Home / Sci-Fi / The Archivists of Aftertime / Chapter 40: Jacob's Fragments
Chapter 40: Jacob's Fragments
Author: Clare Felix
last update2025-07-31 07:55:20

Jacob leaned against the wall in the silence of the chamber of the archives, shaking hands trying to collect what was left of himself. Time was no longer linear—leastways, not for him. The world spun on a different axis in his mind, shattered and reassembled in a mad kaleidoscope.

He blinked. An hour. Maybe two. A recollection of his youth garden, slick with blood, unwound before his eyes—the lemon tree, the broken birdbath, the shriek of cicadas. But not real. Not all of it. Not his. One of the other Jacobs had added it into the communal stream.

"You're late," a voice said from behind him. Jacob turned around, recognizing the stride and face but not the current iteration of himself. Younger Jacob, around twenty-one, the version that had promised he would never trust Mnēma again.

"Am I?" Jacob answered, weary.

"You lost control again. I had to intervene. We almost sent an assault request to the Council. Do you want to get us killed?"

Jacob closed his eyes. Inside, dozens of duplicates
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