Chapter 13 – The Reversal Code

The motel lamp flickered again. Twice now tonight.

Kael hadn't said a word since Elira showed him the frame—paused perfectly on the wall behind her injured self, the word Valen scratched in and barely legible beneath it: 07.13.37 and Root code: Reversal.

"What does it mean?" she asked.

Kael stood still, like stone. Like he was choosing whether or not to lie.

"It means someone left you a message… probably you."

"But I don't remember."

"That's the point, Elira," he said, voice cracking. "You're not supposed to."

Meanwhile, miles away, Jane stared at Christine's messages.

She scrolled back—weeks of threads. Every time Elira vanished, Christine was always calm. Always knew what to say. Too precise.

And that last message:

"I'll handle her."

Jane's thumb hovered over the call button.

Instead, she opened a new app—a tracker she'd secretly installed on Elira's old phone, back when she first suspected something was wrong.

She waited.

And it pinged.

Not in their city.

Two towns south.

With Christine.

Back at the motel, Elira tapped the flash drive against her lip.

"I want to remember," she said.

"You think you do," Kael muttered.

She narrowed her eyes. "Don't pull that cryptic guardian act on me now."

Kael stared at her—then looked away.

"Root code," he whispered. "It's not just a phrase. It's a directive."

"A command?"

"A failsafe," he said. "From your original self. She didn't just want to hide from them… she wanted to hide from you."

Elira went cold. "Why?"

Kael didn't answer.

He opened his laptop. Pulled up an old program—code-heavy, interface raw. He plugged in the flash drive.

Lines of fragmented data blinked to life.

"Look," he said. "You weren't the only one leaving breadcrumbs."

The screen glitched.

A hidden file emerged.

valen_lock01.rm

A loading bar. Then static. Then—

A voice.

Her own.

"If you're hearing this… you broke protocol."

"They're coming."

"And you need to remember what we buried. Reversal begins July thirteen."

"Find Jane. Trust no one else."

Kael froze.

Elira turned to him, pulse racing.

"You knew."

He didn't deny it.

"I didn't think the file would ever decrypt."

She stepped back.

"You didn't tell me. About Valen. About July. About Jane."

His jaw clenched. "Because if you knew too early, you'd run straight into the fire."

"Maybe that's what I'm supposed to do."

"You don't understand," he said, rising to his feet. "If you remember everything too soon, you die. Not physically. But mentally. The resets—your mind collapses. You cease being Elira at all."

But it was too late.

She'd already made her choice.

In Jane's apartment, the phone rang.

She picked it up on instinct. Static on the other end.

Then one word.

A whisper.

"Reversal."