Threadless : A growing novel

[Thread 1: The Ones Who Remained]

It was Iris who stood first.

"We're not waiting anymore," she said. "We're walking toward him."

Selene didn't question it. Neither did Alin.

They moved through the academy halls, passing rooms that no longer matched their memories.

Doors where they'd once laughed. Windows they once leaned from.

Everything was slightly off — as if the recursion had rewritten the blueprints to forget their feet ever touched these floors.

But each step left a mark again.

Reality had begun remembering them.

And somewhere not too far — someone else began to feel it.

[Thread 2: Rin]

Rin was in the courtyard between worlds — the one with no gates, only shadows.

She had been watching the still water, tracing names into the reflection with her fingertip.

Then she stopped.

The water moved without her.

A name formed on its own.

"Iris."

Then:

"Selene."

And then, hesitantly—

"Alin."

Rin blinked.

"They're waking," she whispered.

"...No. They were never fully gone."

Her chest hurt. But not from pain.

From relief she hadn't earned.

From knowing Aro wouldn't be alone much longer — and that she wouldn't have to carry the memory of everything by herself.

[Thread 3: The Developers]

The room was still.

The monitors were off. The lights flickered, not from malfunction — but from hesitation.

Something in the system had revived that was not supposed to breathe again.

"They weren't meant to reconnect," one voice said.

"They weren't meant to remember each other like this," another murmured. "Not across layers. Not without a signal."

"What caused it?"

A pause.

Then the flicker stabilized. One of the black monitors turned on.

No interface. Just static.

Then a voice — not mechanical. Not divine. Just… human:

"We did."

They looked at each other. Some stepped back.

"We feared they'd collapse.

We feared they'd destroy the structure.

We feared they'd break recursion."

A longer silence.

"But what if they rebuild instead?"