I expected things to explode. I expected fire, grotesque screams, the ones that come in when old power was manifesting itself but none of that happened.
For some reason, that silence made everything worse. It made me feel like I was being buried alive.
I felt the second door close behind me. It didn't slam itself shut, it just sealed up, as if an entry never existed.
I found myself standing in a breathing ancient workshop.
The walls were impossibly high, stitched with gold veins threads that pulsed akin to arteries. Thousands of mannequins stood everywhere, cracked, wornout, and with half finished gowns. The worse part? They were breathing.
Slow, shallow breathes filled the room, causing my stomach to literally lurch.
"This has to be the most insane thing I have ever seen..." I whispered to no one in particular.
My voice echoed back in a fractured, wrong and scary manner, as if there were many mouths repeating after me.
'Welcome to the core of The House of Nexus.'
Nova's voice came out distorted and layered...stacked with something ancient, deeper and...choral?
My heart skipped as I spun around.
"Nova?"
There was a long, unsettling pause before he replied.
'Host I am partially being controlled...'
I felt cold invade my veins. "What have they done to you?"
'They have invaded my core.'
My hands clenched into a fist. "I promised to protect you and I will. There is a code I created in you. I know you can see it. Immediately activate it and they won't be able to interfere."
'On it.'
Nova didn't waste a second and did as told. In just seconds, I felt the changes in my head and how the workshop suddenly felt unsettling.
They tried fighting back but a glitch rippled through my reflection, thousands of coded lines bleeding through, snapping back and forth, and finally... silence. Nova won.
The floor suddenly trembled and from the far end of the studio, figures began to emerge. They looked like memories to me.
There were men and women dressed in ancient European dresses. Their collars were high and their eyes were too sharp to be human.
It's them. The guild. The house of Nexus.
Or perhaps... what I was seeing is what remained of them.
Their voices strangely overlapped, as they whispered in languages I half understood and half remembered without learning a single word.
"Your blood opens doors. Your blood continues the unfinished. Your blood pays debts."
"Shut up," I spoke, backing away. "I am not your vessel."
One of the women stepped forward, her hair secured tightly around her skull, her gaze on me mirroring that of someone who is looking at a tool.
"Of course you are not a tool darling," She spoke gently. "You are a continuation."
I shook my head, standing my ground. "Lin Yue, my mother, tried to end you."
"That we know," the woman replied with a smirk. "Except Jiang Rui, she terribly failed."
My anger surged in, hot and sharp. "She was protecting me."
"Don't get worked up. She was just protecting you from us...but not from blood." Another voice spoke in an amused and mocking manner.
The mannequins suddenly turned their headless bodies towards me and I felt the pull.
Not in the second door, but elsewhere. Outside..
The workshop was suddenly replaced by fractured scenes cutting through me like glass shards.
I saw my stepmother staring into her mirror just like last time, but her reflection was full of youth, beauty and elegance. Floating above the reflection were the words, 'help us return and all you see will be yours.'
I watched as various reports swarmed in, on how some ancient European guild was resurrecting and what could be the cause.
I watched as the designs being made under Jiang Fashion house carried a strong resemblance to my own work. They were echoing me. But...how were they doing it?
'They are doing what we call cross dimensional bleeding. They are accessing things through your family line host.'
'Remember the guild's records were bound by blood signatures. You have your father's DNA and therefore, both your stepmother and Jiang Ning are tapping into it, giving them access.'
"This is crazy!"
"Nova? Are you still here?"
My conversation with Nova was suddenly interrupted by the image of my sister wrapped in fabrics that seemed to drive her to madness. She was convinced I had stolen from her.
"No!" I couldn't help but cry, clutching my head tightly. "Get out of them!"
The Guild didn't bother sparing me a glance.
"We don't know if your mother ever taught you, but enemies always make the most fertile land." A voice spoke calmly.
"Their resentment is already a door for us."
