The streets of Starlight City ended in a wound.
The ground had split where the last surge ripped through, leaving a jagged rift that plunged into a violet-lit abyss. The air tasted electric, sharp with the tang of raw resonance. Each breath Arielle drew deepened the hum in her chest, the tether pulling her forward like a tide.
Selene caught her wrist before she could step closer. Their stitches flickered faintly, their glow dim and unstable. "You don't know what's down there, Arielle. That's not just a vein — it's a convergence. The kind of place that eats anyone who doesn't understand how to separate themselves from the weave."
Draven stood at the edge, the violet light painting his coat in flickering shadows. "And yet, she hears it. She's standing here without her core tearing apart, something no Anchor I've ever seen could do this close. You think that's a coincidence?"
The hum in Arielle's chest pulsed harder, louder, almost painful now. She could feel the threads rising from the rift — not chaotic, not violent, but insistent, coiling upward like tendrils reaching for her. They weren't pulling her down so much as inviting her.
"I can't stay up here," she said quietly, her voice steadier than she expected. "If I don't follow it, the surges will keep coming. The city will keep breaking."
Selene's grip tightened. Their voice was hoarse, their strength fraying with every word. "Then we find another way. I can anchor you. I can bleed off the excess until the tether settles. Just… don't go down there. Not with him."
Draven turned his head slightly, his calm never breaking. "She doesn't need you bleeding yourself dry. She needs control, not a Keeper's leash. Down there, she'll find the nexus. The source. With it, she won't just survive the tether — she'll master it."
The violet glow pulsed in time with the hum, and Arielle felt her knees weaken. Not from fear. From need. The tether's pull was more than resonance now — it was instinct, a certainty that the only way to stop herself from unraveling was to step into the convergence and see what the tether truly was.
The descent wasn't a fall.
Threads caught her as she stepped off the edge, weaving into shifting platforms that lowered her in a slow, spiraling path. Each step she took felt weightless, the hum inside her synchronizing with the soft vibrations of the tether's veins.
Selene followed, reluctantly, their stitches weaving protective barriers around them both. The silver glow around their hands flickered erratically, the strain of holding so much resonance at bay threatening to tear them apart.
Draven moved as if the descent were nothing more than a leisurely stroll. The violet constructs trailing his fingers meshed seamlessly with the tether's strands, as though the convergence itself recognized him — or at least tolerated him.
The deeper they went, the louder the hum grew, until it wasn't a sound at all but a feeling — a pulse in her teeth, her bones, her very thoughts. It was everywhere, in everything, a heartbeat older than the city itself.
And then, the cavern opened.
The nexus wasn't a chamber. It was a void.
A massive, open expanse stretched beneath the city, its walls laced with glowing veins of violet and silver thread, pulsing in an endless rhythm. At the center, suspended above a bottomless pit, hung a core — a vast, luminous knot of pure weave, threads stretching outward in every direction like the spokes of a cosmic wheel.
It wasn't still. It breathed.
Each pulse of its glow sent a ripple through the cavern, and Arielle felt it answer her, the hum in her chest aligning with the core's rhythm as naturally as breath aligning with a heartbeat.
Selene froze at the edge, their silver eyes wide, their glow flickering so faintly it was barely visible. "That's… not supposed to exist. The Conclave claimed they dismantled every wild nexus centuries ago."
Draven smiled faintly, his gaze fixed on the core. "They tried. But the weave doesn't die just because a council wills it. Some tethers go too deep, too old, for even the Spire to excise. This one's been waiting."
Arielle took another step forward, the threads from the core reaching for her like strands of light. They didn't feel hostile. They didn't feel kind, either. They felt… empty. Like a vessel waiting to be filled.
And as they brushed her skin, she felt the surges in her chest ease, the wild pulses finally slowing into a steady rhythm.
She could breathe again.
Selene's voice broke through, rough but firm. "Arielle, listen to me. That thing isn't salvation. It's a conduit. If you touch it, you're not just binding to the tether — you're binding to everything it connects to. You won't just risk losing control. You'll risk becoming its new core."
Draven's tone was soft, persuasive. "And maybe that's exactly what she needs. The Conclave will never stop hunting her otherwise. If she becomes the core, she stops being prey. She becomes the center. The city would answer to her."
Arielle stared at the glowing knot, her pulse perfectly in sync with its slow, immense thrum. For the first time since the tether awoke in her, she didn't feel like she was being pulled apart. She felt… whole.
But Selene's warning echoed in her ears, even as Draven's words pressed against her thoughts.
Was this wholeness freedom… or the first step toward becoming something she could never undo?
The core pulsed again, brighter this time, threads of violet and silver swirling around her ankles like curious spirits. And somewhere deep within the hum, she felt a whisper — faint but undeniable, not a sound but a thought: