This version of him held a cracked Codex.
And instead of protecting it…
He was using it as bait.
---
> [Threadline Memory: Incompatible with current path.]
Warning: This fragment represents a rejected possibility.
Proceed with Observation Only.
Lyle watched as the other him summoned a figure—tall, cloaked, bound in chains made of letters.
It screamed soundlessly as it was devoured by the Codex.
Not cast.
Not sealed.
Fed.
Lyle staggered back.
"No," he whispered. "That's not me."
But deep down…
He wasn't so sure anymore.
---
The memory began to distort.
The field of mirrors cracked.
And the Valen-version turned—eyes locking directly onto Lyle.
He shouldn't be able to see me, Lyle thought.
This is a dead memory.
But the figure smiled.
> "Not all dead things stay quiet."
The mirrors exploded inward.
And Lyle was ejected.
---
He landed on the plateau with a gasp, face pressed into the cold stone.
Juno knelt beside him. "You're bleeding," she said, pressing a cloth to his temple.
"It saw me," he muttered. "It wasn't supposed to—but it saw me."
"What did?"
He sat up slowly, wiping blood from his lip.
"Me. Another me."
He looked down at his hands.
"I think Valen… might've been me once."
---
Juno froze.
Then stood, backing away slightly. "Lyle—"
"I don't mean now," he said quickly. "But maybe in one of the Codex's failed cycles. Or in a world the system rejected."
"And now that version knows you exist?"
Lyle nodded.
"And he wants the Codex."
"No," he said softly. "He wants to be the Codex."
---
A sudden flare of light from the sky snapped their attention upward.
The fracture had changed again.
A new layer of glyphs now circled it—red, spinning, inverted.
Juno drew her sword. "That's not a system's signature."
Lyle stood, the Codex humming beside him.
"No," he said.
"That's his."