Chapter 102: The Pattern in the Fray
The vision of the fraying web did not leave Elara. It lingered behind her eyes in quiet moments, a phantom overlay on the real world the sturdy table a nexus of faint, trembling lines, the hearth-fire burning at the center of a vast, invisible tapestry of distress. It was a knowledge that sat heavy in the chest, a constant, low-grade hum of dread beneath the daily tasks of planting beans and mending fences.
For three days, they moved through their routines in a state of heightened, silent awareness. Every shift in the wind, every unusual bird call, every restless night from Aurora was examined as a potential signal, a new thread snapping. Kaelen walked the perimeter with a new intensity, not just looking for physical intruders, but for signs of that subtle unraveling a patch of grass that seemed oddly muted, a stream that ran too quiet.
It was Bren who brought the first concrete evidence that the problem was not just spreading, but connecting.
