Meyric froze mid-sentence.
The temperature dropped.
The loom threads shivered — not from magic, but from fear.
> "They've found you," he whispered.
From outside the temple, the air cracked like thunder.
The ground shook.
And the sky itself… turned grey.
---
✦ The Ash Circle Comes
Five figures descended from the sky in spirals of red mist — cloaked in robes of scorched thread, their faces hidden behind porcelain masks.
But they weren't the danger.
It was the one behind them — tall, armored in thread-metal, eyes glowing like twin furnaces.
The Thread Executioner.
He carried a long curved blade — woven with live, shrieking threads that screamed as they twisted.
Meyric backed away.
> "That's not a Seer. That's a cleansing weapon in human form."
---
✦ The Sentence
The Executioner raised a single gloved hand, and the four Ash Circle members surrounded the temple.
He spoke, voice cold and echoing like a broken bell.
> "Aiden of Earth. You are declared a disruption-class anomaly.
One who walks with unbound fate.
You will be unwoven."
Aiden stepped forward, his hands glowing faintly.
"I didn't ask for this."
> "No one does," the Executioner said. "You are not blamed. Only… corrected."
---
✦ The Fight Begins
The Executioner moved like a nightmare — appearing behind Aiden before he even blinked.
Steel met thread.
Meyric shouted from the shadows, casting defensive glyphs, but they shattered like sand.
Aiden dodged, barely — the thread-blade slicing past his cheek, leaving not a cut… but a memory fracture. For a moment, Aiden forgot his own name.
> That sword doesn't cut flesh… it cuts identity.
Aiden called the power within.
Stars lit behind his eyes. Threads of silver burst from his skin. He moved on instinct, twisting space just enough to dodge the next blow.
But he wasn't fast enough.
The Executioner impaled him — through the shoulder.
Aiden screamed. Threads in his body frayed.
> "This is mercy," the Executioner whispered. "Die before you forget what you were."
---
✦ A Thread Unleashed
Then something snapped inside Aiden.
Not pain.
Not rage.
Something older.
The Kael thread in his chest pulsed.
Time bent.
The floor cracked.
Aiden's eyes turned white, his veins glowing with star-thread.
And then… the temple itself reacted.
---
Walls erupted in thread-fire.
The loom spun once.
Meyric pulled him back with raw force.
"Enough! You'll destroy yourself!"
But Aiden's voice was deeper now — two voices overlapping.
> "If fate won't let me live… then I'll break fate."
---
The blast threw the Executioner back.
He landed outside the temple — kneeling, for the first time in centuries.
He looked up at Aiden — glowing, bleeding, becoming.
And he whispered one word:
> "Kael…"
---