The Door hummed.
Not like a machine. Not like a melody.
It hummed like a held breath. Like the pause between lightning and thunder.
And everyone could feel it.
Ren swallowed. "So… what's the etiquette here? Do I knock? Bow? Tell a riddle?"
Keeri shook her head. "It's not that kind of Door."
Clomp nodded solemnly. "It's a Thread-Drift Manifestation. Anchored by your instinct."
"…Cool. Still confused."
Ren reached out.
His fingers passed through what looked like water, felt like air, and smelled faintly of cinnamon and library dust.
Then everything lurched.
[New Zone: The Gallery Between Paths]
✦ You have entered a Liminal Weave.
✦ Essence-to-Thread Ratio: Unstable.
✦ Guide Affinity: Applicable.
❖ Echo Instinct: highly active
❖ You may encounter memories, metaphors, or moods shaped as places.
Ren opened his eyes and immediately regretted it.
He stood in a field of floating staircases, none of which led to the ground—or each other. Books drifted like birds overhead. Paintings shifted when unobserved. A lamppost wept rain from a glowing orb.
Clomp appeared beside him, floating on a small puff of spore gas.
"Well," the mushroom said, "this is new."
A voice echoed softly across the empty not-space:
"Welcome, Echobearer. This zone is not for you… and yet, it answers."
Ren looked around. "That… a system message?"
"Nope," said Keeri, stepping onto an upside-down staircase, somehow not falling. "That's a Memory Warden. Rare as guiltless nobles."
A shimmering figure appeared—half cloak, half shifting static. It held no weapon. Only a book titled Why You Might Still Matter.
It stared at Ren.
"You should not be here yet."
"Me neither," Ren muttered.
"But you came."
"I tripped into it emotionally, if that helps?"
The Memory Warden
It circled him slowly, reading notes only it could see.
"You have touched threads. You have not earned them. You have answered echoes. You do not know the questions. You are…"
It paused.
"…unprepared."
Ren nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right."
The Warden tilted its head. "And yet… this world listens. You carry no rank. But something listens."
"Cool. Super. Are we gonna fight?"
"No."
The Warden raised its palm.
"We are going to show."
[Temporary Echo Trial Unlocked: Reflection of Roads]
❖ Objective: Witness three Echo Moments
❖ Warning: Memories encountered here are not always yours
❖ Rewards: ???
❖ Consequences: Yes.
The world flickered.
Three doors formed in the space around him—each glowing, each strange.
The Warden gestured. "Choose one. Begin."
Ren turned to Keeri. "Do I have to?"
"You always have a choice, Ren," she said. "But not always a pause."
Clomp added: "Also, they start fading in fifteen seconds."
"WHY."
Ren panicked and flung himself into the nearest door.
The Door laughed as it closed behind him.