The ground did not shake this time.
It folded.
Beneath the Grove, beyond roots and relics, where truth met paradox and language collapsed under its own legacy, a seam unstitched itself.
And from that fault line, they emerged.
The Contradictions Made Flesh.
Narratives that had been told two ways and never reconciled. Protagonists who were both savior and saboteur. Arcs that looped, then ended in cliffhangers, then picked up again in genres they didn't begin in.
They were paradoxes—not mistakes.
One bore a sword inscribed with both "Villain" and "Healer" down the blade. Another wore a cloak that shimmered between hyper-realism and fairy tale. A child arrived trailing a shadow that argued with her every move.
> "We were told we couldn't be both," they said. "So we became more."
The Grove did not ask them to resolve.
It simply opened, making room for stories that contradicted themselves and still mattered.
---
The Canonbreakers
