Chapter 6 · Die Once, Lose Something

The wall's crumbling under my boots.

I've got maybe eight minutes left before the whole sector collapses, and Quinn's down there in the courtyard, frozen mid-step like someone hit pause on his animation. His health bar's flickering red and white. That's not a debuff. That's a wipe warning.

The hunter's circling below, all wrong angles and too many joints. It doesn't climb. It shouldn't be able to reach me up here. But the ledge I'm on is already spitting dust and the stone's going soft under my hands.

"Vera." Nyx's voice comes through like he's standing right behind me, but when I twist around there's nothing. Just the dark and the wind that doesn't actually exist. "You need to move."

"Quinn's getting deleted."

"Quinn's flagged for cleanup. You can't stop a system purge."

I look down again. Quinn's still stuck there, one foot forward, face calm like he's just walking to the market or something. He told me last loop that he stopped counting resets after two hundred. He told me he doesn't remember what his real name was.

And now the game's decided he's clutter.

"There's a terminal," I say. My throat's dry. I don't know why.