The world shattered at the edges.
Caelan moved, not with thought, but through instinct. His feet struck the ashen ground, black soil cracking beneath each step as he blurred forward. The cloak of the opposing heir flared, threads of deep violet and green circling their frame like a halo of warped divinity.
The Weave between them twisted violently—two rivers colliding.
The figure's voice echoed across the clearing. "You shouldn't be here."
Caelan's blade swung in response.
Not words. Not warnings. Just the weight of what he'd become.
Steel met shadow.Thread met Thread.
The heir raised a curved hand, and from it poured a sickly arc of energy—a chain of memory and malice. The air sizzled. A thousand whispers spilled from the void.
Caelan ducked under the strike, then turned the Weave inward, through the taught strand of the Ashweave that spiraled up his spine. A pulse. A single thought.
Echo.
He moved behind the heir before they could breathe, his sword carving a shallow arc across their cloak, exposing bone-white skin beneath.
But the heir did not bleed.
"You're fast," they whispered. "Faster than the others. But still blind."
They reached for his face, fingers trailing through the Weave like claws through silk.
‹ Eclipsed Veil › — Synchronicity Engaged
Trait Activated — Instinctive Echo
The body remembers what the soul forgets.
Thread Control — +1Perception — +1
Caelan's body twisted without thought.
A parry. A leap backward. The crack of displaced air.
He saw it now—not with his eyes, but with something deeper. The heir's threads were frayed, their presence patchwork. Soul-torn. They had once been whole. Now they were a vessel for something that did not belong.
"You're not the real heir," Caelan said, breathless.
The figure stilled. For the first time, they smiled—and it was not a human smile.
"No," they admitted. "But I am what you will become."
Caelan surged forward.
Every strike was a question: Who am I now?Every counter, a refusal: Not this. Not yet.
Ash flared along the edge of his blade as the Weave bent to his will. His threads pulsed with power, surging with a rhythm not entirely his own.
His soul fractured the first time he touched the Weave.
Now it was rebuilding—scar by scar, choice by choice.
‹ Eclipsed Veil › — Update Logged
New Trait Progressing — Weave Instinct (Stage I)Resonance — +1Thread Control — +1
The battle ended not with a final blow, but with collapse.
The heir staggered backward, threads unraveling. Their eyes dimmed. Whatever was inside them shrieked—but only Caelan heard it. Not with ears, but in his bones.
"You'll see," the heir hissed, unraveling like smoke. "The Weave remembers. It collects. All of us... are just echoes."
And then they were gone.
Caelan stood alone in the desolate clearing, chest heaving, sweat and rain mixing on his skin. The Ashweave pulsed softly around his wrists like dying embers.
Thunder rolled across the Dusklands again, and far off—somewhere beyond the storm—he felt the tremor of other Threads awakening.
More heirs.
More echoes.
More storms.
He didn't move. Not yet. His body ached, but his soul ached more. That figure... it wasn't just a warning.
It was a reflection.
If I lose myself to the Weave… that's what I become.
He closed his eyes.
And the silence spoke to him.
‹ Eclipsed Veil ›
Strength — 17Willpower — 21Perception — 19Intelligence — 15Charm — 5Thread Control — 32Resonance — 21Resilience — 17
Compatibility: Ashweave — MasteredSoul Fracture: Type I — [Loss of Anchor]
New Entry: Weave Instinct (Stage I)New Entry: Echo of the UnmadeStatus: Heir Encounter — Survived
Veil may be accessed at will.