The wind shifted.
It was subtle at first, a faint hum that tugged at the edges of the Waypoint, brushing across the glyph-stones like a whisper of approaching thunder.
Rafael stood at the edge of the ruins, eyes narrowed at the horizon where storm clouds churned with unnatural speed. Lightning danced between the clouds, silent for now, but too symmetrical to be natural.
"Ley breach incoming," he muttered.
Juno was beside him instantly, her armor barely making a sound. "From the west?"
He nodded. "It won't touch the valley yet, but something is bleeding through. This one's old. Ferocious."
Bryn joined them, still wiping sweat from her brow after morning drills. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a warrior's braid, beads of sweat tracing rivulets down her temple. Her tone was confident, but the tension in her shoulders betrayed her wariness. "I say we hit it first. Catch whatever's coming before it gets too bold."
Rafael didn't answer immediately. He traced a line in the dust with his boot, recalling the fractured ley charts from past loops and timelines. "We won't win a direct confrontation this time. We prepare. We watch. We draw it in."
From the center of camp, Mira frowned. She watched the storm, the ghost-memory of leylines threading across her sight like veins under skin. Something about the pattern tickled her sense of déjà vu.
Lira, seated beside her and inscribing a counterseal into a worn grimoire, followed her gaze. Her violet eyes narrowed, reflecting the flashes of lightning. "That's not just a breach. It's a tether."
"Tether to what?" Mira asked.
"Something older than Rafael," Lira said grimly. "Older than any of us. Maybe even older than the timelines themselves."
Mira's skin crawled.
***
By midday, the group was layered in defensive wards. Juno and Kelan had reinforced the outer perimeter with stonework and ward-pikes. Lira had constructed a cascade glyph over the camp center, a pulse-based shield that would activate the moment a Riftspawn crossed its border. Mira attuned herself to the local aether stream, becoming the group's early warning system.
Bryn walked up to Rafael as he sketched a topographical ward of the terrain on a slate book. Her boots crunched over gravel, her presence solid and warm.
"You remember how I died?" she asked without preamble, eyes scanning the unfinished glyphs.
Rafael didn't look up. "Fourteenth loop. Cinderdeep Hold. You stood your ground when the Unborn Host breached the seventh seal. Held them back long enough for Mira and Lira to escape."
Bryn let out a low whistle, placing a hand on her hip. Her build was lithe but muscular, and the old scar that ran across her jawline caught the light. "Sounds like a better death than I thought. I always figured I just got stepped on."
He finally glanced up, tired eyes meeting hers. "You bought us time. More than once. That matters."
She chuckled, but it was a soft, almost sad sound. Then pointed at the storm. "Think it's them again? The Host?"
"No," Rafael said, voice low. "This is something worse. The Host is mindless. This... this thing is watching. Choosing."
***
That night, dreams returned. But they were not memories.
Each member of the party awoke at intervals, drenched in sweat, silent, staring into the fire. Mira saw herself on a throne of bones. Juno saw a battlefield where her comrades bled from mouths stitched shut. Lira saw cities floating upside down, collapsing in on themselves like broken hourglasses.
Bryn saw herself walking through the ruins of a castle that had never existed. Her armor was cracked and scorched, and every step echoed with sorrow. Faces she didn't know, and yet somehow remembered, wept as she passed.
And Rafael saw a boy.
He stood at the heart of a ruined library. The boy looked up at him, same dark eyes, same shaggy hair, but younger. Innocent.
"Why are you still trying?" the boy asked.
"Because I have to," Rafael whispered.
"You don't," the boy replied. "You just don't know how to stop."
Rafael woke with a start. The storm was closer.
***
Dawn came like a blade. Harsh and bright. And with it, the storm finally spoke.
A single boom echoed across the valley. The glyph-stones lit up. Lira shouted, "Field breach on the outer ring!"
Lira was already moving, a sword in hand. Her braids whipped behind her as she sprinted. Kelan followed with a drawn arcblade, the air around it crackling.
From the west came the shape of the thing. Not a Riftspawn. Not a Host. Something else.
It moved like silk, towering yet elegant, its body made of cascading ribbons of voidstuff. Eyes (dozens of them), blinked open and shut across its form, each blinking with a pulse that resonated in the skull.
Mira stumbled. "That's not just watching. It's learning."
Rafael stepped forward. "Back. All of you. It's a Thread-Eater."
Lira froze. "Those are myth."
"They were," Rafael said. "Until loop three."
The creature advanced, weaving reality around it like threads of a loom. Bryn hurled her hammer. It vanished mid-air, as if swallowed by fabric.
"That was my favorite hammer," she muttered, stepping back, jaw clenched.
Juno charged and was rebuffed by an invisible wall of force. She slammed into the ground, snarling.
Time hiccuped.
Reality stuttered.
Kelan was struck and appeared two feet away with blood down his chest.
Mira screamed, trying to anchor the ley stream, but the lines were unraveling in her grasp. The cascade glyphs sputtered.
And then, Rafael stepped in.
He reached into his coat, drew a seal shard from the First Vault, and slammed it into the ground. A sphere of static burst outward, halting the creature's advance.
For now.
Everyone stared. The Thread-Eater recoiled, its ribbon-form quivering, the dozens of eyes shuttering in unison.
Bryn exhaled heavily, flexing her fingers. "Next time, I'm keeping a backup hammer."
"Next time," Rafael said, "we don't give it the chance."
They all breathed again.
***
That night, the group gathered in a silent circle. The encounter had shaken even Juno, who sat quietly sharpening her sword despite the faint tremble in her hands. Mira's hands still quivered, her gaze distant as though seeing through the weave of the world.
Lira muttered, "We're not just fixing a timeline, are we?"
Rafael looked to the storm and shook his head. "No. We're mending The Loom itself."
Juno exhaled. "What is that? A sewing machine?"
Rafael didn't answer with words. His index finger pointed to the sky far above his head. Their heads. Everyone looked at the direction without being commanded.
There they found a giant sewing machine floating in the sky. Every part of it looked so magnificent, made of transparent metal that gave off a sparkle of light.
The threads of fate (that contain storyline) weaving automatically without any pause, creeping through the sky with a very futuristic metallic glow.
"This was always the beginning," Rafael murmured.
"Shit! That thing is huge for sure!" Juno's jaw dropped, her gaze darted to The Loom.
Bryn raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "Can someone make me a new hammer? A sturdier one if I can request."
After that, everyone was just silent. In their minds, they knew that what they were going to go through after this would not be easy.
"Welcome to the nightmare, everybody. Hope we survived this one," Rafael muttered.
***