The Twist

The Archivist's Invitation

The Scratched Word

Kaelen stood in the empty warehouse, the kinetic pistol heavy in their hand. The dust in the single flickering lamp's beam danced around the floor. Wait. The word was scratched into the metal, brutal and demanding, right next to the deeper scar of the Archivist’s Mark—the symbol of truth.

It wasn’t a trap; it was an order. Riva knew Kaelen would follow the trace. She knew Kaelen would choose the personal hunt over the Authority’s official report. This entire dock scene had been a show, a precise piece of choreography designed to leave Kaelen alone with a single instruction.

Kaelen ran a boot over the word. Waiting was the opposite of what a fugitive agent should do. Waiting meant falling into Riva’s timeline, becoming a piece on her board.

But Kaelen knew the alternative. If they reported back to Varrick now, they would simply be replaced by a Ministry kill-team, and Riva would be hunted down for certain. Kaelen had to play Riva's game, at least until they found the Omega Core and understood the full scope of the twist.

Kaelen pulled up the Chronometric Scanner again. The Omega Core signature was long gone, carried away by the Void Runner. But Kaelen focused on the temporal echo of the small, metallic cylinder Riva had traded. Kaelen had to find out what Riva had sold.

The Cylindrical Clue

Kaelen sat on an overturned crate, activating a high-resolution Aether Scan to analyze the residual energy left by the cylinder. It was small, no bigger than Kaelen's thumb, and it hadn't carried the chaotic energy of the Core. Its signature was clean, synthetic, and incredibly dense.

Not an energy cell. Not a weapon.

Kaelen filtered the energy trace through old Ministry data files stored in the Regulator’s memory. It took several agonizing minutes of filtering out the Aethelgard static, but Kaelen found a match. The cylinder was a Data Seed—an incredibly advanced storage device capable of holding petabytes of compressed, sensitive information.

Riva wasn't trading the Core; she was trading secrets to fund her mission.

But what secrets could be worth enough money to pay off a freighter and its armored guard?

Kaelen ran a reverse-trace on the Data Seed's energy signature, pushing their Weaver power. They briefly saw the data contained in the Seed flicker in their mind: blueprints, financial records, and—most crucially—Ministry personnel files, heavily encrypted.

Riva had sold the Authority's deepest secrets to the smugglers of Aethelgard. This was not a random terrorist act. Riva was carefully dismantling the system piece by piece, and she was recruiting help with the funds.

Kaelen realized the armored figure who took the Data Seed was not the intended contact. Riva's contact had to be someone left behind, someone who stayed to wait with the rest of the garbage in the warehouse.

Kaelen walked slowly around the dark warehouse, searching for any sign of a hidden compartment or a small piece of overlooked data. They moved their hand along the rough metal walls, using a focused Sensory Weave—a gentle manipulation of space to feel for any hollow spots.

The wall near the far corner felt wrong. The metal was too thick, and the air behind it felt still, lacking the normal air circulation of the colony.

The Hidden Contact

Kaelen placed the Regulator flat against the solid wall. "I know you're there," Kaelen said, their voice echoing slightly in the empty space. "Riva sent me a message. Now you send me one."

No response.

Kaelen pressed harder. "She left the Archivist's Mark. That means you want truth. I am Kaelen Thorne, Cipher 3-7-1. I am the key to finding Riva, and I'm ready to listen. But I don't wait."

Kaelen initiated a small, controlled Temporal Burst—a miniature distortion that created a loud, sharp crack in the air. It was a clear, dangerous threat. Open up, or I will use force.

After a long silence, a tiny panel slid open in the wall, revealing a single, cautious eye and a small, electronic microphone.

"Thorne," a synthesized voice hissed from the speaker. "The rumors are true. You’re working against Varrick."

"Varrick thinks I'm hunting Riva," Kaelen corrected. "I'm hunting the truth. Now, what did Riva leave for me?"

"A chance," the voice replied. The panel opened fully, revealing a short, lean figure in simple, grey mechanic's clothes. This was the contact. They were young, their face sharp with fear and excitement, and they carried no obvious weapon.

