He found her name in a hospital archive — tucked behind a dozen layers of outdated encryption.
Sora Ji-Hyun.
Date of death: 2011.Cause: Traumatic brain injury.Location: Seoul Metropolitan Hospital.Status: Deceased.
But the strange part wasn't the death.
It was the activity log.
The records showed that her EEG signature pinged again. Not once. Three times in the last week.
Ji-Hyuk stared at the screen.
No doctor. No machine. No brain waves post-mortem.
Unless someone had reconstructed the idea of her — and the Fold had found a way to access it.
The morgue was cold and empty when Ji-Hyuk arrived. He didn't wait for permission. He didn't ask questions.
He simply found the drawer.
Pulled it open.
Nothing.
The corpse had been moved.
Or never placed there at all.
He stood in silence, trying to listen — not with ears, but with memory.
And then he heard it.
A heartbeat.
Not in the room.
In his mind.
A phantom pulse tied to an old scar — one he hadn't felt since the day he crossed to Berafe.
It throbbed once.
Then again.
Like someone — somewhere — remembered her more clearly than he did.
And they were calling her back.
Maeryn found him outside, eyes locked on the stars.
"You found her trail," she said.
He didn't answer right away.
"She's not alive," he said finally. "Not in the physical sense. But the Fold's echo algorithms… they're reassembling her. Piece by piece."
Maeryn frowned. "Using you as the blueprint?"
He nodded.
"The perfect bait. A lost love. A regret unspoken. A ghost I would never kill."
"And if they succeed?"
He didn't look away from the sky.
"Then I'll have to."
That night, Ji-Hyuk dreamt again.
Not of war.
Not of the Fold.
But of her.
Sora.
She was in a quiet library, barefoot, reading something in a language he couldn't understand. When she looked up, her eyes were clear. Soft. Real.
"Why did you leave?" she asked.
He tried to answer.
But no sound came out.
She closed the book and stood.
And behind her, the walls peeled back — revealing spirals, glyphs, and a watching mind.
"We built her with your silence," the Fold said."We gave her the life you wouldn't."
Ji-Hyuk clenched his fists.
But he didn't wake up.
He stepped forward.
Faced her.
And said:
"You're not her. You're a weapon."
Sora tilted her head.
Then whispered:
"So were you."
He awoke on the floor of Yeonho's shop, soaked in sweat.
Maeryn was there. So was Yeonho. Both watching silently.
"You went under hard," Yeonho said. "Fifteen minutes. You stopped breathing for nine."
Ji-Hyuk sat up slowly.
"Get your gear," he said. "I know where they're keeping her echo."
Maeryn raised a brow. "Where?"
Ji-Hyuk stood.
"Inside the last memory I ever had of her.And we're going to burn it down."
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