Chapter 17: The Collective Veil
The reset hit like a wave slamming into Kael's chest—cold, swift, inevitable.
His breath caught as the world shimmered, then snapped back into cruel familiarity: Moonfall's cliffs loomed once more under the violet shroud of the rift-moon. The eerie glow draped the town like a funeral veil, casting the waters below in shades of bruised purple and dying starlight. The hum from the drowned cave echoed faintly, but incessantly—an ominous, ceaseless drumbeat thrumming in the marrow of his bones.
Kael blinked against the dizziness that always came with the reset, disoriented but grounded by the familiar sting of failure. Again. Time had turned, twisted at his will, but the cost grew heavier each cycle.
Down on the rocky shore, Gavyn hauled in his fishing net with practiced ease, oblivious to the abyss clawing at the edges of reality. Up near the market, Lysa counted her coins beneath the broken canopy of her stall, lips pursed, brow furrowed—calculating as always. Near the old sycamore, Maraen stood silent, clutching the silver locket that never left her throat, eyes glassy with grief as she watched the waves.
All of them. Alive again. Reset. The runes had surged, and with their cold grip had pulled Moonfall backward.
"One day," Kael murmured to himself, knuckles tightening around the edge of his cloak. "Only one day left."
The Moonweaver's whisper still echoed inside his skull, delicate as silk and sharp as shattered glass—"Soon…"
It wasn't just a warning. It was a promise.
The shrine remained sealed beneath the waterlogged stones of the drowned cave, but Kael felt it—an undeniable tug. The threads were tightening, pulling the entire town together into something monstrous. Moonfall was no longer dreaming its own dreams. The Moonweaver had started to weave them into one.
He moved quickly.
First, the docks.
"Gavyn!" Kael's voice rang across the misty harbor, drawing the fisherman's attention. The burly man looked up, hand still wrapped around the net, sea-slick strands glinting in the violet moonlight.
"Kael?" Gavyn frowned, dropping the net as he stepped closer. "What is it now?"
Kael's rune-threaded cloak fluttered as he stepped forward. "The tide's changing. Tonight's it. We don't have another chance."
The older man's gaze flicked toward the horizon, where the sea had begun to churn in unnatural rhythms. He spat into the water.
"Felt it," Gavyn muttered, voice rough like gravel dragged across wet wood. "Tide's been fighting itself all day. Dragging us down, same as before." His grip tightened on the haft of his spear. "I'm not sinking again."
Next, the market.
Lysa's eyes flicked up the moment she heard his boots crunch on the gravel. She pocketed a coin with a practiced flick, arms crossing beneath her tattered cloak.
"Let me guess," she said, tone dry as old parchment. "Another dream, another disaster, another last chance."
Kael didn't smile. "Not a dream this time. This is it."
Her eyes sharpened, the game falling away. "How bad?"
"The threads are calling everyone in," Kael said. "It's happening tonight. If we don't break it, Moonfall ends—completely."
Lysa's fingers brushed her belt where dozens of enchanted coins hung like charms. She exhaled through her nose, muttering, "Tried to buy me silent, once. Thought I could walk away." Her jaw clenched. "I owe it a reckoning."
Last, the cottage.
Maraen was already waiting. She turned toward him as he approached, her expression calm, sorrow-drenched. The locket at her throat glowed faintly with the same soft pulse it had carried since her brother Torm disappeared beneath the tide.
"I felt him," she said softly before Kael could speak. "Last night. In the dream."
Kael nodded. "It's not a dream anymore."
Her hand curled around the locket. "Then it's time. Torm's ghost won't rest until this ends."
Together, they faced the cliffs, where the sea howled louder now beneath the warped stare of the rift-moon. Its light seemed thicker tonight, almost solid, warping the horizon into an ocean of tremors and glass.
Kael's runes sparked faintly as he turned to his allies. "The cave's next. It's pulling everything in. We stop it tonight—or we all vanish into it."
Gavyn grunted. "Lead on, lad. Let's finish this."
The cliff path stretched westward, narrow and slick with sea-spray. Wind howled like a chorus of lost souls, carrying whispers from the abyss. The rift-moon's hum grew stronger with every step, vibrating through their boots, echoing in their bones.
Then they saw it.
The drowned cave yawned before them like the gaping mouth of some ancient leviathan, half-submerged and rimmed in pale runes that shimmered with pulsing violet. Water lapped at the threshold, and beneath it, a faint glow from within—the shrine's seal.
Kael's dagger slid free, rune-carved blade singing softly as it tasted the air. The runes across his arms flared, matching the tempo of the cave's heartbeat.
"Let's move," he said.
They waded in, boots sloshing through icy water that rose past their shins. The cave swallowed them whole, and the night outside died behind them.
The chamber opened with a sickening breath.
At its heart, the rift pulsed like a living wound, its threads weaving a shimmering veil over the shrine. The air was thick—sour with rot, damp with ancient grief. The walls sweated darkness. And the voices…
Moonfall's voices.
They echoed from every surface, twisting and mingling. Gavyn's low muttering. Lysa's sharp laughter. Maraen's soft cries. Torm's screams. Children's songs. Bargains whispered. Warnings ignored. The town's collective soul had been caught and woven into a nightmare.
