Ciela clutched her silver spindle as it pulsed with erratic energy, each heartbeat sending a wave of misaligned emotions through her—seeing Xander's smile triggered a stab of sadness, while recalling the Trauma Leviathan's roar made her laugh uncontrollably. "The emotion reverser is worsening," she gasped, her rainbow hair flickering between joyous yellow and melancholic indigo.
Kai's green hair had turned a sickly brown, wilting under the weight of absorbed trauma. "I can't stop photosynthesizing pain," he whimpered, shielding his eyes from the starlight that now burned like acid. "Every time I see a happy planet, it feels like a wound."
Nox adjusted his constellation-glasses, which were projecting a map of the Thorned Spindle's lair—an asteroid shaped like a closed fist, orbiting a black hole. "Their leader, Mistress Thora, is using a Cosmic Emotion Reverser to convert healing energy into fungal spores."
Lyra tapped her staff, now a cluster of anti-thorn blossoms. "Legend says the Reverser was built from the broken dreams of failed Balance Children. If it's activated, every healed trauma in the universe will turn back into pain."
As they approached the asteroid, Ciela's silver spindle began to vibrate, projecting a memory: a young girl with Thorned Spindle's symbol on her wrist, being rejected by her fellow Keepers for "feeling too much."
"Thora was a Balance Child," Xander realized, sewing a shadow-patch onto Ciela's sleeve. "She's avenging her own trauma."
The asteroid's surface split open, revealing a chamber filled with writhing thorn-vines, each bearing the faces of suffering children. At the center, Mistress Thora stood before the Emotion Reverser, her bark-like skin now smooth and glowing.
"Welcome, little weavers," she purred, turning—revealing eyes that shifted between empty voids and overflowing tears. "I see you've met my Emotion Reverser. Soon, all those pesky 'healed' traumas will be delicious fungal food."
Azura's blue hair flared into protective flames, but they sputtered out as the Reverser emitted a pulse—suddenly, her anger felt like cowardice, her courage like foolishness. "What's happening to me?"
Ciela forced herself to focus, despite the emotional whiplash. "Thora's weapon doesn't destroy emotions," Elara's voice crackled from a dying Balance Star. "It... inverts their meaning."
Kai stumbled forward, his brown hair suddenly sprouting vibrant leaves. "I... I just thought of Lila's hug," he marveled. "And the pain turned into... sunlight?"
Xander grinned, holding up a shadow-patch sewn with the words: "This trauma made me stronger." "The Reverser can't invert intentional healing—only unacknowledged pain!"
Ciela raised her silver spindle, ignoring the nausea as her happiness and sorrow flipped again. "Thora, look at what you're doing," she said, projecting the memory of Thora's rejection. "You're turning your pain into a weapon, but true healing is turning it into a bridge."
Thora hesitated, her hands shaking over the Reverser's controls. "But... the Keepers said—"
"They were wrong," Nox said gently, showing a star-map of all the Balance Children who had failed and found healing. "Pain isn't a flaw; it's a reminder that you're alive enough to feel."
As Thora lowered her hands, the Emotion Reverser began to hum with a different frequency—instead of inverting emotions, it started converting the thorn-vines into "Understanding Flowers," each petal a different shade of healing.
Ciela's silver spindle glowed brightly, and the emotion reverser in her vanished, replaced by a new thread in her hair—one that shimmered with both joy and sorrow, side by side.
Thora smiled, her skin turning into a beautiful mosaic of bark and flowers. "I think... I need to learn how to sew shadow-patches."
But as they left the asteroid, Ciela noticed a single thorn-vine still growing in the Reverser's core, its tip bearing a familiar symbol—the same one that had appeared on the Verdania woman's wrist. And in the distance, a fleet of ships emblazoned with the Thorned Spindle logo was heading toward a distant galaxy, their hulls humming with inverted emotion energy.
Kai touched Ciela's hair, which now held a new silver strand intertwined with a thorn-shaped thread. "Does this mean the fight is over?"
Ciela looked at the Cosmic Quilt, where a new patch was forming—one that showed a hand sewing thorns and flowers together. "No," she said, spinning her spindle, "it means we're finally learning to weave with both."