Sykaion
It was cold.
Not wind-cold. Not death-cold.
Memory-cold.
He floated in a place with no up or down, suspended between shards of his own life. The pieces drifted in orbit—each a moment, jagged and flickering:
A broken vending machine.
A smile from Arlyss.
The first time he bled.
The night he said yes to the Coin.
He reached for one.
His hand passed through.
> [System Core Integrity: 12%]
[Status: Broken Link // Recalibration Pending]
> Searching for Host Identity: …
Error: Self Not Found
"Where am I?" he whispered.
The answer came not in words, but in accounts.
They floated beside him—his Debt Ledger, now exposed and flickering.
Every memory he'd borrowed.
Every belief someone else had invested in him.
He was composed of others' faith, stitched into a shape that no longer knew its own name.
But in the center of it all, spinning slowly, was a single burning line:
> [Featherlink: ACTIVE]
Bonded Entity: Arlyss Veil
Status: Searching for you
And beneath it—
> Shared Burden Transfer: Complete
Result: System Sync at 3%
Offer: Reinitialize Core using Shared Memory?
Cost: Final Anchor – "Who you were before this began"
He hesitated.
And then… nodded.
"Erase it."
The fragments flared, blinding white—
---
Zeraphine
The body was heavy.
Not because of weight—Sykaion was lean, almost too light—but because of pull. The System wanted him. Reality wanted to unwrite him. The Sprawl itself trembled beneath his flickering soul.
And behind her—
Killmark still came.
Not fast.
But inevitable.
He walked with purpose, ignoring market walls, collapsing time contracts, and exploding asset fields. Every step retracted reality.
Zeraphine pulled Sykaion's body through the broken edge of a shimmerbridge, her disguise now half-burned away. Concordium glyphs pulsed beneath her skin. Her memory lock was fraying. Her orders had shattered.
None of it mattered.
"Stay with me," she whispered. "Come on, Debtwalker. You don't get to vanish now."
His chest didn't rise.
Yet.
She turned into an alley of frozen taxflowers—bio-economic plants that bloomed in zones of halted time. They clung to his body, feeding off the remnants of belief still embedded in his skin.
She drew her blade and cut them off.
Killmark turned the corner behind her.
His voice was soft.
"You delayed his death. That's all."
She didn't answer.
Instead, she dropped a flare—an illegal Reconciliation Trigger.
It burst in blue flame, blinding.
And she ran.
---
Sykaion
The white faded.
He stood now on a floor made of black ink. Above him, not sky—but a ceiling of IOUs, drifting in concentric circles.
He wasn't whole.
But he was awake.
> System Core: Reinitialized via External Bond
Power Type: Shared Faith / Reinforced Featherlink
Trait Acquired: Second Ledger
He looked down.
In his hands were two feathers.
One his.
The other... Arlyss's.
And for the first time—
They weren't burning.
They were glowing.
> Reintegration Complete
Warning: Host in Critical Physical Condition
Reconnection Attempt in 3… 2…
He gasped—
---
Zeraphine
His body jerked in her arms.
She stumbled, almost dropping him.
His eyes opened.
Gold.
Cracked.
But awake.
"You're back," she said.
Sykaion didn't smile.
His voice was a whisper.
"He's still behind us, isn't he?"
She nodded once.
And Killmark stepped from the fog.
But now…
Sykaion stood.
Broken.
But alive.
And he held two feathers in his hands.
---
To be continued in Chapter 15…