The first of the shadows struck like a thrown spear.
A streak of cloth and bone—if it had bones—slamming toward Aarinen with the silent acceleration of a pulled thread snapping loose.
Saevel met it in mid-air.
Her dagger passed through the cloak—but the impact forced the creature off-course, sending it crashing into the tunnel wall.It did not bleed.It did not break.
It simply reformed.
A mask of blank white.A hood of darkness.A shape too tall, too lean, too wrong.
One of the Weaver's agents.
Then the others followed.
A flood.A tide.An unending procession of cloaks flickering in and out of reality.Hundreds.Maybe more.
Rafi screamed until Torren slapped him."Save your breath! You'll need it to panic later!"
Lirael spoke one word—a word that split the air—and the runes circling her wrists spiraled outward like molten silver.
A shield formed.
Round.Glowing.Unsteady.
The shadows slammed into it.
Silence rang like metal struck with force.Light flickered.The runes trembled.
Lirael fell to one knee."I… can't hold this long!"
Saevel shouted, "Torren! Hold the left!"
Torren swung his blade at a shadow trying to slip between them.Steel struck cloth—and sparks erupted.
Not normal sparks.Blue.Cold.Hungry.
The shadow split into a dozen flickers, then reformed behind him.
"Wonderful!" Torren shouted. "They cheat!"
Rafi, scrambling backward, screamed, "We have to run! We have to—"
A shadow landed beside him.
He froze.Just froze.Eyes wide.Breathing stopped.
The creature lifted its hand—a hand shaped in mockery of a human palm—and reached for his forehead.
Aarinen moved before he thought.
He slammed the shard into the shadow's chest.
Light erupted.
A flash so bright it carved a hole in the darkness.
The shadow shrieked—not in pain,but in distortion—as if its shape was coming undone.
It crumbled into ash-silence and evaporated.
Rafi collapsed."I… don't… want… to be here…"
Aarinen didn't answer.
Because the other shadows paused.
They didn't recoil.Didn't retreat.
They paused.
As if something inside them recognized the shard—recognized him.
Saevel's eyes widened."They're watching you."
Torren spat blood. "Of course they are. Why kill us quickly when they can make it weird first?"
Lirael rose on unsteady legs."They are waiting."
Aarinen realized why.
Because something deeper in the tunnel was moving.Something heavier.Something slower.Something with weight far greater than shadows.
The agent-tide parted.
And another figure approached.
Taller.Broader.Not cloaked.Not masked.
Armored in stone-like plates that moved like breath.Runes carved into its chest.Eyes glowing with quiet, unbroken certainty.
A sentinel.
A Weaver-born construct.
Torren whispered, horrified, "That… is not supposed to leave the Loom's inner halls."
Lirael swallowed."All the more reason to fear it."
Rafi fainted again.
The sentinel raised its hand.
Aarinen stepped forward.
Saevel grabbed him. "Are you insane?!"
Aarinen whispered, "It came for me."
"And that's a bad thing!" she hissed.
The sentinel lowered its arm—not as a threat,but as acknowledgment.
It bowed its head.
Torren blinked. "Is it… greeting him?"
Lirael whispered, "It recognizes him."
Aarinen's heartbeat thudded painfully in his ears.
"Why?" he asked.
The sentinel's voice was not a voice.It was a vibration inside every bone in the tunnel—soft, resonant, absolute.
"YOU ARE THE ONE WHO DEFIES THE LOOM."
The shadows all tilted their heads in unison.
Saevel raised her blade."We did not come to kneel."
The sentinel ignored her.
Its glowing eyes fixed entirely on Aarinen.
"YOUR THREAD WAS CUT. IT DID NOT BREAK."
Aarinen felt the truth vibrate inside him.
He whispered, "You erased my memory."
"THE LOOM ORDERED IT."
Aarinen felt Saevel stiffen beside him.
Lirael whispered, "The Weaver feared him even then."
Torren muttered, "I would too."
Aarinen raised the shard.
Its light pulsed.The sentinel's body trembled.
The shadows shifted around them—restless.Expectant.
Aarinen asked, voice low:
"What do you serve?"
The sentinel answered:
"THE WEAVER."
Aarinen felt anger rise like fire in his chest.
"What does he want with my sister?"
The sentinel paused.
"SILENCE. CONTAINED."
Aarinen stepped forward.Saevel moved with him.
"What does that mean?"
"SHE CARRIES WHAT SHOULD NOT EXIST."
Lirael whispered, "Silence that sees truth."
Torren spat. "So that's a crime now?"
Aarinen raised his voice.
"What truth?"
The sentinel's eyes brightened.
