Rewinding Cadence

Volume 2 · Chapter 1Reverberations of Flame

Cycle 134 · Day 1, Before Dawn

Ren awoke to the taste of ash on his tongue and the echo of distant thunder in his bones. He lay atop the cracked pavement of Cadence Station's central plaza, silver‑green light flickering through the fissured clocktower above. But this was not his first awakening here—far from it. The city's ruins stretched before him like the broken remains of a dream he could no longer afford to forget.

He sat up slowly, muscles taut with anticipation rather than surprise. Gone was the confusion of earlier loops; he knew exactly who he was, where he stood, and the precious slender of time he commanded. He pressed a hand to his side—no bandage, no fresh wound. He'd healed, prepared. The memory‑anchor at his wrist pulsed softly: a quiet heartbeat against his skin, reminding him of every lesson learned across 133 broken loops.

Light crept through the fractured clockface, illuminating dust motes that danced in swirling eddies. Ren rose to his feet, boots crunching on glass and ash. The city was unnaturally still—no distant cries of Hollow, no drip of leaky pipes, only the low hum of latent ley energy lingering in the air. But in his mind, he carried a fiercer sound: the roar of Leviathan's grief, a memory of flame and fury that had once nearly consumed them both.

He closed his eyes for a heartbeat and breathed in the acrid air, centering himself on the first commandment of this loop: Remember.

A Dream's Ashen Kiss

Only he could taste the ember‑heat of that dream lingering on his tongue: molten metal, scorched earth, and the ghost of Chu's laughter—bright as sunlight, impossible as flame. He saw her standing atop a smoking terrace, silver hair aflame, arms raised to the sky as the city burned around her.

"Ren!" her voice had been a beacon. He had sprinted across molten cobblestones, every step echoing the crackling of hellfire beneath his feet. She reached for him, eyes bright with tears and defiance.

But before he could reach her, the world had collapsed. A wave of glittering ash had washed over him, and then nothing.

He opened his eyes and found himself back on cold stone. The dream faded, but its heat lingered—a warning and a promise.

Meeting at the Fountain

Ren strode toward the shattered fountain at the plaza's center, where Chu waited. Her silver hair was tied back with charcoal‑stained ribbon; her violet‑gray eyes were sharp and anxious. She held her sketchbook open to a fresh page, the charcoal spirals glowing faintly under the ley‑charged sky.

"Day 1," she murmured, voice steady despite the storm of emotion in her gaze. "Cycle 134."

Ren nodded curtly. "Reverberations still echo stronger than ever." He glanced down at the page: beneath the spiral, she'd drawn a single glyph—a stylized flame encircled by runes. Warning, it seemed to say.

Chu traced the flame with her fingertip. "The nexus dreams in flame tonight. I felt the residual echo of Leviathan's roar even before dawn."

Ren's jaw tightened. "She's restless. We're close to the epicenter of her grief." He fixed her with a steady look. "What's our first move?"

Chu snapped the sketchbook shut and tucked it into her satchel. "First, we reinforce the anchor network." She gestured to the surrounding ruins. "Last cycle, Ark's scavengers sabotaged the control conduits beneath these streets. We need to clear them before the ley current surges tonight."

Ren nodded, drawing in a steady breath. "Lead the way."

Beneath Burning Ruins

They slipped through fractured archways and collapsed corridors, descending into the city's lifeblood: a labyrinth of rusted pipes, broken conduits, and dead machinery. The air was thick with the residue of burned circuitry and the ghost‑echo of eldritch power. Ren's boots rumbled against steel grates, each step a measured echo in the gloom.

Chu moved beside him, lantern held high. She paused at a collapsed junction, studying tangled cables that glowed with faint, dying light. "Here," she whispered. "They severed the ley channels here. The nexus current—when it surges—is choking on its own power, turning flame to ash."

Ren knelt and brushed ash from the cables, revealing frayed ends. He pressed his memory‑anchor pouch to the conduits; the runes on its surface pulsed in recognition. "I can reroute the flow," he said, voice low but assured. "But I'll need your ink‑blood to inscribe the glyphs."

Chu produced her vial of blood and the packed charcoal. With careful precision, they worked side by side: Ren holding the cables in place, Chu drawing spirals and flame‑glyphs across the metal cuffs that bound the conduits. Blue‑white sparks danced where blood‑ink met live current.

The cables hummed, then roared to life. A low, resonant vibration coursed through the tunnel, as though the city itself had drawn a deep breath. The runes glowed, feeding the energy into a stable flow once more.

Chu exhaled, relief and exhilaration flickering in her eyes. "One down," she said.

Ren rose, brushing his hands. "A hundred thirty‑three to go."

She managed a wry smile. "Let's hope we don't have to fix every loop's mistakes tonight."

Flames in the Distance

They climbed back toward the surface by a service staircase choked with debris. Above them, the city skyline blazed with unnatural light—the glow of distant conflagrations, wildfires sparked by the nexus's instability. Towers on the horizon were alight at their peaks, windows shattered but aflame, as though the very air had caught fire.

Chu halted on a landing, pressing her back to the cool stone. Smoke drifted through broken vents, carrying ash that stung their eyes. She pointed ahead. "That's the Upper Ward. Ark's research outpost. If we don't cut off the surge there, the whole district will go up."

Ren's gaze hardened. "Then we hurry."

She offered him her hand—steady, resolute. Ren took it, and together they dashed into the smoke‑choked corridor, shadows dancing across scorched walls as the city groaned beneath the weight of its own undoing.

A Promise in Flame

As they pressed deeper, Ren recalled Chu's words from his dream: Promise me you'll find me, even if the world burns. He squeezed her hand, drawing strength from her calm determination. He remembered every loop, every failure, every death at her side—and he vowed once more: he would not let her face Leviathan's fury alone.

Through the haze of ash and ember light, they moved as one—two souls bound by blood and ink, racing to outrun the reverberations of flame that threatened to consume them all.

And overhead, the sky cracked with distant thunder—a herald of the storm to come.