The ARC monitoring wall was too bright tonight.The pulse at the center of the lake beat with a precision that felt unnatural—like someone exhaling on a schedule.
Three data lines jumped at the same time.A system prompt appeared, the kind only triggered by major disturbances:
Maintain low profile.Track the matcher.
The wind at the lakeside paused for half a second,as if something pressed "hold" on the entire shoreline.
When I stepped forward, the source point in my chest trembled.Not painful.More like a signal trying to focus.
Yesterday's aftereffects were still there:moments where my sight snagged on fine threads,my motions steadier than they should be,my body feeling… adjusted, without permission.
Patch stayed close, tail raised like an antenna.We walked along the wooden path.
The lake's light cycled—bright, dim, bright—as if locking onto something.Or someone.
"Yesterday wasn't enough?" I asked quietly."If it already pulled me once… why do we have to go back?"
Patch looked up at me, then at the lake.Every hair on him was standing.
Emilia lowered her voice."Yesterday you were dragged in.Today we're bringing you back to make your position clear.Let it recognize that you're not an empty page."
The source point pulsed again,as if someone whispered inside my ribs.
I swallowed."It almost finished reading me yesterday—"
Alden was still walking ahead,but his answer landed directly on me.
"The read wasn't completed.If you stay half-synced, your body will keep drifting.Even asleep, it'll pull you back.You won't be able to stop it later."
A chill moved down my spine.
Ahead of us, the grass bent in thin, radiating lines.Remnants of scorched metal—fallen ARC equipment—lay scattered, edges melted.
Emilia crouched."They left too fast. Didn't even clean the field."
I stared at the metal scars.The source point in my chest resonated with them,as if answering a distant echo.
The lake's pulse grew steadier.My own pulse fell into rhythm with it—step by step, breath by breath.
Every time the rhythm overlapped,some boundary inside me thinned.
Alden murmured,"Your read is stabilizing.That's your second layer responding."
Emilia met my eyes."You feel it, don't you?"
"…Like someone is calling me."
"That's not a call," she said softly."It's a reply."
The lake froze for a fraction of a second.Wind shifted to the far shore.The world dimmed to our breathing alone.
I stepped forward.
The lake-heart brightened—not like light rising,but like something waking.
And in that moment,a crisp, terrifying clarity formed:
The entire lake was waiting for me.