"THE TRUTH BENEATH THE LOOM."
Aarinen's heartbeat quickened.
"And what is that?"
Silence.
The shadows leaned in.
The sentinel answered:
"THE WEAVER IS NOT WHO YOU THINK."
Lirael inhaled sharply."Explain."
The sentinel did not.
Instead, it pointed at Aarinen.
"YOU MUST NOT REACH HER."
Saevel stepped in front of Aarinen.
"Try to stop us."
The sentinel bowed its head.
"VERY WELL."
A pulse of sound—low, deep, crushing—rippled through the tunnel.
More shadows poured from the darkness.The ground shook.The walls trembled.The tunnel behind them sealed with a slam of stone.
Torren shouted, "That's it! We're dead!"
Saevel's grip tightened on her dagger.
Lirael whispered runes.
Rafi cried.
Aarinen's vision sharpened.
He felt the guardian's touch on his shoulder.He heard the nursemaid's scream.He heard Eryna's breath.
He lifted the shard.
It blazed.
The Pulse that Split the Tunnel
The light exploded outward—not warm,not golden,but sharp and white,like truth cutting through a lie.
The shadows recoiled.Some dissolved instantly.Others staggered backward, their forms warping like melting cloth.
The sentinel braced itself.
The light hit it full force.
Its chest cracked.
Runes dimmed.Stone plates splintered.Its eyes flickered.
But it did not fall.
It stepped forward.
Aarinen gasped.
Saevel grabbed him. "Move!"
The sentinel swung its arm.
A single blow.A hammer of force.Enough to crush a wall.
Aarinen ducked.The strike hit the stone pillar behind him, shattering it into dust.
Torren rolled forward and slashed at the sentinel's leg.
His blade chipped.
The sentinel didn't slow.
Rafi crawled behind a rock. "I refuse to die here! I refuse—"
A shadow reached for him.
Lirael blasted it with a surge of runes.Its form collapsed into a puddle of darkness.
Saevel lunged at the sentinel, aiming for its neck—but the creature moved with unnatural speed, catching her wrist mid-strike.
Aarinen's heart stopped.
"SAEVEL!"
The sentinel lifted her effortlessly.
She kicked it in the chest—but her boot cracked on impact.
Aarinen raised the shard.
Light shot forward.
The sentinel flinched.
Saevel dropped.
Aarinen reached her before she hit the ground.
"You hurt?!"
"Nothing broken," she panted. "Except my pride."
Torren shouted, "You two done flirting?! We are dying!"
Aarinen stood.
He faced the sentinel.
"You erased my memories," he said.
The sentinel answered:
"AND I WILL ERASE YOU."
Aarinen tightened his grip on the shard.
"No."
The shard pulsed.
The cavern air changed.
The shadows hesitated.
The sentinel froze.
Aarinen lowered his voice.
"You stole my past.You stole my sister.You sealed my thread.But you forgot something."
The shard ignited in his hand.
Aarinen finished:
"I laugh at pain."
The shard exploded into radiance.
The Unmaking
Light tore through the cavern—not bright,but piercing.Purifying.Ancient.
The shadows shrieked—silent shrieks—flickering like torn cloth in a storm.
One by one, they disintegrated.
The sentinel staggered.
Its armor cracked.Runes faded.Its body flickered between existence and erasure.
Aarinen stepped closer.
The sentinel tried to raise its arm—
But its voice trembled.
"YOU… SHOULD NOT…"
Aarinen whispered:
"I'm coming for her."
The sentinel's final rune shattered.
Its body collapsed into dust-silence.
The shadows vanished.
The tunnel fell still.
Aarinen felt his knees weaken.
Saevel caught him.
"You okay?"
Aarinen nodded.
But something inside him had changed.
Not strength.Not clarity.
Will.
The shard dimmed, cooling in his hand.
Lirael approached, breath unsteady.
"You destroyed a sentinel," she whispered. "No one has done that in centuries."
Torren stared. "You're terrifying."
Rafi sobbed. "And I want to go home."
Aarinen looked toward the corridor where Eryna's voice had come from.
"Forward."
Saevel touched his shoulder."We follow."
Aarinen stepped into the deeper dark.
The others followed.
And in the silence behind them—where the sentinel had fallen—three runes carved themselves into the dust.
Not in the Weaver's script.Not in Lirael's runes.
In Eryna's.
Soft.Childlike.Impossible.
AARIDON'T TRUSTTHE WEAVER
Saevel shivered.
Aarinen did not look back.
He walked forward—toward the truth hidden beneath the Loomand toward the sister who still breathed somewhere in the dark.