I woke to pain.
Not physical—
not the bruises and broken bones I knew well—
but a cognitive pain.
A tearing sensation behind my eyes,
a hollow space in my chest where something important used to be.
When I inhaled, the breath trembled out of me as a broken whisper.
Marin knelt beside me, flickering like a crushed hologram.
"Eli…?"
Her voice was thin, glitching around the edges.
I blinked hard, trying to focus on her face, but—
my vision doubled.
Tripled.
Her face split into three versions:
A crying child.
A hopeful sister.
A fading ghost.
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
"I… I can't see straight."
Marin tried to help me sit up.
"You ripped him out," she whispered, voice shaking. "You tore him from yourself. He took a part of you when he was expelled."
I swallowed.
My voice came out slurred.
"What… part?"
She hesitated.
Tears hovered in her flickering eyes.
"…memories, Eli. Part of your own identity. Maybe more."
My chest tightened.
"What kind of memories?"
"…I-I don't know," she said. "But I can feel the hollow where they were."
The corridor trembled.
Dust—memory dust—fell from the ceiling.
Lira's voice echoed distantly, distorted by the collapsing mental plane:
"Elias—wake up! You need to wake up—right now—"
Her voice glitched in and out.
Marin looked up toward the unseen speaker.
"She's losing you."
I tried to stand, but my knees buckled.
Something inside me pulsed—
a bright, sharp pain—
as if the shadow's claws had gouged a hole in the center of my mind.
Golden light dripped from my fingertips like liquid memory.
"Eli—stop," Marin begged.
"You're bleeding through the mental layer. You'll tear yourself apart if you move too quickly."
My breath shuddered.
"Where's… the shadow?"
The walls answered for her.
A low, guttural moan reverberated through the corridor—
dark, wet, growing louder.
A shape slithered out of the corner.
The shadow was no longer humanoid.
It had mutated.
Its limbs elongated and twisted.
Its torso bent in impossible angles.
Its surface rippled like a mass of corrupted data, glitching and reforming.
It dragged itself across the memory floor, leaving black static trails behind it.
From inside its warped body—
I heard my own voice.
Screaming.
Marin grabbed my hand.
"Eli—run—he's trying to rebuild himself from the piece he took from you."
I stared in horror as the shadow convulsed, speaking in a voice that was half mine, half his:
"You made a mistake."
Its distorted face turned toward us.
"You think you're whole without me?"
Its spine cracked backward with a sickening lurch.
"Let me show you what you lost."
And then—
the walls erupted.
Dozens of memories shot out—
but not the ones I remembered.
These were memories with holes.
Moments where faces blurred,
voices faded,
entire hours missing.
Marin grabbed my face.
"Eli—LOOK AT ME. Don't look at the memories. They're corrupted—"
Too late.
I saw one.
A childhood memory.
Me and Marin sitting on a small bed, laughing, sharing candy—
The memory tore in half.
Marin flickered out of it.
The bed disappeared.
The candy melted.
And the younger version of me turned toward the viewer—
toward me—
confused and terrified.
"Why can't I remember her?"
he whispered.
"Why can't I remember… anything?"
I staggered backward.
"I don't remember this. I DON'T REMEMBER THIS!"
Another memory burst open.
Ari and I at a café—
laughing, sharing a dessert—
but her face blurred into static.
Her voice replaced by silence.
Ari's spark flickered weakly beside me.
"I'm… sorry," she whispered.
"This wasn't supposed to happen…"
Her glow dimmed.
I reached out.
"Ari—stay with me—"
She shook.
Her light sputtered like a dying match.
"I don't have long," she whispered.
The shadow inhaled deeply.
The air pulsed.
Ari shrieked—
a sound like a dying star—
as a current of darkness tugged at her spark.
He was feeding.
He was pulling her in.
Marin jumped between them.
"NO. You don't get to take her too!"
The shadow's voice rattled the floorboards.
"You all belong to me.
You were made for me."
Marin raised her hands—
not strong
not steady
but determined.
"Eli—RUN!"
But I couldn't.
My legs shook uncontrollably.
I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't think.
Something inside me was still missing—
something big—
and the absence was swallowing me whole.
"I don't… I don't know who I am right now…"
Marin grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to focus on her eyes—
even as her body glitched in and out.
"You're my brother."
"You're Ari's anchor."
"You're the Archivist who survived what no one else could."
"You're the boy who saved me."
Her words shook.
"You're not him. You're not the shadow."
And then—
the floor cracked open.
The mental plane split in half, a molten river of raw memory surging below us.
The shadow rose to full height, towering, monstrous.
"Elias…"
It said my name with terrifying warmth.
"…come back to me."
All at once—
the world lurched.
My vision shattered.
My consciousness flickered.
I was falling into myself—
into the hole he left behind—
into oblivion.
The last thing I heard was Lira's distant scream:
"ELIAS—WAKE UP—DON'T LET HIM TAKE YOU—"
And then—
everything went black.