"You want proof?" Eddard said, his voice steady. "Then I'll give you proof."The void was tense, the gathered guardians eyeing each other with suspicion. Aldric's revelation had sown fear and doubt among them like seeds planted in fertile soil. The quiet warrior's words echoed through the gathering place, repeating over and over in the minds of every guardian present. The Devourer has infected dozens of guardians. Dozens. They're everywhere.Kaelen had just questioned Eddard's innocence. She had asked him how they could know he wasn't infected, how they could know he wasn't leading them into a trap. And Eddard had answered with a simple declaration: he would prove his innocence."I'll submit to the same test I'm asking the others to take," Eddard said, his voice carrying through the void. "I'll let you use the sphere to probe my connection to the Weave. I'll let you search for the infection. If you find it, contain me. If you don't, trust me."The gathered guardians murmured among the

The void stretched endlessly in every direction, a churning expanse of shadow and fractured light that defied the laws of nature Eddard had once known. Here, in this place between worlds—between what was real and what the Devourer had twisted into nightmare—nothing made sense. Gravity shifted with every heartbeat. Sound arrived before its source. And the infected guardians, once noble protectors of the realm, now moved with the jerky, unnatural purpose of puppets whose strings were pulled by something ancient and cruel. Eddard ducked beneath a sweeping claw wreathed in black tendrils, the air whistling where his head had been only a fraction of a second before. He rolled, came up swinging, and his blade—still gleaming with the faint residue of the First Light—carved a shallow arc across the creature's chest. It should have been enough. In the old days, before the Devourer had sunk its teeth into the heart of the world, a strike like that would have felled any foe. But the guardian

Eddard moved through the void like a man possessed, his blade cutting arcs of silver light through the oppressive darkness. The guardians came at him from all sides—Kaelen with his horns lowered and eyes burning with borrowed malice, Sera with her claws extended and scales bristling, the twins Theron and Thalia moving in perfect, terrible harmony. They were faster than they had any right to be. Stronger. More coordinated. The Devourer's control had turned them into something more than individual warriors. It had turned them into a single, lethal organism with four bodies and one mind.But Eddard had stopped fighting them.He ducked beneath Kaelen's sweeping claws and rolled past Sera's snapping jaws. He didn't strike back. Didn't try to wound or disable. Every ounce of his energy, every fragment of his concentration, was focused on something else entirely—something he could feel but not see. The connection. The dark thread that bound the guardians to their master.It was there, woven

The seed continued to grow.It pulsed with dark energy, a writhing mass of shadow that had no right to exist in any world, let alone this one. Eddard watched in mounting horror as it expanded, tendrils of darkness reaching out like grasping fingers, searching for something—anything—to latch onto. It had been cut from Kaelen's soul only moments ago, but already it was thriving, feeding on the void itself, growing stronger with every passing second.Destroying it would not be enough. Eddard understood that now. The seed had to be contained. If it escaped, it would find a new host—and there was no telling what it might become."We need to act fast," he said, raising his blade. "Before it gets any bigger.""Eddard, wait—" Arya's voice was urgent, but he was already moving.He brought his blade down on the seed, channeling his spark through the glowing steel. The light struck the darkness, and for a moment, Eddard thought he had succeeded. The seed recoiled, shrinking back, its tendrils wi

Eddard's blade sang through the darkness, severing another thread, and Theron screamed as the infection fought back. The guardian's body arched violently, his claws raking against the void-floor, his eyes rolling back in his head. The dark threads within him writhed and twisted, lashing out with desperate fury, trying to maintain their grip on his soul.Arya was beside him—not physically, but spiritually, her presence a constant warmth in the cold void. But that warmth was fading. Eddard could feel it. With every seed she absorbed, a little more of her light was extinguished. With every thread he severed, a little more of her strength drained away.The resonance field flickered.It was weaker than before—unstable, wavering like a candle in a storm. Arya was struggling to maintain it, her consciousness fraying at the edges, and Eddard could feel the seeds within her pulsing with malevolent satisfaction. They were winning. Slowly, inexorably, they were consuming her from within."Hold o