Ryn felt it before anyone screamed.
It was subtle at first, a tightness behind his eyes, like he'd stared at the sun too long. He paused mid-step outside the guild gates, one foot still on the stone stair.
Something's wrong.
The street looked normal. Too normal. People passed by, talking, laughing, living their lives completely unaware that the world was about to do something stupid again.
Ryn's fingers twitched.
The map in his satchel was warm.
"No," he whispered, stopping dead in the middle of the road. "No, no, no, you're not serious."
Someone bumped into him. "Watch it!"
"Sorry," Ryn muttered automatically, but his heart was already racing.
The warmth intensified, hot now, insistent. Like a pulse.
He didn't wait.
Ryn broke into a run.
By the time he reached the square, the ground was already shifting.
Stone groaned. Mortar cracked. A low, awful sound rolled through the air, like the city itself was grinding its teeth.
"Oh gods," someone shouted. "It's happening again!"
Ryn skidded to a stop as the anomaly tore itself free of the street.
This one wasn't clumsy like the wolf.
It was compact. Dense. Purposeful.
A mass of intersecting lines and jagged angles, like the idea of a map given teeth.
People scattered.
Ryn stood there, chest heaving, every instinct screaming at him to run too.
You did this, his mind whispered. Not on purpose, but still.
His hands shook as he yanked the parchment free. The ink on it was already moving, lines crawling like ants.
"Okay," he breathed. "Okay. I hear you."
The anomaly turned toward him.
It felt him.
That nearly broke him.
"I'm not fighting you," Ryn said, voice barely steady. "I just need you to stop hurting people."
The thing surged forward.
So much for negotiations.
Ryn dropped to his knees, quill flying. He drew boundaries, wide this time, imperfect but fast. The map flared painfully bright.
The anomaly slammed into the invisible edge and recoiled, fragments chipping off like stone splinters.
Ryn cried out, clutching his head.
Too fast. Too sloppy.
Someone screamed behind him.
Ryn didn't look.
He couldn't.
He redrew, slower, breathing through the pain. He didn't imagine the anomaly disappearing, he imagined it resting. Settling. Returning to something simpler.
The lines resisted.
The pressure in his skull spiked.
It remembers, a thought, not quite his, slid through his mind.
Ryn swallowed hard. "I know," he whispered. "I know I messed up before."
The anomaly hesitated.
Just for a heartbeat.
Ryn pushed, not with force, but with clarity. He drew not erasure, but closure. Endpoints. Rest.
The shape shuddered, lines unraveling, folding back into the street as if they'd never been separate.
When it was over, Ryn collapsed forward, palms slapping the stone.
The world spun.
Strong hands grabbed his shoulders before he hit the ground completely.
"Hey. Hey....don't pass out."
Kael's voice.
Ryn laughed weakly. "You ever notice how you only show up when things are awful?"
Kael didn't smile.
"That wasn't practice," Kael said quietly. "That thing knew you."
Ryn closed his eyes. "Yeah."
Master Elara arrived moments later, her expression tight.
"You acted without permission," she said.
Ryn forced himself to sit up. "People were going to get hurt."
Elara studied him for a long moment.
Then she nodded once. "Correct."
Relief washed through him so fast his vision blurred.
"But," she continued, "you are now involved in something far larger than yourself."
Ryn's chest tightened. "The maps?"
"The one who teaches them to misbehave," Elara said.
Ryn went cold.
"A rogue cartographer," she continued. "Someone who draws without restraint. And they have noticed you."
Ryn stared at the ruined stones, his hands still trembling.
"I don't want this," he said quietly.
Elara's voice softened. "No one who should have it ever does."
Kael squeezed his shoulder once, brief and awkward, before stepping back. "You're not alone," he muttered.
Ryn looked up at him, surprised.
That night, as Ryn lay awake, the map in his satchel pulsed faintly.
Not warm.
Not hostile.
Aware.
And somewhere, far beyond Bramblewick, another hand lifted a quill and smiled.