I didn't sleep.
Not because I couldn't—but because I didn't trust what I might dream.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw glyphs shifting beneath my eyelids. Not just Spark or Bind. These were more complex—multi-threaded, recursive, ink patterns I didn't remember learning.
Maybe I hadn't.
Maybe the Lexicon was writing them for me.
By dawn, I was back in Elderfall.
The town was quiet. Fog clung to the cobblestones like spilled parchment. Most players hadn't logged in yet. The ones who had stood near noticeboards, arguing over glitchy quest chains and delayed mob spawns.
The SYSTEM was struggling to keep up.
I made my way to the eastern bluff and back into the archive tower. The door opened for me before I touched it.
Halward was already awake.
[NPC: Archivist Halward – Disposition: Curious (++)]
"Back so soon?" he asked, not looking up.
"I need help decoding something new."
I placed the Lexicon on the desk.
It opened on its own.
The tag that had begun to form the night before—Threadbind—was still incomplete. Unlike Spark or Bind, this one pulsed with uncertainty. An unfinished spell. A suggestion.
"I don't recognize this structure," Halward muttered. "It's not standard inkcasting."
"It's not inkcasting at all," I said. "It's threadwork. Memory alignment. Pre-system magic."
His eyes flicked toward me sharply.
"You're not supposed to know those terms."
"I know a lot of things I'm not supposed to."
We worked in silence. Or rather, he theorized while I listened, making mental adjustments with the Lexicon reacting between every correction.
After twenty minutes, the glyph pattern locked.
[Spell Created: Threadbind – Rank F+]Effect: Temporarily anchors an object or entity to a pre-anomaly memory state.Range: 5m. Duration: 30s. Ink Cost: 4.Warning: Excessive use may destabilize localized SYSTEM threads.
The Lexicon shimmered.
And something new happened.
[Lexicon Trait Unlocked: Sentient Memory]The Lexicon now passively remembers all glyph interactions and evolves based on narrative alignment.Current Sync: 11%
Halward sat back in his chair, visibly disturbed.
"That spell… it shouldn't exist."
I closed the Lexicon. "I know."
But as I turned to leave, something flickered.
Not in the room—but in the Lexicon itself. A page shifted again, not by my command. Glyphs formed at the edges of a blank spread, barely visible—like memories trying to pull themselves into the present.
[Spell Discovered: REMEMBER – Rank F (Imperfect)]Effect: Anchors user to previous stable SYSTEM state. Range: Self.Warning: Incomplete syntax. Risk of backthread corruption.
Halward leaned in.
"That's not part of any school I know. Not even lost disciplines. It's a rollback glyph—but encoded for personal application."
"Could it save someone?" I asked quietly.
"Or break you entirely," he said. "This kind of magic bends the SYSTEM itself. Use it only if there's no other path."
I stared at the shimmering ink.
"I'll save it for when things really go wrong."
Outside, the fog had cleared.
I found Lyra by the outskirts again, leaning against the mission board with her arms crossed.
"You always walk around with your spellbook floating behind you?"
"It's a good look," I said. "Mystique builds presence."
She rolled her eyes. "I want in."
"In on what?"
"Whatever that caravan event was. That was no tutorial content. Something is wrong with this build."
"You're saying the game is bugged?"
"I'm saying," she said slowly, "that maybe you and I are in a version of Ascension no one else is playing."
We formed a party.
[Party Formed: You + LyraFenwick]Shared EXP enabled. Role synergy bonus active.
She didn't ask about the Lexicon again.
But she did keep glancing at it when she thought I wasn't looking.
Our first joint quest was supposed to be a simple side-run: help fix a blacksmith's forge south of the Elderfall gate. But when we got there, the scene was broken.
The forge hadn't loaded.
The NPC—Aryn the Smith—stood frozen, endlessly hammering at empty air. Dialogue options were grayed out. Environment assets flickered, half-formed.
"This quest is bugged," Lyra said. "Nobody can finish it. Been stuck like this since the patch."
"Not bugged," I said. "Just... fragmented."
I stepped forward. The Lexicon opened on its own, flipping to the unfinished glyph.
[Spell Cast: Threadbind – Rank F+]Target: NPC – Questline Anchor: Aryn the Smith
Glyphs spilled from my hand—ink-etched threads that shimmered with pale gold light. They wove around Aryn's limbs, then sank into the air itself—tying him not to the present, but to how the SYSTEM remembered him.
No flash. No explosion.
Just stillness—and then a snap.
The hammer struck iron. Sparks flew.
And the rest of the forge rendered in.
[Questline Reactivated: Blades of the Lost Ember]Reward: +EXP, Bronze Dagger, Forging Manual (Tier E)
Lyra blinked.
"You didn't just stop time… you told it what to remember."
I didn't answer.
But the Lexicon's ink swirled, faintly reshaping itself again.
It was learning.
Back in the real world, I stared at my bank statement with a sinking feeling.
[BALANCE: $42.63]DUE: $175 (Dorm Fees) – 2 Days Remaining
But in Ascension, I'd just opened the door to magic that rewrote the rules.
Maybe I couldn't afford rent yet.
But I could afford to keep pushing.