Kael did not fall.
He was taken.
The sensation was not of plummeting, but of being unthreaded—like reality itself was gently pulling him apart, strand by strand. Light wrapped around him, not burning, not crushing, but sorting. His body dissolved into pulses of data and sensation, reforming again and again as the Veins dragged him deeper.
Time lost meaning.
Distance lost shape.
Then—
Impact.
Kael slammed into solid ground, rolling hard across cold metal. His breath exploded from his lungs as pain surged through his ribs. He groaned, forcing himself upright as dim blue light flickered to life around him.
He was inside something ancient.
The chamber was narrow, cylindrical, its walls lined with Vein conduits that pulsed like veins beneath translucent skin. The air hummed with power, and beneath it all was a faint mechanical ticking—slow, deliberate, patient.
Kael staggered to his feet.
"Where am I?" he whispered.
Below, Aurelia replied.
Her voice sounded different now. Clearer. Awake.
Below the parts they remember. Below the lies.
Kael pressed a hand to his head. "You said this place changes things."
It reveals them.
Before he could ask more, the chamber shuddered.
Far above, something detonated.
---
SHADEFALL — UPPER VEINS
Lysandra hit the ground hard as the platform collapsed beneath her.
She rolled, came up with her blade already drawn, instincts screaming as alarms blared through the Trial Chamber. Vein-spires flashed crimson. Soldiers poured in from every entrance, weapons raised, panic fracturing their formations.
"Seal the breach!" a commander roared.
Too late.
The shaft Kael had fallen through pulsed violently, Vein-light surging upward in unstable waves. Several soldiers were dragged screaming into the glow before dissolving into ash.
Lysandra ignored them.
"KAEL!" she shouted, rushing toward the edge.
Nothing.
Only light.
Her chest tightened.
She turned as a Shadefall enforcer lunged for her.
Steel rang.
Lysandra parried, twisted, drove her elbow into his throat, then kicked him backward into the abyss without hesitation.
"You don't get him," she snarled.
More soldiers closed in.
And then—
The Veins screamed.
A sound like metal tearing itself apart echoed through the chamber as one of the ancient pylons broke. Not shattered—opened. A seam split down its length, releasing a flood of holographic projections that flooded the chamber walls.
Images.
Data.
Memories.
The chamber fell silent as something long-buried spilled into view.
A man.
Tall.
Bloodied.
Half of his body encased in Vein-machinery.
One human eye.
One glowing.
A name flashed in ancient script:
ELIAS WYNN
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
"That's impossible," someone whispered.
"He died in the First Sundering."
Lysandra stared at the projection, heart hammering.
Kael's surname.
His face—not identical, but unmistakably related.
Older.
Harder.
Alive.
---
THE RECORDING
The hologram shifted.
Elias stood inside a ruined laboratory, sparks raining from the ceiling. His mechanical arm whirred softly as he adjusted a Vein-interface embedded into his chest.
"If you're seeing this," Elias said, voice distorted but firm, "then the cycle has failed again."
Councilors shouted.
"Shut it down!"
"Erase the projection!"
But the Veins ignored them.
Elias continued.
"I was wrong. I thought erasing Aurelia would save the world. I thought replacing her would end the resets."
The image flickered, showing rows of clone chambers.
Kael.
Over and over.
"I was wrong," Elias repeated, voice breaking. "Because the Veins don't want peace. They want continuity."
The projection jumped—
Elias running.
Explosions tearing through the facility.
Vein-constructs attacking him.
"I didn't die," Elias said. "I ran. I hid. And I watched as every new version of Kael was born… and broken."
Lysandra's grip tightened on her blade.
"So the rumors were true," she whispered. "You lived."
The recording glitched violently.
Elias turned toward the camera, eyes sharp.
"If Kael Arden is alive—if he has awakened—then the Veins are preparing another Sundering."
The chamber erupted into chaos.
"LIES!" a councilor screamed.
But fear had already spread.
Because the Veins pulsed again.
Harder.
---
KAEL — LOWER VEINS
Kael clutched his head as the Veins surged.
Images slammed into him—Elias running, hiding, rebuilding himself with stolen Vein-parts. Years bleeding into decades. Watching from the shadows as Sunbound and Shadefall repeated the same mistakes.
"He's alive," Kael breathed.
He always survives, Aurelia said quietly. He refuses to let the cycle end.
"Why didn't he come for me?"
Because he believes you are the trigger.
Kael's stomach dropped.
"He thinks I'll destroy the world."
He knows you can.
The chamber ahead of Kael opened.
A long corridor stretched forward, illuminated by fractured lights. At its end—
Movement.
Footsteps.
Mechanical.
Kael froze.
A silhouette emerged from the shadows.
Tall.
Broad.
Half-machine.
One glowing eye fixed on him.
"Kael Wynn," the man said.
The voice was distorted—but unmistakable.
Elias Wynn stood before him.
Alive.
Changed.
Weapon systems unfolded from his mechanical arm.
"You shouldn't have awakened," Elias said coldly.
The corridor locked down behind Kael.
Aurelia's voice sharpened.
He will kill you.
Kael swallowed hard, hands trembling.
"You're my—"
"Don't," Elias snapped. "I didn't create you to be my son. I created you to replace her."
The Veins hummed ominously.
"And if you fail," Elias continued, raising his arm, "I will end you like the others."
---
SHADEFALL — COLLAPSE
Above, Shadefall descended into open conflict.
Half the council ordered Kael's execution.
The other half panicked at the implications.
Lysandra fought her way through soldiers, blood on her hands, desperation in her chest.
"He's alive," she shouted at the council. "Your enemy never died!"
A councilor turned, eyes wide. "If Elias Wynn lives, then the First Sundering was never finished."
The Veins pulsed again.
Across the world—
Cities flickered.
Constructs malfunctioned.
Ancient systems began waking up.