Limbus RE:CODE

The Watcher's Offer (2)

Swan stands frozen for a full minute, processing. His cheek still tingles where Lilith touched him. The data pad remains on the bench, screen dark, that lipstick mark like a brand.

He shouldn't touch it. Knows he shouldn't. But his hand moves anyway, picks it up. The screen activates at his touch, displaying a single line of text:

When you're ready to learn, find me in the spaces between authorized and forbidden. —L

Below it, a location marker. Not coordinates, but a conceptual address—a place that exists in the Institute's architecture but not on any map. Swan's code-sight activates briefly, and he sees the pathway, the route, the method of access.

Then the text deletes itself. The data pad's screen goes dark permanently, its systems shutting down in a cascade of controlled failure. Within seconds, it's nothing but an inert brick of plastic and dead circuits.

Swan sets it back on the bench. Backs away like it might explode.

His mind races. Everything Lilith said felt true and false simultaneously. The offer was seductive precisely because it addressed his deepest fears—being forgotten, being helpless, losing what little he has left. But her interest felt wrong. Like being observed by something that sees him as a specimen rather than a person.

He needs to leave. Needs to find Elara. Needs—

"Swan?"

Elara's voice cuts through his spiraling thoughts. She's standing at the garden entrance, notebook clutched to her chest, eyes flickering with concern.

"I've been looking for you everywhere. Your pattern went dark for almost an hour, I thought—" She stops mid-sentence, her nose wrinkling. "What's that smell?"

"Smell?"

"Like..." Elara steps into the garden, her head tilting as she processes sensory input. "Perfume. Digital perfume. Vanilla and ozone and..." Her eyes go wide. Her face drains of color. "No. Swan, tell me you didn't—tell me she wasn't here."

"Who?"

"Lilith." Elara's voice drops to a whisper, like speaking the name too loudly might summon her back. "The Watcher. The Collector. She's been around the Institute for years, longer than any student should be. She finds Recoded individuals when they're vulnerable and makes them offers they can't refuse. Promises of power, control, understanding."

"She said she could help. Said she could teach me to manage the cost."

"And what did she want in return?" Elara's hands shake. She sets her notebook down, touches her bracelets in rapid sequence—grounding, centering. "What did she ask for?"

"Information. Access. Nothing specific."

"That's how she works." Elara's voice is bitter. "Vague promises, nebulous prices. You don't realize you've sold yourself until the debt comes due. I knew someone—" She stops, swallows hard. "I knew someone who took her offer. A Recoded kid, brilliant, scared, desperate for control. Lilith taught him everything. How to see the code, manipulate it, exist outside the system's reach."

"What happened to him?"

"He disappeared. Not erased. Not debugged. Just... gone. His pattern vanished from all observable reality. But sometimes, late at night, you can still feel him in the substrate. A presence without form. A consciousness without body. Working for her. Forever."

Swan thinks about the cold electrical touch of Lilith's finger. The way his code clung to her skin like it recognized her authority.

"She knew things," he says quietly. "About the erasure timeline. About Daemon protocols being activated. About... about you."

Elara's expression goes carefully neutral. "What about me?"

"She said you're dying. Six months, maybe less. That the contradictions are going to collapse your neural architecture."

For a long moment, Elara doesn't respond. Just stands there, touching her bracelets, blood beginning to trickle from her nose again.

"That's probably true," she finally says. Her voice is small, tired. "I've known for a while. Felt it getting worse. The stacking memories, the contradictions—they're not sustainable. Eventually my brain will fail trying to hold all the conflicting realities at once."

"Elara—"

"But I'd rather die being myself than survive as something she owns." Elara meets his eyes. "Whatever Lilith promised you, it's not worth the price. Trust me. Trust everyone who's ever warned you away from her. She doesn't save people, Swan. She collects them."

Swan looks at the dead data pad on the bench. At the circuit-vines reorganized into geometric precision. At the lingering sense of being watched, measured, valued.

"I didn't agree to anything," he says.

"Good." Elara picks up her notebook, clutches it like a shield. "Keep it that way. There are other ways to survive. Harder ways, maybe. But at least you'll still be you at the end of them."

She reaches out, takes his hand. Her fingers are cold, trembling, but solid. Real. Not calculating or manipulative—just desperate for connection.

"Come on," she says. "Ash and Cipher are waiting at Static Grounds. We're going to start your actual training. The kind that doesn't come with invisible chains."

Swan lets her lead him out of the Virtual Garden. But as they leave, he can't shake the feeling of being observed. Can't forget the promise implicit in Lilith's words.

When you're ready.

Not if. When.

Like his acceptance is inevitable. Like she can afford to wait.

Behind them, unnoticed, a single circuit-vine reorganizes itself into a pattern that might be letters, might be symbols, might be nothing but random noise.

Or might be a reminder that the Watcher is always watching.