The moment Theo crossed the threshold into the echo chamber, the air changed.
It was — Threads subtle—like walking underwater without getting wet. Time slowed just enough to notice. The walls inside pulsed faintly, dark stone veined with luminous silver threadwork that crawled and shifted like veins just beneath the skin of the earth.
Nova hesitated at the doorway. "Theo…"
He looked back at her, eyes already distant, pupils wide like he was absorbing more than light. "It's okay," he said, but his voice came out fractured, like it belonged to someone else. "I can feel it. The threadline is close. It's humming."
Rell stepped up beside Nova, eyes locked on the structure with quiet awe. "He's syncing. That's what this place does. It pulls memories like iron to magnet. It knows who he is."
Inside, Theo moved slowly, brushing fingers against the walls. Every touch sparked a ripple, revealing brief images—flashes of moments sealed into the structure like fossils in amber. A woman screaming into a void of light. A man tearing a diagram apart. A team arguing over data as a countdown blinked red in the background.
All moments from the world before it broke.
"Is this what you see every time you reset?" Ayen asked from outside, keeping her distance.
Theo didn't answer at first. Then he nodded. "Sometimes… only it's not always memories. Sometimes it's possibilities. Things that could've happened. Things that shouldn't have."
He reached the center of the chamber, where a low pedestal jutted out from the floor, its surface etched with spiraling lines. At the center was a glass orb, cracked but glowing faintly.
"This is the anchor point," Theo said softly. "The temporal nexus for this region. If I can tap into it, I might be able to draw the threadline into visibility."
Nova stepped inside, cautious. "And then what?"
"I'll see the moment where the fracture began. And maybe—maybe—I can find a way to repair it before it spreads again."
Rell shifted uneasily. "That's dangerous."
Theo gave him a tired smile. "Welcome to my entire existence."
He reached out and placed both hands on the orb.
The pulse hit him instantly—like a hammer wrapped in silk.
Time collapsed inward.
He saw the chamber not as it was, but as it had been: scientists walking its halls, wiring the orb, arguing in hushed tones about containment fields and entropy leaks. He saw the early warnings—data readings that didn't make sense, anomalies stacking like bricks on a wall about to fall.
And then he saw her.
Not Nova. Not Ayen. Not anyone he knew.
A woman in a white coat, short dark hair, hands trembling as she stood over the orb.
"Project Origin is compromised," she whispered, voice laced with terror. "We were wrong. We thought time would obey. It doesn't obey—it remembers."
Theo gasped.
He stumbled back, the images vanishing like steam, and fell against the wall. His heart hammered in his chest, sweat cold on his skin.
Nova caught him. "Theo! Are you—?"
"I saw it," he rasped. "The first breach. It started here. This is where the timeline began to decay."
Ayen frowned. "So what does that mean?"
"It means someone tried to override time before me. Before any of this. They tampered with the threadline, thinking they could seal or edit it. But it fought back. The collapse wasn't just an accident. It was the result of a failed manipulation."
Rell looked pale. "They poked a wound until it tore open."
Theo nodded. "Exactly."
Nova helped him stand. "So can you fix it?"
He looked at her, and for once, there was no certainty in his eyes. "Maybe. But it's going to take more than syncing to a threadline. I need to find the original source—the code, the algorithm they used to manipulate it. If I can find that…"
"You could rewrite the fracture itself," Rell whispered.
Ayen crossed her arms. "And where would that be?"
Theo stared down at the orb. "Back where it started. The first lab. The one beneath the Silver Crown District."
Nova's breath caught. "That's Warden territory."
"Yeah," Theo said quietly. "And if we go there, we're not walking in as ghosts anymore. They'll know who I am."
Outside, the forest shifted. A low thrum began to echo through the roots of the world.
Rell turned, eyes wide. "They felt the resonance."
Nova tensed. "Scouts?"
Rell shook his head slowly. "Worse. They're sending the Seer."
Theo felt the weight settle across his shoulders like a chain. "Then we have to move. Now."
He glanced once more at the orb, still glowing faintly on the pedestal.
The past had remembered him.
And now the future was watching.