Being a Codewright had never guaranteed safety.
It was too late for me now.
Even back in my quiet suburb, where the grass was still green and food was never scarce—Mother and Father had moved like machines, their bodies worn down from keeping our little pocket of coded world stable. I had felt that strain too, even though I was barely grown.
But that strain was nothing compared to now.
Now it felt like a million needles prickled beneath my skin. I wished I could just… die.
I sucked in another breath and clung to a memory from before.
My sister.
Vivid—my little comet—was the only thing that ever made the house feel alive. When she burst in from her afternoon activities, the air itself seemed to pulse.
She was my sun, my moon, my northern star.
And she was still the only thing keeping me alive.
Another breath.
My last day whole...
Vivid was late coming home. I followed her trace until I found her, crouched in the yard, playing with a flickering light.
"Look what I can make!" she squealed.
The light shifted, grew—until I saw the numbers spiraling inside it.
My blood went cold.
"No!" I screamed.
She met my eyes mid-smile—just before the light collapsed into itself and sucked her into the void of cyberspace.
And then, it took me too.
Cyberspace wrapped around me in its dark embrace—the same one holding me now. It wanted to rip me apart, dissolve me piece by piece.
Only one thought kept me from giving in:
Find Vivid. Find Vivid. Find Vivid.
And then—something shifted in the blackness.
Like a miracle, I crashed into a glowing portal. My hands tangled in the code, forming tethers. I clung to it with everything I had.
Find Vivid.
Without hesitation, I leapt through.
I landed in the Patternlands.
The air was thick with dust and static decay, clinging to my skin like a warning. I gasped for breath, blinking grit from my eyes.
I was no longer suspended. I had found a way out of cyberspace… into somewhere.
I checked my stats: health low, hunger critical. I looked down—my body was ragged and underfed. Skin stretched over sharp bones.
How many years had I been trapped?
I took a shaky step. Then another. At least I could still walk.
Not ten cubes away stood the crumbling outline of a house—its side blown wide open like a gaping wound.
I dropped to my knees, placed my hands on the ground, and closed my eyes.
The code came in pulses. Information surged through me.
I had landed in the Architect's Original Cradle—the oldest, wildest, most dangerous.
Lawless territory. Infested with creatures I'd only heard about in warnings.
Rotcasters. Once human, now agents of chaos. They had forsaken the fight for humanity and spread ruin through the code. And they ruled this Cradle.
I opened my eyes to a wasteland that had once been forest. Leaves blackened and pixelated at the tips, crumbling to dust before my eyes.
I felt it deep in my bones—this was not a place for someone like me.
Still, I moved toward the house.
Rotcasters likely hadn't left anything of value, but maybe—just maybe—something had been overlooked.
All I needed was wood. Enough to craft a sword. Anything to survive.
The sun sagged toward the jagged horizon.
I pressed forward.
The house was silent as I stepped through its shattered entrance.
It's going to be alright, Alis, I told myself.
But the dark wrapped around me like memory. It hid the teeth, the traps, the monsters. The same dark that had taken Vivid.
That had taken me.
I was nothing more than a ghost from the code.
Light filtered in through the broken wall, enough to see by. I stepped into what remained of the main room. The floor groaned beneath my boots.
And I got lucky.
These Castors weren't looters—just vandals. Anarchists who broke things and moved on.
In the ruins of the kitchen, I found a stale loaf of bread, a bowl of something sour-smelling, and—miracle of miracles—a multitool. Half pickaxe, half hatchet.
Hope bloomed in my chest.
With this, I could chop wood, build shelter. Maybe even find coal for fire.
My stomach growled.
I checked my hunger stats—dangerously low. I cursed, then forced myself to eat the crumbling bread. It tasted like sand, but did the job. My stats ticked slowly toward normal.
Outside, the light was fading. Fast.
I cursed again.
No weapons. No defenses.
I would have to crouch in the dark and pray nothing found me before sunrise.
But I knew better.
Night brought real monsters—Husks. No longer human. Drawn to life, compelled to destroy it.
Stillness was key. No movement. No breath too loud. If I was lucky, they'd pass me by.
I sank to the floor and crossed my legs.
Then I slipped into Cyberspace.
My consciousness left the physical plane, gliding through the Cradle's code. I passed through the hidden doorway etched into my mind.
I couldn't let myself drift too far. If I lost tether, I might never find my way back.
I searched for Runner traces.
Mine appeared first—a glowing thread of memory leading back to the void I'd come from. Proof I was alive.
But I pushed further.
I scanned the code for others. Hints of life. Hints of her.
I couldn't believe she was gone. Not yet.
I pushed harder.
And then—I felt it.
Something ancient. Watching.
It slid across my mind like oil. Tendrils brushed the edges of my thoughts, testing me.
My skin prickled.
My eyes snapped open.
They were outside.
I could smell them—that putrid rot, sharp and real.
My stomach turned. Had they sensed me?
Then I saw it.
A leg crept over the broken wall—furry, wrong. Dozens of eyes followed. Red and gleaming like corrupted rubies.
They locked onto mine.
And held.
I didn't blink. Couldn't. My eyes burned with the effort.
The spider was massive. Wrong. Limbs too long, abdomen bloated with glitching patterns, mouth twitching unnaturally.
Twice my size.
I saw myself reflected in each of its many eyes—my terrified face, multiplied.
Spiders didn't blink.
This was a losing game.
My lips parted—just a reflex.
And in that instant, the creature lunged.
I dove sideways, rolled beneath a half-crushed table. Wood splintered behind me.
The spider shrieked. Other sounds followed—dragging feet, wet slaps, awful scraping.
More monsters.
This was it.
This was how it ended.
Is this what happened to you, Vivid?Did you even have time to scream?
I shut my eyes.
Whispered a silent prayer to nothing.
Make it quick.Just make it quick so I can see her again.
And just as the spider's leg brushed my shoulder—
A battle cry split the air.