My knees hit the stone floor with a loud plop. They were feeding me images that were messing up with me.
"So you are using them against me. Using their weakness to retaliate against me."
"We are simply answering their call."
I felt rage burn through me. Through my grief, pain, and the ache that has been there since my mother died.
"You are forgetting that you don't get to decide things for me. You don't get to hold the pen simply because you fear being forgotten." I said, forcing myself to stand.
That seemed to have triggered them because they finally reacted.
A man I thought seemed too quiet to belong to the guild suddenly hissed, pointing at me.
"And you,young miss, don't get to decide what we can and cannot do." He spoke menacingly, his face darting between decay and youth.
The air thickened untill finally, gold threads lashed out of nowhere, wrapping tightly around my throat, arms and waist. Violent, intoxicating and ancient power started surging in me.
The images that flooded my mind made me gasp in shock. I saw destinies being unraveled because a single seam wasn't right. I saw cities in blood, and fates silenced with just a single stich.
I saw my mother looking old, and exhausted, blood seeping through her palm. She was standing before a council.
"Lin Yue. If she ever opens the second door, she will belong to us, entirely." The guild was warning her but she just smiled through her pain.
"Then I will teach her how to end you."
My breath hitched as the threads tightened, lifting me off the ground. I knew I looked pathetic.
The guild leaned closer, with voices rising.
"Just accept it Jiang Rui. Accept us," they continued urging me.
"You shouldn't let your mother's work go to waste, finish what she started. Give us access and let us return through you and your enemies."
"We will make sure every fashion house worships your beauty and power."
I felt my vision blur and for a moment, I hesitated. I wavered. Not because I was afraid or that I wanted power, but because I was exhausted. I was tired of fighting every single day. But then...
I remembered the confrontation I had with my family in the resturant. I remembered how my father's words cut deep without any remorse, how my stepmother's words carried a threat similar to that of the guild, and how my stepsister wanted to consume me and everything I had.
If that was what blood inheritance meant, then I had no need of continuing things. It had to end here.
I stopped struggling and the guild stilled in surprise, sensing my surrender.
"Yes that's it..." one of the woman whispered. "Good girl. Let go."
I exhaled slowly before smiling. "I think you misunderstood," My voice came out softer than I expected.
"I am not letting go."
I closed my eyes and focused inward. My mother had left a seal buried deep inside me. She knew. I focused on the seal and it ignited.
Golden light erupted from my chest, akin to lava erupting. This light wasn't that of the guild, but it was a steadier and purposed light.
The threads binding me suddenly snapped, as the mannequins screamed in anguish.
'You go host! Golden binding protocol detected.'
Nova's voice rang sharp. Oh my boy was back stronger than ever!
'Authorization confirmed.'
The Loom began to crack, causing the guild to panic.
"Noo!" the Guild cried out as their sigil shattered, causing the workshop to tremble violently. "You can't...that is..."
"But I can House of Nexus," I said, hot tears streaming down my face. "Because my mother gave me the choice you all never did."
They didn't get to fight back because light flooded everything. I extended my hand, to seal and reverse every thread done. I wanted to silence them.
I felt the ancestral energy tear through me, as it ripped my bones apart, my veins lightning up in the process. The unbearable pain had me screaming my all, feeling as if I was about to collapse with every passing second.
Despite the pain, my mother's voice could be heard throughout the whole workshop.
" End it Rui. End it!!"
I held onto that voice until the loom shattered and the mannequins fell, cracking up completely.
The guild's voices dissolved into painful echoes until silence reigned.
That was it.
I hit the floor hard, my breath ragged as my vision started fading.
Darkness was closing in but I felt the connection sever. I felt the whispers of my enemies die.
The guild was sealed. It was gone. The sacrifice was worth it.
'Binding completed successfully host.'
I smiled weakly as I whispered. "Good j... "
I didn't get to finish my sentence before everything went black.