The following three days went by without sleep.
Not because I didn't attempt to, but because no matter how hard I tried, each time I closed my eyes, I could see Seve's lips still curled into a smile while his eyes dissolved into light. I could hear his voice ringing out in the ash:
"We are what waits between endings."
I did not share this with the others. They hadn't yet earned that curse.
We left the trees of bone behind. The ash trail diminished after the second ridge. The air thinned, not chilled—like the sky breathing slowly.
That was when we saw the crater.
No warning. No noise. Just a horizon dropping suddenly into a cavern the size of a fortress, scooped out of the ground like something enormous had dug itself out of the earth. And in the middle, alone under the red sky—
A tower of black rock.
Luro ceased walking the moment he spotted it. His face contorted—not of fear, but of recognition.
"You've been here," I said.
He nodded once. "Not this life."
That response didn't assist. But it informed me all the same.
He recalled the loops as well.
---
We came in at twilight.
The tower lacked doors. No windows. Only runes seared deep into its surface. Symbols I knew again—same as in the ruin. Same as the mirrors.
Same as the mark upon my left wrist I'd spent decades denying to be a scar.
The mark flared when I touched the tower.
Hard enough to make me stumble.
Just enough to wake it.
The tower pulsed.
A deep thrum rolled out from the base. The ground trembled slightly. The sky dimmed. My shadow stretched far too long behind me.
Then came the voice. Not from outside. From inside my mind.
"Welcome back, Kevin."
"We thought you'd died for good this time."
It was the same voice from the ruin. The Remnant. No—older than the Remnants. It didn't sound like it wanted to fight me.
It sounded like it wanted to enlist me.
I moved forward, laying my hand on the stone.
The tower swung open.
No crack. No shift. Just… gone. The wall disappeared like it never existed. Within, there was nothing but darkness.
Not black as coal. Not empty space. This was the sort of dark that recalled.
I entered.
Luro cried out behind me. I didn't hear it. Or perhaps I did, and the tower simply subtracted it.
The inside wasn't a room.
It was a hallway—broad, long, constructed of dark stone. My steps echoed as if they belonged to someone else.
Halfway along, I saw it.
A copy of me.
Cross-legged on the ground. Not moving. Face scrubbed. Eyes shut. Breathing level.
He was younger. Less shattered.
He looked like I did before Kaelis died.
He didn't respond when I talked.
But time and space changed.
Time warped.
Suddenly he was standing in front of me, inches away.
"Finally," he said.
I didn't move.
"Who are you?" I said.
His head cocked. "I'm the version of you that didn't run."
Silence.
I saw Kaelis fall," he went on. "I didn't forget her name. I remembered the sacrifice. I carried it. You? You tried to bury it under new names and new scars."
"That's not true," I breathed.
It was.
He moved closer. "I stayed behind and died. You ran away and lived. And the world broke six more times because of it."
I unsheathed my blade. But I already knew how this would end.
"You're not real."
He grinned. "I'm more real than you."
---
He made the first move.
Faster than I had anticipated. My sword clashed against his—same heaviness, same ring, as if hitting myself. Sparks flickered. The tower echoed each blow with lag, as if it wished to recall each strike.
He fought as I once had.
Efficiently. Accurately. Without emotion.
I fought as I fight currently.
Frantically. Fiercely. To live.
He shattered my stance twice. Cut my shoulder once. Almost disarmed me when he parried low and wrenched the grip.
But he didn't kill me.
He stepped back. Crossed his sword to his own throat.
And said:
"You'll never win if you keep forgetting."
Then he thrust the blade inward.
I screamed—not because of pain. Because of recognition.
As his corpse fell, the mark on my wrist blazed white-hot.
The tower shook.
The air shattered.
And I was out again—standing at the edge of the crater, with the others around me.
Luro grasped me as I fell.
"You encountered the Watcher," he told me. "Did he tell you?"
I nodded. "We've passed the Sixth Loop."
He didn't grin.
"Then it's begun."
---