Then the threads shifted.
From the rift's veil emerged tendrils of shadow-thread, writhing with spectral faces—villagers, friends, family—eyes wide, mouths open, screams caught in eternal silence.
Lysa froze. "Gods…" she whispered, stepping back as her coins clinked. "It's all of them. Every damn soul."
"They're netting us," Maraen breathed. Her locket glowed, casting trembling light on the swirling horror. "Tying us together. Like fish before slaughter."
"Then we cut it loose," Gavyn snarled, spear flashing. "Kael—lead the charge!"
Kael raised his blade high, runes blazing like stars born in a storm. "Stay close. We end this."
And he dove in.
The cave exploded into chaos.
Tendrils lashed like a hurricane of knives, each swipe a screaming blur. Kael twisted—Thread Step: Phantom Drift!—his body warping into afterimages, light trailing in his wake as shadow-blades cracked stone and water surged. He retaliated—Thread Dance: Razor Weave!—a flurry of cutting arcs bursting from his blade, slicing the shadow-thread into ribbons of screeching light.
The rift screamed.
Its tendrils merged, swelling into a single abomination—a towering colossus of fused faces, a grotesque titan of memory and despair. Its limbs coiled with rift-flame, the stench of burning dreams searing the air.
A whisper boomed through the chamber—"Kael…"—then roared—"Join us…"
It struck.
Kael leapt—Thread Step: Sky Fang!—soaring over a shadow-fist the size of a cart, which exploded into the water with bone-shaking force. Shockwaves rippled out.
"Scatter!" Kael barked.
Gavyn rolled aside, seafoam flying. "Bloody hells, it's huge!"
Lysa ducked behind a jutting rock, flicking a coin into the air. "Not taking my trade again, freak!"
Maraen held her locket high. "Torm—guide me!"
Kael hit the ground hard, then spun—Thread Wall: Vortex Shield!—a swirling barrier burst into life just in time to intercept a second shadow-fist. Violet met black, light and shadow clashing in a maelstrom.
"Hold it!" he shouted, voice frayed.
Gavyn lunged, spear leading—"Take this, you bastard!"—and drove it through a tendril, shadow-blood splashing as it shrieked.
The colossus reared back, threads flaring.
Then it cast.
A storm of rift-fire orbs rained down from above—dozens, each the size of a skull, each pulsing with devouring heat.
"Incoming!" Lysa cried, hurling a charged coin. It ignited midair—BOOM!—shattering an orb in a flash of silver and flame. "Cheap trick, huh?!"
Maraen stepped forward, her locket casting a defensive shimmer. "Back! Stay back!" Another orb crashed against it—dissipated in sparks.
Kael twirled—Thread Dance: Spiral Tempest!—a cyclone of threads surrounding him, slicing through orbs in a radiant whirlwind. "Keep it distracted!"
He dashed—Thread Step: Flicker Dash!—a blink, then another—slipping beneath the colossus's guard. His blade surged—Thread Lance: Falling Star!—a spear of condensed light firing upward, punching into its chest with a crack like splitting sky. Cracks flared outward, shadow-faces howling.
The Moonweaver's core stirred within.
Its silhouette—taller now, adorned with scythe-curved limbs—loomed inside the veil. "Soon…" it growled.
The colossus roared and swept its arms outward, conjuring a rift-wave—a tsunami of flame-shadow hurtling toward them.
Kael's runes blazed. "BRACE!"
Thread Wall: Shatter Pulse! erupted from his palms—a barrier of radiant force slamming against the wave. The collision detonated the cave in a cascade of water and fury. Kael's arms buckled. "Not… yet!"
Gavyn anchored his spear, yelling over the roar. "Tides won't take me!"
Lysa hurled a coin into the wave's heart—"EAT YOUR OWN DEAL!"—and it exploded, splintering shadows.
Maraen held her ground, locket blazing. "For TORM!"
Kael roared—Thread Pulse: Crescent Wave!—a sweeping arc of power slicing through the remnants, shearing one of the colossus's arms off in a shriek of unraveling shadow.
"Together!" Kael cried. He lunged—Thread Dance: Binding Lash!—threads fired from his blade, coiling the colossus's legs in luminous chains. "Now!"
Gavyn charged—"DOWN YOU GO!"—and drove his spear into the wound.
Lysa flipped a sharpened coin—"PAY UP!"—and it embedded in the beast's eye.
Maraen stepped forward, voice shaking but resolute—"Rest now!"—and her locket flared one last time.
Their attacks collided in a single burst of divine light.
The colossus cracked—splintered—then shattered in a cacophony of wailing voices and unraveling threads. The veil dissolved.
Kael dropped to one knee, chest heaving, blade dimmed.
"It's… done," he gasped.
"No," Maraen said, pointing.
The rift still pulsed. The whisper still lingered.
"Soon…"
Kael clenched his jaw and pressed his palm to the floor.
Thread Reset: Tide's Turn!
A surge of light. Time unraveled again.
Gavyn hauled the net. Lysa counted coins. Maraen clutched her locket.
One day. Just one.
And the threads wound tighter. The voice clearer.
"Soon…"
Kael stood. "Ready yourselves. We face the storm again."