Chapter 32: Verge of Revelation
BOOM.
The shockwave hurled them all backward.
Kade slammed into the Verge-chamber's wall, the impact nearly knocking him out. But he forced his eyes open—he had to see it.
The Vergegate had opened.
But not like a door.
It cracked.
Like a mirror holding back a nightmare.
Reality screamed.
The world around the gate was warping—threads of time twisted into spirals, colors bled from the walls, and voices echoed from nowhere, whispering truths and lies with the same tongue.
"Kade…" Caela crawled toward him, gripping his shoulder. "Are you okay?"
He looked at her—and in her face, he saw a dozen other versions of her. In one, she had no eyes. In another, she was holding a broken blade. In another… she was dead.
"What is this?" he gasped.
Ryn stood perfectly still. "This is the Rift Realm. The space between timelines. The place where erased things go to die—or to remember."
Aurelle cursed, pulling out a glyph. "We can't stay here long. This place devours identities."
Lira's face twisted. "Then why open it?!"
"Because," Ryn said, walking toward the cracking gate, "the answers are inside. And if Kade wants to break the chain, he has to remember what the Citadel stole."
The gate cracked again.
And this time—it showed him.
---
FLASH.
A house on fire.
A woman screaming his name.
A boy crying in a closet, clutching a broken pocket watch.
A man with silver eyes whispering, "Don't let them find the Loom inside you."
---
Kade stumbled back, gasping.
"That was… my family."
Aurelle's voice was hushed. "The Citadel wiped them out. Then erased all traces they ever existed."
Kade trembled. "But why?"
Ryn's voice was low. "Because you're not just a Veilborn. You were supposed to be a Threadbearer—someone who could rewrite timelines."
"Threadbearer?" Caela echoed.
Lira's eyes widened. "But those were destroyed centuries ago."
Ryn turned. "Or so the Citadel claimed. But they missed one."
She looked at Kade.
"You."
---
Citadel—Upper Loom Chamber
Volen stared at the Loom. It pulsed erratically.
"Something's happening," a Threadweaver reported. "The Loom is rejecting us. Something ancient is reactivating beneath the Verge."
Volen's expression darkened.
"So the Threadbearer awakens…"
He pressed a rune on his gauntlet.
"All units. Initiate Temporal Lockdown. Purge Sector 7 and prepare for full Veil Collapse."
---
Back in the Rift Realm…
The Vergegate shattered.
And beyond it… was a staircase, floating in the void, spiraling upward into an ocean of stars.
Ryn turned to Kade.
"This is the Verge Path. At its end lies the Loom's Heart."
Aurelle grabbed her sword. "And likely every trap the Citadel ever laid."
Kade clenched his fists. "Then we walk."
They stepped onto the stairs.
One by one, their footprints echoed in every direction.
And somewhere, deep within the stars—
something stirred.
---
The staircase twisted through the void like a serpent made of stars.
Each step pulsed with eerie light, shifting underfoot—not from instability, but from the memories embedded in the stone. They weren't just walking a path…
They were walking through forgotten time.
Kade paused on one step—an image flickered beneath his boot.
It was him, much younger, standing beside a man with silver eyes.
"Do not run from the Loom inside you, Kade," the man said. "Run toward it. Or you'll never be free."
The image faded.
Kade's fingers clenched into fists.
"What was that?" Caela whispered behind him.
"The Verge Path," Ryn answered. "Each step shows a memory stripped from the Threadbearer. Some aren't even yours anymore. They belong to lives the Citadel erased."
"Then how do we know what's real?" Aurelle asked, eyes darting.
"You don't," Ryn said flatly. "That's part of the trial."
They kept walking. The steps spiraled tighter, gravity inverting and time flickering like a dying lightbulb.
Lira pulled a thin blade from her boot. "I don't like this. We're being watched."
Caela spun. "By who?"
Ryn stopped.
"Not who. What."
---
Meanwhile, outside the Rift Realm…
Citadel agents moved like shadows.
Temporal Paladins descended into Sector 7. Their armor flickered between seconds, phasing in and out of linear time.
Commander Verin—Volen's right hand—watched the Rift tremble.
"The gate's unstable. If they reach the Loom's Heart, we lose the Lock."
Volen's voice buzzed through his earpiece.
"Then collapse the Verge Path."
"But—" Verin began.
"Do it."
---
Back in the Rift…
The staircase trembled.
Kade dropped to one knee as the stars above them screamed.
"What's happening?!" Caela shouted.
"They're trying to collapse the path!" Ryn yelled.
Aurelle drew her twin blades, slashing a glyph into the air. "I'll hold it! Kade, keep moving!"
"No," he said. "Not without you."
She met his eyes, fierce. "You're the Threadbearer. I'm just a sword."
"You're my sword," he growled.
Lira fired a flare into the void—it exploded, revealing a black storm of Citadel phantoms racing up the steps.
"Too late," she muttered. "They found us."
---
The Battle on the Staircase Began.
Temporal Phantoms lunged—shapes made of broken time and failed lives, bound to the Citadel's will.
Ryn's aura flared, casting radiant shields over them.
Lira fired. Caela stabbed. Aurelle danced through them like a whisper of steel.
And Kade—
Kade's mark burned.
The spiral scar on his palm flared with golden light.
A thread unspooled from it, glowing with memory.
And when he slashed with it—
Time bent.
The phantom he struck unraveled—not just its body, but its entire existence. Its death echoed backward, erasing every second it had ever lived.
The others paused.
Then screamed.
Ryn's eyes widened. "You used the Loom."
Kade was panting. "I didn't even know how—"
"You don't," she said. "But it knows you."
The staircase shuddered.
"GO!" Lira screamed. "We'll cover you!"
"But—!"
"MOVE, KADE!"
He ran.
And as he sprinted up the spiraling path, threads bursting beneath his feet, he heard the Citadel's voice again.
Volen.
"You were never meant to be found."
And Kade screamed back—
"Then you should've buried me deeper."
---