ere was no path through the forest.
Only bones.
Twisted roots. Shattered leaves. Trees with bark like black glass and veins like memory. Caelan walked through the Weave-dead woods not as a boy, not as a killer—but as something between.
And behind his eyes…
Something else woke up.
Not a voice.Not an echo.Not her.Not his mother.Not the Ashweave.
It didn't have a name.
Only hunger.
It didn't whisper.
It scraped.Like teeth against iron.Like stone trying to scream.
"The fracture opens," it said."You broke the seal, little heir. You weaved wrong. You weaved too deep."
Caelan dropped to one knee. Clutched his skull.
"No. No—get out—"
But it wasn't in his head.It was deeper than thought.It was threaded into the Ashweave itself—a pattern so ancient it remembered when stars were young.
He hadn't cast a spell during the ambush.
He had fed it.
It had tasted his fear.
The Veil flickered.
‹ Eclipsed Veil ›
Warning: Intrusion DetectedEntity: [Redacted] — Bound Below the Ninth ThreadSoul Fracture Status: Overlap InitiatedRisk Level: Immutable
"What… are you?"Caelan didn't speak it.The question bled from his soul.
The response came without words.
It showed him a memory that wasn't his.
A war waged in silence.A throne carved from eclipse-shadow.And seven who were born to stop it——or continue it.
Caelan tried to resist.
He bit his lip. Drew blood. Ground his palm into the soil.
"You're not me."
"I AM THE FIRST THREAD," it answered."I AM THE FIRE THAT FORGOT ITS NAME."
And Caelan believed it.
Because the forest was breathing now.
And the Weave-dead land?It wasn't dead.It was asleep.
He stood.
Unsteady. Shivering. But something inside was shifting.
Not surrender. Not possession.
But...Bargain.
The entity didn't want his body.
It didn't care about his heart.
It wanted something deeper.
The Throne.
The war that comes after.
The choice he hasn't made yet.
"I won't be your vessel," Caelan whispered.
"You already are," it said gently."But I will wait. Because the others are waking. And one of them will say yes."
And then—
Silence.
The presence retreated.
But not far.
Never far.
Caelan exhaled. Looked at his hands.
Still his. Still human.
But the next time he reached into the Ashweave?
It would reach back.
‹ Eclipsed Veil ›
Thread Control — 33Willpower — 23Ashweave Affinity: [Primordial Link — Dormant]Warning: First Thread Contact — Memory Imprint StoredNew Trait Unlocked: "Waking Core" (Suppressed)Resonance Instability: +12%
The Weave is no longer silent.