Threadbound:System

The world didn't stop spinning just because the ripple closed.

Ash still clung to the edges of Riven's sleeves. Static still pulsed behind his eyes. The scent of scorched metal and burned plastic still lived in his lungs.

And now—Kaia walked beside him.

Not summoned. Not inherited. Chosen.

Her golden eyes scanned the fractured skyline of the Aurora District like she'd always belonged there. Maybe she had. A fragment of a memory he'd refused to let die. A presence born from the very System meant to forget her.

She trotted quietly through the ruined street, fur matted with soot, ears twitching at every creak and whisper of the broken world. The buildings here leaned in strange directions. Signs blinked with phrases half-corrupted, flickering between forgotten languages and names Riven didn't want to remember.

He crouched at the edge of a collapsed stairwell and rested a hand gently on Kaia's head. She leaned into it without hesitation.

"You okay?" he asked softly.

Kaia made a sound—not quite a bark, not quite a purr. Her tail flicked once, deliberate.

He'd pulled her from a collapsing anchor the System had already written off as corrupted. Refused to collapse what it had marked for deletion. She had answered with something fierce and unwavering. Loyalty he hadn't expected. Warmth he hadn't realized he needed.

Now she was here. Living proof that something in this dying world still responded to choice.

> [Phasekin Companion: Kaia – Threadborne Variant]

Status: Bonded

Loyalty Trait: Threadbound I — Active

Anchor Instability Resistance: +5%

Companion Instinct: Protective / Empathic

Emotional Feedback: Stabilized

He exhaled slowly.

One ripple down.

But only one.

---

The path to the next anchor was already bleeding through the cracks.

It began beneath an overpass scorched by signal corruption—glass pooled like wax under a dozen shattered street signs. Where road had once led to a commuter tunnel, now a spiral sank into the ground, twisting impossibly into itself.

Riven could feel it before he saw it. A subtle vibration. Deeper than sound. His bones recognized it. His thread recognized it.

Aya.

Kaia hesitated at the edge.

"Yeah," he murmured. "I feel it too."

The spiral shimmered—not a structure, but a memory trying to become one. A collapsed transit line overlaid with burned school corridors, staircases that spun into void, flashes of rooftops frozen in rewind.

He stepped forward.

> [Anchor Access – Tier II: Memory Loop Core]

Status: Distorted Suppression

Gate Delay Active – 00:03:00

Anchor Classification: Multi-Threaded Echo

Target Thread: Aya Vale – 22% Stabilized

Warden-Class Entity – Detected (Manifestation Inbound)

Riven's jaw tightened. "Of course."

Kaia growled low. Her fur bristled. The System hadn't even pretended to hide the threat this time.

Three minutes until the gate unlocked.

And less before something worse arrived.

---

They entered the spiral anyway.

The first shift was subtle—gravity leaned left, then right. Light inverted. A flickering film of other moments bled over the air like panes of stained glass stacking across timelines.

Every ten steps, the world changed:

A corridor of lockers blurred into a battlefield trench.

A rooftop bled into a playground.

A hallway of mirrors showed not reflections, but choices Riven hadn't made.

One showed him walking away from the girl who became Kaia.

Another—choosing Aya, but letting Brenn die.

Another—standing alone on the steps of a broken cathedral as the city burned behind him.

He looked away.

Kaia pressed close to his side, ears flat, her gaze locked forward.

The System surged with internal warnings.

> [Cognitive Loop Distortion Active]

Stability Check Passed – Companion Stabilization Bonus: +10%

Memory Thread Integrity: Holding

"She's keeping us grounded," Riven muttered.

Kaia's tail flicked once in acknowledgment.

---

They moved deeper.

The ripple folded like pages. Each layer a different memory. Not all his own. Forgotten fragments leaked in from other threads—unmoored and looping.

Blood on walls. Names scrawled into ash.

A signal trapped on loop whispered help me in five distinct voices.

Some of them he recognized.

Then came the library.

Books floated midair. Pages turned without hands. Some bled ink. Others glitched, flickering text between warnings and forgotten dreams.

One hovered in front of him, opened on its own.

> Riven Vale – Timeline: Redacted

Result: Collapse

Status: Condemned

Override: Pending

He snapped it shut.

"Not this time."

Kaia bared her teeth at the floating shelves.

> [Emotional Anchor: Strengthened]

Companion Loyalty Response: Affirmed

Ripple Corruption Slowed

---

Beyond the library, they reached a garden of stone.

Dead grass. Crumbling benches. Statues of people with blank faces—until you looked too long.

Then they became people Riven knew.

Kalix. Nilo. Brenn.

His old companions.

His family from before the fall.

All of them staring. Not hostile. Not accusatory.

But disappointed.

You didn't save us.

Kaia stepped in front of them, tail raised, fur on end.

"They're not real," Riven said, his voice hollow.

Still, he didn't breathe again until they passed through.

---

The final space before the anchor core was silent.

A suspended plaza built of fractured glass and warped thread. The center pulsed—not visibly, but audibly. Like a heartbeat trapped between systems.

There, floating above a cracked memorial stone, hovered a sphere of light.

Not blue. Not gold. Both.

Aya's thread.

Familiar.

Haunting.

Like a memory buried beneath another name.

Kaia moved first.

He followed.

> [Thread Fragment Detected: Aya Vale]

Status: Active – Stability 42%

Phase-Link Available

Companion Proximity Bonus: +10%

Anchor Disruption Detected – Warden-Class Entity Incoming

He reached out.

And touched the light.

---

Memory didn't unfold.

It struck.

Aya laughing.

Aya running.

Aya—screaming.

Kara?

No—Aya. But his heart still flinched.

And then—silence.

A rooftop. Her hand in his. Then slipping away.

> [Fragment Synced – Total Integration: 42%]

Additional Fragments Required

Anchor Core Tier: Memory Loop Unlocked

Delay Until Full Access: 02:34

Riven staggered back.

Kaia pressed against him. Steady. Present.

He dropped to one knee, breath ragged.

But she was still there.

Aya was still calling.

---

Then the sky cracked.

A jagged fissure split the ripple's edge. Red light bled from it like a wound across the world.

The System made a sound he hadn't heard before—a scream filtered through static.

> [Class II Warden Breach Imminent]

Arrival in Anchor Space: 02:00

Warning: Entity Possesses Tier II Core Suppression

Memory Collapse Threshold: 67%

Kaia growled.

The air distorted. The wind reversed. Walls whispered fragments of thought that didn't belong to either of them.

Then a shadow began to form in the distance.

Tall. Inhuman. Limbs like spears. A crown of broken thread and static.

The Warden was coming.

> [Survival Chance: 38% – With Companion Linked]

Escape: Unavailable

Anchor Seal Charging: 02:00 Remaining

Riven didn't run.

He stood.

Kaia stood with him.

"Two minutes," he muttered. "We hold."

He raised his blade.

And waited for the world to break again.