"My name is Jax," the figure said, stepping out. "Riva called me the 'Static Keeper.' I make sure the Authority's signals get lost in the noise of Aethelgard. She told me if you found me, you were either here to arrest me, or here to help."

"I took the Authority's chronometric marker out of my neck before I left the ship," Kaelen lied, instantly creating a false cover story. "I'm a fugitive now, just like you. Where is Riva?"

Jax eyed Kaelen’s Regulator with suspicion. "She's far from here. She said you wouldn't be ready until you understood what you've been protecting." Jax pulled a small, battered tablet from their coat. "The Data Seed she sold to the smuggler—it contained the location of fifty hidden Authority surveillance grids across the outer sectors. They were paid handsomely to release the data, effectively blinding the Ministry in five star systems. Now we have funds for the next phase."

A Forced Alliance

Jax led Kaelen away from the warehouse, deeper into a hidden network of maintenance tunnels that ran beneath the colony.

"Riva didn't risk coming here to fund a war," Kaelen insisted. "She's after the Core. The Omega Core."

"The Core is just a symbol," Jax whispered, their eyes glancing constantly over Kaelen's shoulder. "A means to an end. Riva and the Archivists aren't terrorists. We are restorers. The Chronos Authority hasn't been stabilizing the timeline; they've been cleaning it. They have removed every trace of organized dissent, every major rebel movement—erasing entire generations of truth to maintain their perfect power."

Jax stopped at a junction, pointing at a faded, old schematic on the wall. "The Authority's true crime is the First Eradication—a century ago, when the original Weavers rebelled against the Authority's control over the Aether Cores. Riva discovered that the Authority didn't just suppress the rebellion; they used a prototype of the Omega Core to completely erase the rebellion from history."

Kaelen felt a terrible chill. The Authority had always taught that the First Eradication was a necessary quarantine against an alien sickness—not a political purge. Kaelen’s entire career, their entire moral framework, was built on a lie.

"Riva intends to use the Omega Core to reverse the First Eradication," Kaelen realized. "She wants to broadcast the truth of the rebellion back into the timeline."

"Not just the rebellion," Jax corrected, looking Kaelen straight in the eye. "She wants to broadcast the full, unredacted history of the Authority’s crimes. And that requires a Nexus Point—a central Aether Core powerful enough to handle the feedback."

"And the Core is not on Aethelgard," Kaelen stated.

"No. This was just a supply stop," Jax confirmed. "The Core is already moving toward the Nexus Point. Riva is two sectors ahead of you. She left you a final piece."

Jax pulled out a simple, tarnished silver locket—a cheap piece of jewelry Kaelen instantly recognized. It was the locket Kaelen had given Riva on their first anniversary, eighteen months before the "death."

"She said if you still wear your Regulator, you haven't forgotten the work," Jax said. "But if you look at this locket, you'll remember the promise."

Kaelen took the locket. It was cold and worn. They carefully activated the Regulator's forensic scanner and aimed it at the locket.

The scanner found a minute trace of residual energy—not Riva's Shadow Spiral, but Kaelen's own Weaver signature from years ago. Kaelen had unknowingly engraved a complex, personalized encryption code onto the back of the locket when they first gave it to Riva.

Kaelen ran the code through the Regulator, unlocking the final message Riva had left.

The message wasn't audio or text. It was a single, precise set of coordinates: Coordinates for the next jump gate.

"That's the path to the Nexus Point," Jax confirmed. "The place where the timeline will be restored. Go there, Kaelen. Riva is waiting for you to catch up. She needs a Cipher she can trust to stabilize the feedback when she uses the Omega Core. She needs you."

Kaelen stared at the coordinates. The truth was shocking, but the pull of Riva—the woman Kaelen had loved, the woman who needed their unique skills—was stronger than the Authority’s grip. Kaelen had officially broken faith.

"Tell Riva," Kaelen said, their voice calm, "that I'm coming to stabilize the timeline. And then, we're going to have a very long talk about the lie."

Kaelen turned and headed back toward their ship, the coordinates locked in the Regulator. The hunt was over; the alliance had begun.