Aelys barely slept.
Even after returning from the underlayers of the Grand Luminaran Library, the rhythm of the Line Fragment pulsed beneath her skin. Every time she closed her eyes she saw flashes — an older version of herself standing alone at the edge of a collapsing horizon, her silhouette splitting and reforming inside a storm of shimmering lines.
She jolted awake long before sunrise.
Lira slept curled beside her, tail tucked warmly under her chin, though even in sleep the little creature twitched at irregular intervals, as if her dreams danced between moments. Aelys stroked her fur, and Lira murmured something unintelligible, but comforting.
When the first pale light seeped through the window, Aelys gathered her cloak, steadying herself. Seris needed to know what had happened last night — and she needed answers. Answers to questions she hadn't known she should ask: why the Fragment chose her, what the visions meant, and whether the distorted heartbeat she felt was truly hers.
But the moment she stepped outside, she sensed it.
Something was wrong.
The normally clean and orderly streets of Luminara seemed blurred at the edges. Lamps flickered with faint delays, as if their light traveled through slowed pockets of air. The crystal pathways had fine cracks running across them, pulsating with a red tint she had never seen before.
A distortion spread—quiet but unmistakable.
Aelys felt her pulse sync with it.
The Fragment inside her reacted with a hot, vibrating hum.
Lira awoke instantly, leaping onto her shoulder.
"The whole district feels off," she whispered. "We should hurry to Seris."
Aelys didn't need urging.
The Convergence Hall
Seris was waiting at the entrance of the Convergence Hall, arms crossed, eyes sharper than Aelys had ever seen them. Her silver-white hair glowed faintly, reacting to the unstable currents sweeping through the air.
"Aelys," she said, the name clipped and serious. "Inside. Now."
Aelys felt her throat tighten. She entered the hall — an immense circular chamber lined with spiraling glyphs, each representing timelines preserved, severed, or lost. The entire room hummed like a giant tuning instrument barely holding its pitch.
The moment the doors closed behind them, Seris turned.
"Explain."
Aelys swallowed. "I went to the Understacks like you instructed. The archivist guided me. I found a crystalline sphere. It… connected to me. And then I—"
Seris held up a hand. "Slow down. What did you touch?"
"It touched me," Aelys corrected. "A Line Fragment. At least I think it was one."
A silence fell that felt heavier than anger.
Seris stepped forward, searching Aelys's face as though looking for cracks. "Show me your hand."
Aelys lifted her palm.
The sigil shimmered faintly — incomplete but alive, its spiral lines resting beneath her skin like a glowing tattoo breathing with her heartbeat.
Seris inhaled sharply.
"So it begins," she murmured to herself. "Earlier than expected… but the Lines have chosen."
Aelys blinked. "What does that mean?"
"That you are bound now. Not to Luminara's will, not to the Council's choices—" Seris tapped the sigil with two fingers, and the Fragment resonated through Aelys's wrist "—but to the ancient Lines themselves."
Aelys felt cold. "Is that bad?"
"It is inevitable." Seris folded her hands behind her back. "And dangerous."
The First Lesson in Resonant Sight
Seris motioned toward the center of the hall.
"Stand there. Lira, keep back."
Lira padded aside reluctantly, tail bristled.
Aelys took her position. Seris circled her once, evaluating her like a fragile instrument that might snap under pressure.
"When a Fragment bonds with a weaver," Seris said, "their perception shifts. Tell me: what do you see now?"
Aelys breathed slowly, focusing.
The air shimmered.
Lines — faint threads of light — connected every object in the hall to something she couldn't see. Some pulsed with steady rhythm; others flickered weakly like dying embers. A few vibrated violently, threatening to snap.
"I see… threads," she whispered. "Everywhere."
"Good." Seris raised a hand. "That is Resonant Sight — the foundation of all Line Weaving."
Aelys reached out instinctively, fingers brushing one trembling thread.
Pain stabbed her palm like ice.
The hall warped — colors spinning — a multidimensional heartbeat pounding against her skull.
Seris grabbed her wrist instantly. "Aelys!"
The thread snapped back to reality with a violent recoil.
Aelys gasped, falling to one knee. Lira ran to her side.
"I—I'm sorry," Aelys stammered. "I didn't mean to—"
"You must NEVER touch an unstable line without weaving intent," Seris snapped. "Not unless you wish to rip yourself apart across seven realities."
Aelys shivered. "The Wraith… it came from a snapped line, didn't it?"
Seris nodded grimly. "Temporal Wraiths feed on fractures. And there are more fractures today than the last three years combined."
She walked toward a floating crystal panel and tapped a sequence of glyphs. A holographic map of the city materialized — dozens of red points blinking across the districts.
Aelys's stomach dropped. "Are those all distortions?"
"Yes," Seris whispered. "And one of them comes from beneath the library."
The same place she found the Fragment.
Aelys felt a chill run down her spine.
A Warning from the High Convergence
Before Seris could speak again, a new presence appeared — an older man with deep blue robes, his eyes carrying centuries of layered knowledge.
Archmage Velorien, a member of the High Convergence Council.
"You brought her here unsupervised?" he said, voice cold as winter. "With that inside her?" He pointed at the sigil.
Aelys stepped back on instinct.
Seris's jaw tightened. "Velorien. The Fragment chose her."
"And you let it bind?" Velorien advanced, his aura bending the lines around him. "This child is a risk. If she cannot control her connections, she could unravel this entire region."
Aelys felt her pulse spike. Lira growled.
Seris positioned herself between them. "She has already shown capability. She repelled a Temporal Wraith."
Velorien froze.
"You allowed her near a Wraith?"
"She survived," Seris said, unflinching. "And learned."
Velorien studied Aelys long enough that she felt her bones vibrating.
"This is not a gift," he said finally. "This is a summons. If one Fragment has awakened for her, others will follow. And where Fragments awaken—shadow follows."
His words lingered like a curse.
Then he vanished.
Aelys stared at Seris. "He thinks I'm dangerous."
"He thinks you're unprepared," Seris corrected softly. "Which is true. But he underestimates your potential." She placed a hand on Aelys's shoulder. "And I will make sure you survive what's coming."
Aelys swallowed hard. "What is coming?"
Seris looked toward the map of distortions.
"The first movement," she whispered, "of a force that has not risen in centuries."
The lines around them dimmed.
And far beneath the city, something pulsed back.