They were close now.He could feel them.Even here, in this place where the Weave was supposed to be dead.
No Threads.No light.No rules.
And yet the Ashweave whispered in his blood like wildfire trying to remember its first spark.
Caelan crouched beneath twisted roots, breath shallow. His bare fingers clutched soil that felt wrong—like ash pretending to be earth.
He wasn't hiding.
He was waiting.
"Three behind. One flanking. One heart too fast."
They didn't know that Weave-dead didn't mean sight-dead.
Not when you had no anchor left to break.
Not when you were already fractured.
They moved like hunters.
But he could hear their thoughts—the shape of them—even if he couldn't read the words. Intent leaked into the Weave like blood into water. He didn't know how. Not exactly. But it was real.
His skin itched. His spine ached. Something shifted inside him.
The Veil blinked awake.
‹ Eclipsed Veil ›
Strength — 17Willpower — 22Perception — 19Thread Control — 31New Trait (Instinctive Echo): ActiveNew Trait (Feral Threadbend): Triggered
Soul Fracture: Type I – [Loss of Anchor] — Unstable
The glyphs on their armor were burning.
He saw them in flashes—sigils branded on metal, writhing like insects under the wrong light. They tried to bend the Thread. They tried to suppress him.
It made the Ashweave laugh.
Or maybe that laugh was his.
One hunter stepped too close. Boots crunching soft ash.
Caelan didn't move.
He didn't have to.
His heartbeat dropped. His breath vanished. His pulse sank into the rhythm of the forest. The trees bent forward, listening.
"Do you remember her, Caelan?"
The voice cracked through his skull. His mother's. But wrong.
Burned at the edges.
His hand twitched.
The Ashweave surged.
There was no Thread to pull.
So he pulled himself.
A line of thought. A memory. A fear.
He tore it out and wove it through his skin. Instinct more than spell. Need more than glyph.
And when the first soldier blinked—
Caelan was already behind him.
Blade of ash.No breath.No scream.Just a wet snap.
The body dropped. Memory flickered in his palm.
The Weave bent without being there.
He gasped. Stumbled. Eyes wide.
"…what the hell am I becoming?"
The others saw him now.
The leader shouted something. Orders. Desperation. Doctrine.
Caelan heard none of it. Only the sound of his own blood turning to smoke.
And the laughter.That endless, echoing laughter.
From beneath his skin.
He stepped into the next hunter's blindspot. The Ashweave extended like a second spine, curling, reaching, tasting.
The man turned.
Too late.
A twist of Caelan's fingers—and the glyph on the hunter's vambrace rewrote itself.
The sigil turned inward.
The man combusted, scream swallowed by ash.
More movement. Steel cutting air.
The leader. Fast. Trained. Unafraid.
Their swords clashed. Sparks erupted.
Caelan felt the shock rattle through his arms—but his eyes weren't looking at the blade.
They were staring into the man's face.
Into his soul.
And what he saw was…
Nothing.
Not hate.Not fear.Just… duty.
"You think I chose this?" Caelan snarled, parrying another strike. "You think I wanted this curse?"
The hunter didn't answer.
Didn't have to.
His silence said everything.
You are what must be killed.
Caelan's heel slid back. He exhaled.
And for just a moment—He let go.
The fracture bloomed.
Reality bent.
The sword didn't swing—it forgot to exist.
A thread of ash curled through the air like a serpent tasting blood.
It struck.
The commander gasped. Staggered. Dropped to his knees.
Caelan stood over him.
Barefoot. Blood-smeared. Breathing like a beast.
"You followed me into a place where the Weave doesn't work," he said. "But I don't need the Weave anymore."
His eyes burned coal-red.
"I am the Weave."
He raised a hand—
Then stopped.
Because he saw himself reflected in the man's dying eyes.
A monster.A child.Something between.
And for just a breath, he felt sick.
He lowered the hand.
Let the Ashweave retract.
The man slumped. Not dead—just broken.
Caelan turned away.
And walked into the trees.
‹ Eclipsed Veil ›
Thread Control: +2Perception: +1Ashweave Affinity: [Instinctual Mastery — Evolving]Warning: Soul Fracture Destabilizing. Identity bleed detected.Unknown Echo Manifesting...