The night sky was still bleeding when Malik's eyes snapped open.Cold dirt pressed against his cheek, and the sharp taste of iron coated his tongue. For a heartbeat, he thought it had all been a dream—the burning, the screams, the tearing sound like reality itself had been ripped apart.
Then the smell hit him. Smoke. Charred wood. The faint, fading scent of the orange blossom trees that used to line Orchard's Bend.
"Malik."
His sister's voice was low but steady. Naomi knelt beside him, her dark eyes reflecting the glow of dying embers in the distance. Her hair was loose, tangled, her clothes torn at the shoulder. In her hands, she clutched a jagged piece of metal—once part of their front gate, now sharpened by desperation.
"You're awake. Good. We don't have much time."
Malik pushed himself up, groaning. "The Cutter… he's gone?"
"For now." She didn't look back at the ruins. "But when the Hunter's Sigil is marked on a target, they don't stop until the target's dead. Or worse."
Her words sent a chill through him. He tried to joke, to push the fear away."So… you're saying we just made his favorite 'to kill' list. Great. Love that for us."
Naomi didn't smile. Instead, she reached into the satchel slung across her shoulder and pulled out something that wasn't there before—a slim, leather-bound book with a shimmering thread stitched along its spine.
"What's that?" Malik asked.
"It appeared after you blacked out. I think it's… connected to us somehow." She handed it to him.
The moment Malik's fingers touched the cover, the world flickered.
[THREADWORK CODEX ACTIVATED]User Identified: Malik DraytonSoul Pattern: Untamed WeaveInitial Rank: Frayed Thread (Tier 0)
[ Primary Weapon Affinity Detected: Soulbound Yo-Yo ][ Growth Path: Trickster's Ascension – 12 stages ][ Companion Bond Slots: 0/3 ]
Malik staggered as a rush of foreign knowledge filled his head. Threads—literal, shimmering threads—spun through the air around him, connecting to the ground, the trees, even Naomi. For a split second, he saw her soul-pattern: precise, taut, woven like a warrior's braid.
He swallowed. "Naomi… we're in some kind of… game. Or trial. Or—"
"—or we've been chosen," she finished, her voice like stone.
Malik blinked at her. "Chosen by who? For what?"
She didn't answer right away. Her gaze drifted to the forest beyond, where shadows twisted unnaturally. "For the same reason the Cutter came to Orchard's Bend. Someone out there knows what we can become."
The ground trembled faintly, and from the dark, a low, resonant growl echoed—a sound Malik had never heard, but instinct told him to run from.
That's when it stepped into the moonlight.
A beast twice the size of a bear, its fur rippling like liquid bronze, its eyes burning with lines of golden thread. A Kpataki Guardian—a creature out of West African legend, said to serve the gods themselves.
The Codex flared in Malik's hand.
[Legendary Entity Detected]Kpataki Guardian – Bound to the Loom of Kings[ Bond Opportunity: 1% – Requires survival and proof of worth ]
Naomi raised her makeshift blade. Malik unhooked his yo-yo from his belt.
"Well," he muttered, spinning the weapon once, feeling the soul-thread hum through it, "guess we're about to see what happens when a Frayed Thread tangles with a god-beast."
The Guardian growled again, the air shimmering with heat.
And then it charged.