The rooftop was silent.Too silent.Snowly stood in the ruins,broken concrete, scorch marks, ice shards,and stared at the empty air where Tom had been suspended moments ago.“Tom” Snowly whispered, voice thin and cracking. “Please answer me.”Nothing.Not even an echo.Just the faint hum of the dying city lights below.The Void Wraith twitched, half regenerated, dragging itself upright with a wet, crackling hiss. Its molten gold sockets scanned the rooftop.“,THREAD BEARER LOST,”Snowly’s head snapped toward it, eyes glowing with a cold that could freeze the sun.“Say his name again,” Snowly growled, “and I end whatever passes for your existence.”The Wraith paused, as if truly evaluating the animal in front of it for the first time.“THE BOY HAS TRANSITIONED,”Snowly stiffened. “Meaning what?”The Wraith tilted its broken head.“ASCENSION DOES NOT KILL. IT DISPLACES,”Snowly’s heart lurched. “Displaces? Displaces WHERE?!”The Wraith opened its skeletal palm.Inside it lay a faint silver emb

The night pressed in like a suffocating shroud. Even Snowly, usually calm, paced tight circles around Tom as they approached the shattered ridge that locals simply called The Veil. Beyond it waited the one thing the Oracle assured them they would eventually face, the Unmaking.Tom paused, palm resting on the jagged stone.“Snowly, why does this place feel like my bones are humming?”Snowly’s ears lowered. “Because this is where your mother first defied her fate.”His voice was soft but carried a trembling weight Tom wasn’t used to hearing.Tom froze. “You knew she came here?”I knew she tried to seal what sleeps beyond this veil. “And she failed.”That’s why you were born with only one ordinary eye and one tethered to the ancient system.” Your mother broke a rule that can’t be unbroken.”Tom exhaled slowly,fear, confusion, and pressure knotting his chest. “Snowly,what broke through?”Before Snowly could answer, the ground cracked.A long, jagged fissure tore through the earth, splitting

The moment the white thread turned black, Tom felt something tear inside his chest as if his very fate had been yanked in two directions at once.He staggered backward, clutching his wrist.“S,Snowly what’s happening to me?!”Snowly slammed into Tom’s side, knocking him away from the Loom just as a wave of dark energy erupted from it.“Gabby’s corrupted your destiny thread! We need to sever it before”Before what?Snowly didn’t finish the sentence.Because the thread around Tom’s wrist pulsed again not white, not black but a swirling storm of both.Gabby laughed softly from across the clearing. “Oh Tom, this is beautiful.”He combed his fingers through his corrupted thread, admiring it like jewelry. “The Loom is giving you a new fate. One that’s unstable. Vulnerable.”Tom’s breath caught. “Gabby, why? What do you gain”Gabby smirked.“Everything, The Sovereign System doesn’t need you alive. It needs you broken.”Snowly lunged at Gabby with a snarl but Gabby lifted a finger.A single black g

Snow mist curled around Tom’s boots as he followed the narrow stone corridor downward.The temperature dropped sharply,cold enough to bite. Snowly padded beside him, hackles raised, ears twisting as though catching sounds Tom couldn’t hear.Aelor walked ahead,torchlight flickering across ancient carvings etched into the walls.Tom broke the silence first. “Why does this place feel like it’s watching me?”Aelor didn’t turn.“Because it is.This is the Hall of Warden Echoes. Your mother’s ancestors. They remain aware.”Tom stopped. “Aelor, just tell me the truth. Why did they choose me?” I was born with one eye that everyone thought was cursed. Why would the Wardens pick someone so, “so human?” Aelor finally faced him. “Because the Wardens weren’t gods, Tom. They were people. People who came from impossible pain. Your eye wasn’t a curse. It was their invitation.”Snowly barked once, sharply, as if to confirm it.Tom swallowed. “Then what’s waiting for me inside that door?”Aelor’s express

The creature’s claw sliced through the air sharp enough to shear stone.Tom barely twisted aside.The claw missed his throat by inches,cutting a deep gouge into the wall. Dust exploded around them. Snowly leapt in front of Tom instantly, growling with a fury Tom had never heard before.Aelor shouted, “Tom! Don’t let it touch you Warden Scourges drain spirit directly!”Tom steadied himself, breath shaking.“What is it doing here? It was inside the Warden Chamber. How did it follow me?”Aelor’s face twisted with dread.“Because you awakened the Origin Thread prematurely! You opened a path you weren’t supposed to!”The creature turned its hollow face toward Tom. Its voice was a chorus of whispers,layered and ancient:“HEIR YOU HAVE TAKEN WHAT IS NOT YOURS. RETURN THE THREAD.”Tom glared back. “I won’t.”The Scourge shrieked a sound like metal ripping through bone.Snowly lunged first.Snowly’s jaws clamped onto the creature’s arm.Silver mist hissed from the wound, but the Scourge didn’t flin