The mist closed behind them like a door shutting without sound.
They didn't speak for a long while.
Not after the Seam-Watcher vanished. Not after the dead man had whispered of leaking systems and broken veils. Not even as they followed the curve of the river into woods that looked too still, like time forgot them.
Lumen walked with his hand near his side. Not on a weapon—he didn't carry any sharp enough—but ready, as if expecting something to burst from the trees at any moment.
"Rewritten," he said again, mostly to himself.
Rin didn't look at him. "Forget what he said."
"How?"
"You want it to sink in?"
"It already did."
She finally stopped. Turned.
"There's a reason I don't ask the System for answers," she said. "Half of what it tells is twisted. The other half? You'll wish it lied."
Lumen didn't reply. He was staring down at the path.
At a single thread stretched across it.
Thin. Silver. Floating inches above the dirt, swaying slightly.
"…You see that?"
Rin looked down. Her blade was already in her hand.
"That wasn't there before."
🛠️ [System Notice: Threadline Detected]
Origin: Unknown
Function: Passive Surveillance or Lure
Status: ✖ Unbound
Lumen crouched, peering closer. It shimmered faintly — not thread exactly, but something posing as it. Like memory woven into light.
He reached toward it.
"Don't," Rin snapped.
But his finger brushed it anyway.
The world blinked.
He was somewhere else.
Not gone. Not moved. Just... overlayed. Like a second image had been projected onto his eyes.
The forest was gone, replaced with gray stone and flame. A massive loom towered before him — not ruined like the one in the Hollow, but alive. Threads moved across its frame, weaving strange shapes, stitching symbols in the air.
And below it… rows of people with their mouths sewn shut.
They knelt.
They bled.
And above them all stood a single figure — no face, no name. A crown of needles floated behind its head, spinning slowly like a halo.
🛠️ [System Glitch: Visual Override Breach]
⚠️ Memory Echo Leaking
Trace Pattern: ██▓▓—F I N A L—▓▓██
"Scarecrow."
The voice didn't come from the figure.
It came from behind him.
He turned.
The puppet was there.
No strings. No laughter.
Just watching.
"You pulled the thread," it whispered. "Now it pulls back."
Then—
The thread snapped.
Lumen staggered, breath catching.
Rin grabbed his shoulder, steadying him. "What happened?"
"I saw… something. Like a place that isn't now."
"Echo field," she muttered. "Threadlines are sometimes fractured memories. Like… warnings left behind."
He blinked. "Of what?"
"Of what happens when too many threads knot."
She pointed ahead. "Come on. There's a safer place. An old ritual path just beyond here. It'll give us cover for the night."
They found it half-hidden behind a ridge — a narrow set of stone steps descending beneath the earth. Roots curled over the entrance like claws. An old sigil was etched above it: a closed eye, crossed by a single thread.
Rin stared at it for a long moment.
"You know it?" Lumen asked.
"It's not a sigil," she said. "It's a seal."
"On what?"
She didn't answer.
Just stepped inside.
The steps led down into cool, damp air. Moss-covered walls bore carvings Lumen didn't recognize. Not ancient. Not tribal. Just... wrong. Symbols that curved too far, patterns that almost made sense.
The tunnel opened into a wide chamber.
Pillars lined the walls, cracked and leaning. In the center, a basin sat empty — once used for burning or bleeding, maybe both. Around it, seven narrow pedestals. Only six held objects:
A cracked mask A broken blade A length of silver thread A tooth A single crow feather And a coin marked with two faces
The seventh pedestal was empty.
🛠️ [System Note: Sigil Archive Location Accessed]
Access: Restricted
Threadline History Active
Lumen approached the basin.
"This is where Threadbinders met," Rin said behind him. "Long ago. Before the system started rewriting them."
He looked at her. "So it's real. The sigil. The stories. All of it."
She nodded.
"And they failed?"
"They started something," she said. "That's not the same as failing."
Lumen placed his hand on the pedestal with the feather.
It was warm.
The crow above the fire.
The voice that had called him Scarecrow.
The puppet watching, never intervening.
Too many eyes.
He backed away.
Then—
A whisper echoed through the room.
"The thread frays. The mask smiles. But who wears it now?"
They froze.
The feather rose from the pedestal, hovered… then fell.
🛠️ [System Anomaly: Sigil Resonance Crossed]
Warning: Interaction Between Nodes Detected
Rin's blade was out again. "We're not alone."
A low creaking answered her.
From the wall beyond the basin, a thin crack split open like a mouth.
And from it, a puppet emerged — taller than the last, arms longer, dragging across the stone. But it didn't move like the others.
It moved like a man in pain.
Its voice wasn't twisted.
It was human.
"Help… me…"
🛠️ [System Conflict: Entity Misaligned]
Host Type: Rewritten
Controller: Unknown
Descent Level: Stage Two
Lumen stepped back. "It's infected."
"Or it's becoming," Rin whispered.
The puppet looked at him. Eyes wide. Not glass. Not hollow.
Real.
"Please… kill… me…"
Rin raised her sword. "We can't trust—"
"No," Lumen said, grabbing her arm. "He's trapped."
Then the puppet convulsed — once, twice — and screamed.
Its arms split open, thread and blood spilling from the seams. Not just a puppet anymore.
A person twisted into one.
🛠️ [Override Attempt Detected]
Target: Lumen
Action: Bind Thread
❗ Reject? [Yes] [No]
Lumen's sigil burned.
"NO."
The override shattered.
The puppet howled one final time — and collapsed.
They didn't speak for a long while.
The chamber had gone still again.
Rin stared at the fallen figure, breathing hard.
"They're not all monsters," Lumen said.
"They will be," Rin replied, quieter now. "If no one stops the rewrites."
He looked down at the pedestal.
The seventh one — still empty.
"Do you think that's mine?" he asked.
She didn't answer.
But she looked… sad.
Later, as they prepared to leave, Rin knelt by the cracked mask on the pedestal.
"I've seen this symbol before," she said.
"Where?"
"On a child. In a city far from here. She wore it on her skin."
"What happened to her?"
"She laughed like thunder," Rin whispered. "And the city burned."
🛠️ [System Update: Sigil Cluster Identified – Partial Threadlock Engaged]
New Entry: Ritual Site – THREADLINE
Pending: Companion Tag Stability
🛠️ [Memory Fragment Unlocked]
"The fool smiles. The scarecrow bows. The mask is never empty."
░The thread pulls tighter. The stitch does not forget.░