Chapter 16: The Shattered Root

Chapter 16: The Shattered Root

The glyph never came back.

Not in the Mindvault, not in the warhost halls, not in the flame-root corridors Kael now walked with unblinking resolve. But its absence made the walls feel hollow.

Bastion breathed. But not cleanly.

Some days, the Codex veins pulsed a beat too slow. Others, a whisper echoed across the Mindvault that didn't belong to any recorded hybrid. Serrin had sealed off three memory chambers already, warning Kael they were "writing back."

And then came the break.

They were training when it happened—standard mixed-unit cohesion drill near the southeast trench wall. Salak'ra was instructing Brinevein and Ashguard squads through echo formations. Veck monitored from above. Zhaer was rotating sparring partners—pitting Riftwings against Morrowseed.

For a moment, things felt normal.

Then the ground beneath one of the older Ashguard cracked.

Not collapsed. Cracked. Like something beneath had pushed up. A low groan followed—not mechanical, not Codex—not natural.

Zhaer froze mid-spin.

"Everyone back."

Too late.

A hybrid screamed—not in fear, but in rage.

One of the Veiled initiates. Thin, pale, quiet. The kind who rarely drew attention. She had been standing in formation… until she wasn't.

Her Codex brand had lit white.

Glyphs crawled up her neck, twisting around her jaw, burning into her skin from inside.

Salak'ra darted forward, blades flashing. "She's corrupted!"

Kael arrived just as the hybrid moved—inhumanly fast. Her limbs jerked like she was being pulled from beneath the floor.

She struck Zhaer with a shoulder-charge hard enough to break a bone. He grunted, barely blocking.

Kael stepped between them, Codex flame erupting from his palm.

"STOP."

The girl paused. Not because of his voice.

Because something else had grabbed hold of her.

Her eyes rolled back.

And in a voice that wasn't hers:

"You remember wrong."

The Codex pulse beneath Bastion exploded.

A wave of raw Codex memory surged up through the stone—projected visions from hundreds of broken lineages. Dead names. Old wars. Forgotten Oaths. Echoes not stored in the Mindvault.

The Sentinels around the site dropped to one knee. Some convulsed. Some cried.

Kael did not flinch.

He reached toward the hybrid. Not with fire. With memory.

And for a moment, he saw something through her—

The Nest. The real one. Still pulsing, still alive.

And beneath it—Ashvault ruins, reshaped by something worse than time.

Then the girl collapsed.

Veck moved instantly. "She's not dead. Just overwritten. Memory poisoning."

Zhaer leaned on his pike, bleeding. "That wasn't Codex. That was something else."

Kael whispered, "It was before Codex."

Hours later, the warhost command met.

Maelith, VyrmClaw, Ironwrought, Kestri, Crate, Thyrn. All present. Serrin stood silent.

The flame at the center of the table was dim.

Kael addressed them:

"We're no longer alone in Bastion. The Codex is remembering things we never gave it."

Crate ran a hand over his stone-etched tablet. "It's not localized. We picked up pulse distortions across the trench. Some roots are reversing flow. Like the Codex is feeding from outside."

Kestri bared her teeth. "Warden trickery."

Maelith shook her head. "No. This feels older. It's not rewriting us. It's… pulling us back."

Veck emerged from the shadows beside Serrin. "It's targeting those with the weakest anchors. If it hit a Sentinel next time..."

Kael didn't respond. He looked at his brand. It pulsed gently—twice. Once for the Pyre. Once for something else.

Serrin finally spoke. "We need to descend."

Kael met her eyes. "Where?"

She pointed to the deepest chamber in the Bastion vault map.

The one sealed since their arrival.

The Rootborn Chamber.

Next: Chapter 17 — Hearts of the Hollow Flame