The Inverted Pillars

The Shedding Climbs

Senshi woke to the taste of copper and the biting cold of the Abyss

He was still lying on the woven root-fiber deck of the training platform his cheek pressed against the rough pulsing bark of Pillar Three The ambient light of the Cracks had shifted the gloom deepening into the bruised purple of the artificial twilight cycle His body ached with a profound leaden exhaustion every muscle fiber feeling as though it had been wrung out like a wet rag

But it was the cold dense marble of his Faridah sitting in the hollow of his sternum that truly grounded him It was still there Compressed Whispering

Himari was sitting cross-legged a few feet away sharpening a curved bone-knife with a whetstone The rhythmic shhhk-shhhk of the blade was the only sound over the low keening of the wind

You were under for three hours she said without looking up Your breathing slowed to match the Root's tectonic pulse I thought about waking you but Mirova said to let the wood finish its conversation with you

Senshi pushed himself up into a sitting position rubbing his face His fingers came away smeared with dried blood from his nose It wasn't just a conversation he rasped his throat feeling like it was lined with sandpaper I was inside it In the dreamscape The sap the fibers... it all formed into her Into my mother

Himari stopped sharpening the knife She looked at him her mismatched eyes unreadable in the dim light The Pulse can project memories when a mind is deeply synced especially for a newly awakened Catalyst The Root felt your grief and it gave it a shape you could understand

It spoke to me Senshi said the memory of the voice sending a shiver down his spine It used her voice Her exact cadence But it wasn't her Himari It was the wood It said... it said The wood is so very hungry

Himari’s jaw tightened She sheathed the knife and stood up offering him a hand Then the wood is telling you the truth Come on We need to get back to the hub Mirova received a scout report while you were sleeping and the mood in the settlement has changed

Senshi took her hand and pulled himself up His legs were shaky but the dense marble of his Faridah kept him grounded a heavy anchor in the swirling vertigo of the Abyss They packed away the training gear in silence and boarded the woven skiff

As Himari navigated them back through the narrow shadow-draped corridors of the Cracks Senshi looked out into the gloom The colossal trunks of the Gravity Roots loomed on either side their bark scarred and weeping golden sap He felt a profound sense of isolation He was a boy who carried a bomb in his chest riding a boat through the graveyard of the world heading toward a sanctuary of ghosts

When they docked at the Crow Collective’s main hub the atmosphere was entirely different from when they had left

The usual hum of organized industry was gone In its place was a tight coiled tension The merchants had stopped their inventorying The sparring soldiers were gathered in tight circles speaking in hushed urgent tones The glow-moss lanterns seemed to burn a little dimmer casting long anxious shadows across the wooden platforms

Himari led him straight to the central command knot pushing past the heavy curtain of moss

Inside Mirova was standing over a large flat table Spread across the wood was a massive highly detailed schematic of Pillar Seven drawn on cured kelp-parchment Standing opposite her was a scout named Kaelen Kaelen was a Returned the left side of his face was heavily scarred by frostbite and his left arm was entirely translucent shimmering with a faint silvery light—the physical mark of a Faridah of Reach that had partially unmade him before he died

You're awake Mirova said her blind eyes turning toward Senshi as he entered Good You need to hear this

Kaelen tapped a long charcoal-smudged finger on the schematic right in the middle of the mid-tier maintenance sectors of Pillar Seven

The Shedding is still ascending Kaelen reported his voice a low gravelly rasp It bypassed the lowest platforms entirely It didn't drift and it didn't get caught in the thermal updrafts It’s moving through the internal maintenance shafts It’s currently in Sector Four-G moving vertically through the ventilation grates

Senshi stared at the map Sector Four-G was less than a mile from the Underbelly It's climbing he whispered It's actually climbing inside the city

Not just climbing Mirova corrected gently Navigating A newly formed Shedding is a creature of pure unfiltered instinct They drift They echo They repeat the last moments of their death But this entity is moving with deliberate tactical purpose It’s avoiding the Root Guard patrol routes It’s slipping through the micro-fissures in the bulkheads It knows the layout of the Pillar

