Milo gripped the jar of fate chalk.
"I don't know what choice to draw," he whispered.
Yara weighed his words."You don't have to pick a whole future. Just an anchor."
"Like what?"
"Anything that means you're not drifting. A starting point. A single decision that shapes the path ahead."
But Milo wasn't sure he had one.His life before the café had been directionless—work, sleep, repeat. No passion. No real friends. Nothing that felt like purpose.
"Milo?" Yara asked softly. "What do you want?"
No one had asked him that in years.Maybe ever.
His breath trembled.
But before he could answer, a deafening crash shook the entire café.
They stumbled out of the ledger room—
—and froze.
The cold brew tower had shattered completely.
Eclipse Blend spilled across the floor in a roiling wave of dark liquid, but instead of pooling, it rose—twisting upward into shadowy tendrils like ink pulled into the air.
Each tendril snapped outward, latching onto objects, shelves, walls, and even the ceiling.
The entire café pulsed with black veins.
"Milo—MOVE!" Yara grabbed his hand, pulling him back.
But the shadows reacted instantly—curling, stretching, reaching toward Milo like hands desperate to grab him.
"It's reacting to me!" he shouted.
"NO—it's reacting to your unfinished fate!" Yara yelled.
The largest tendril lunged.
Milo braced—
—but instead of striking him…
…it wrapped around him gently.
And lifted him off the floor.
"MILO!" Yara screamed.
The Eclipse Blend surrounded him in a dark cocoon, spiraling faster and faster, symbols forming through the haze—symbols he recognized from the ledger.
The drink wasn't attacking him.
It was choosing him.
The cocoon tightened.
Then—it detonated.
A shockwave blasted outward, shattering windows, knocking shelves to the floor, and sending Yara flying back. The café lights all burst at once.
Milo crashed onto the floor, coughing violently as the shadows dissolved into his skin like smoke sinking into cloth.
He felt different.
Burning.Awake.Connected.
Yara stumbled toward him, eyes wide with horror.
"Milo… what did it do to you?"
He lifted his hand.
Black symbols flickered beneath his skin, shimmering like submerged ink.
"I think," Milo whispered,"It spilled into me."
The café trembled violently around them—walls warping, shelves collapsing.
Because now the Eclipse Blend wasn't inside the tower.
It was inside Milo.