The world returned in pieces.
Not all at once—just fragments. Color. Smell. Weight.
Kael felt grass beneath his boots first, damp and uneven. Then the wind brushed his cheek. Distant birdsong came next—broken, hesitant, like it wasn't sure it belonged.
And finally, the pull.
Thin. Itching. Like spider silk brushing the edge of his thoughts.
He opened his eyes.
A forest stretched before them, old and uneven. Moss clung to gnarled roots. Broken stones lay half-swallowed by time. Whatever road had once passed through here had long since been claimed by silence.
But the threads were back.
Faint. Distant. Like veins beneath old skin.
Kael's Loom Interface shimmered into view, flickering as it stabilized.
[Partial Weave Signal Detected]
[Location: Unbound Territory]
[Fate Anchors Nearby: Weak – No Active Surveillance]
He breathed in. The air tasted real again. And with it came the weight.
Of memory. Of exile. Of what he'd done.
Elira stood beside him, arms folded loosely over her chest. Her bare feet hadn't left prints in the void—but here, they pressed lightly into the earth.
She shivered.
He turned. "You alright?"
She nodded slowly. "The Weave is close. I can feel it."
"Does it… try to take you?"
"No," she said. "It notices me. Then forgets me. Like a dream fading mid-sentence."
They moved through the glade in silence, their steps careful, the world watching through half-lidded eyes.
Kael opened his interface again. The Loom flared, more stable now.
His own thread had returned—silver, still frayed, still alone. But not quite wild anymore.
And something else pulsed beside it.
A shimmer. Faint. Pale blue.
[Anchor Bond: 0.5%]
[Soulshare Path Viable – Awaiting Consent Ritual]
Kael narrowed his eyes.
He hadn't agreed to anything. Neither had she.
But the bond… it felt right. Grounded. Like a tether thrown in a storm.
He didn't dismiss the message.
They found the ruins at the forest's heart.
A broken shrine of stone, split by roots and swallowed by ivy. A place no longer prayed to. Forgotten even by the threads that used to bind it.
Kael sat first, back to a fallen arch. Elira knelt by a shattered offering bowl, running her fingers through the moss inside it.
"This place," she said softly. "It's empty."
"Like you?" Kael asked without cruelty.
She smiled. "No. This place was emptied. I was never filled."
They sat there until the sun dipped low, not that Kael trusted the light anymore. Threads twisted with illusions. Even time, he knew, could lie when fate willed it.
But in that moment, the sky turned gold. The air cooled. And Elira's presence didn't press or pull—it simply was.
Kael looked toward the horizon.
Far beyond the trees, he could feel it: the tug of cities. Of soldiers. Of systems that demanded obedience.
Fate still ruled out there.
He clenched his fist.
Let it.
Because out here, something new was taking shape.
Something threadless.
And he would build it with his own hands.
[Anchor Bond: 0.7%]
[Stabilization Effect: -1% Corruption Gain per Day (Passive)]
Kael didn't see the message.
But he felt it.