Chapter 35: What Cannot Be Undone
The climb back to the surface was slower. Heavier.
None of us spoke. What was there to say?
When we finally emerged, the air felt wrong. Too warm. Too quiet.
I reached for the Codex.
Its pages were blank.
Every one.
Then a single line appeared in the center of the last page.
"He remembers now."
Before I ought to react, Lilith’s hand clamped down on my arm. Her eyes have been locked at the eastern horizon.
A storm was gathering—black and gold, twisting like a wound in the sky.
Seraphina raised her staff. "That’s not weather."
"No," Lilith said. "That’s him."
I closed the Codex. "Then we don’t wait for another message."
I turned to my professors, my allies, my friends.
"We go to him."
No more echoes.
No more loops.
We’d break the cycle.
Or burn with it.
