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[Exterior: Vael'Thara Skydocks — sunrise. But something is wrong. The sun rises too quickly. Its light bends at impossible angles. Shadows move against the grain.]
[Interior: Watchtower 7, high above the trading hub. A Zephyrite scout adjusts his lenses. Then freezes.]
Scout (into speaker-stone):
"Dawn came… but the stars didn't fade."
(Pause)
"Captain, the sky's... reflecting us."
---
[Interior: Starwake — bridge. Sylrae stares at live projection feeds. Ships begin drifting in confused patterns. Aether currents twist. One vessel turns upside-down mid-flight—then implodes silently.]
Thane (tapping frantic notes):
"They've inverted the flow of the upper skies. It's not weather—it's possession. The Bound are rewriting physics."
Sylrae (coldly):
"False dawn. A mirror sky… they're using the light itself as a carrier wave."
Corsair Captain Venn (from comm-stone):
> "We've got helmsmen hallucinating. One swore he saw Kaelen flying next to him. Another just walked off the deck into open air."
Thane (grim):
"They're not attacking our bodies. They're trying to overwrite our sense of reality."
---
[Interior: Sanctum of the Sky-Marked — an Aetherian sanctuary. High Priestess Callaih kneels before a wind-glass altar. The reflection doesn't match her movements.]
Callaih:
"I see you, shadowborn. You wear our memories like skins."
Bound-Callaih (in the glass):
> "And soon, we'll wear your truths. One by one. Until the sky forgets what it was ever for."
---
[Interior: Starwake, lower levels. Emergency lighting only. Sylrae walks alone, hand on blade. The lights flicker—then freeze. A figure steps from the corridor wall. Kaelen. Or something wearing him.]
Bound-Kaelen (softly):
"You miss me."
Sylrae (steady):
"You're not him."
Bound-Kaelen:
> "But I remember how he touched you. How he hated himself for leaving. I know where he broke. I know what you whispered when he couldn't hear."
Sylrae:
"And I know how to kill memories when they turn rabid."
[She fires aether-bolts point-blank. The illusion flickers. Behind it: a crawling, shadowy mass with a dozen partial faces. It screams without sound.]
---
[Bridge — alarms blare. Myrrenox appears outside, wings spread across half the horizon. It bellows a warning in storm-tongue.]
Myrrenox (telepathic):
> "They breach the veil. The next seal weakens.
If it breaks… they won't need dreams. They'll become the sky."
Sylrae (turning to Thane):
"Then we end this. Next chapter—next vault. Where the oldest lie still sleeps."
---
End of Chapter Nineteen