Himari crossed her arms her silver eye reflecting the dim light of the lanterns A Shedding that climbs is a rare phenomenon The Council’s archives only have three recorded instances in the last two centuries But a Shedding that climbs with purpose that navigates the internal architecture of a Pillar That is almost unheard of It means the memory has solidified into a singular overriding objective

Senshi felt a cold knot tighten in his stomach An objective What objective It’s just an echo It’s just my mother’s memory peeling away

Memory is not passive Senshi Mirova said her voice carrying the weight of centuries When a soul hits the Edge and sheds the memories that are heaviest the ones most saturated with unresolved meaning become the gravity of the Shedding They pull it They guide it

Himari stepped forward placing her hands flat on the table She looked directly at Senshi her mismatched eyes locking onto his with a terrifying unflinching intensity

It’s not just climbing Senshi Himari said softly It’s looking for you

The words hung in the damp air of the command knot heavy and suffocating

Senshi stared at her his mind struggling to process the implication Looking for me Why I’m down here I’m in the Cracks How does it even know where I am

It doesn't know where you are geographically Mirova explained her wooden fingers tapping a slow rhythm on the table It knows where you are resonantly You are its Catalyst You are the one who pushed it over the Edge Your Faridah of Collapse is tethered to its existence It can feel the dense marble in your chest It is following the frequency of your grief

Senshi took a step back his breath catching The hook of his reality snagged and tore The thing wearing his mother's face was following him It was crawling through the ventilation shafts of the city he had been thrown out of slipping past the armed guards driven by an unstoppable supernatural compass pointing directly at his heart

And nobody in the room would tell him what that meant

What happens when it finds me Senshi asked his voice trembling Does it attack me Does it try to merge with me What does a Shedding do when it catches its Catalyst

Himari looked away her jaw tightening Mirova returned her gaze to the map her expression unreadable Kaelen shifted uncomfortably his translucent arm flickering in the dim light

The silence was deafening It was a silence born of ignorance or worse a silence born of a truth they didn't want to speak

We don't know Kaelen finally muttered looking at the floor The old texts... they don't have an answer for this A Shedding seeking out its living catalyst breaks the natural order It’s not supposed to happen

It’s looking for you Himari repeated her voice softer now almost apologetic But whether it wants to warn you consume you or deliver a message from the other side... we cannot say We only know that it is coming

Senshi closed his eyes The dense marble of his Faridah pulsed in his chest a cold heavy reminder of his isolation He was being hunted by a ghost that loved him or hated him or simply needed him to complete some cosmic equation he didn't understand

Before he could open his mouth to argue to demand answers or to simply scream at the unfairness of it all the ambient Pulse in the room violently spiked

The warm golden-green glow of the glow-moss lanterns instantly snapped to a sickly blinding crimson The deep tectonic thrum of the Roots was overridden by a sharp high-pitched frequency that made Senshi’s teeth ache

It was the perimeter alarm

The heavy moss curtain of the command knot was violently shoved aside Another scout a young woman with both eyes entirely black stumbled into the room She was breathing hard her leather cloak soaked in condensation and smelling of burnt ozone

Cache Four is burning she gasped leaning against the doorframe

Himari’s head snapped up Burning Cache Four is deep in the Crack between Pillar Three and Five It’s shielded by three layers of woven root-fiber and sap-scramblers Root Guard sensors shouldn't even be able to see it let alone reach it

They reached it the scout panted wiping sweat from her forehead A heavily armed Root Guard patrol They didn't just stumble upon it They went straight to it They’re tearing the platform apart looking for the ledger

Mirova’s blind eyes widened How The scramblers mask our thermal and acoustic signatures The wood itself hides the physical structure There is no way a patrol could have found it by accident

The scout looked up her black eyes wide with a terror that had nothing to do with the Guards

They didn't find it by accident she whispered her voice trembling They had exact coordinates They breached the outer seal in less than a minute Someone tipped them off Someone told them exactly where to look

The crimson light of the alarm pulsed across their faces casting them in the color of blood

The sanctuary of the Cracks was compromised There was a traitor among the dead