The next morning, Vell woke up before anyone else. The energy from the core still buzzed inside him. He quietly walked to the edge of their camp and held out his hand.
"Let's see what this can really do," he whispered.
He focused on the air in front of him. Silver light flowed from his fingers, creating a small patch of shimring energy about the size of his palm.
'Interesting,' he thought. When he touched the patch, it felt solid - like he had made a piece of the air turn into glass.
[This is just the beginning. With practice, you can make larger areas.]
Ruby's voice ca from behind him. "Master, what are you doing?"
He let the silver energy fade. "Just testing sothing new."
"Ooh, is it from that core yesterday?" She bounced on her toes, tail wagging. "Can I see?"
"Maybe later. We should get moving."
As the others woke up, he checked the black box they found. He pulled out the research notes again.
"Listen to this," he said as everyone gathered around for breakfast. "'The fractures aren't random. They follow a pattern that only becos clear when mapped across both space and ti. Sothing is trying to create a network.'"
"A network of what?" Wren asked, looking concerned.
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"It doesn't say, but look at this diagram." He showed them a page with dots connected by lines. "Each dot is a fracture location."
Ada studied it carefully. "They almost look like they're forming a circle around sothing."
"But what's at the center?" Regina asked.
He turned the page. "There's a reference to sothing called 'The Hollow Throne' but not much else. The researcher seems to have been looking for it."
[The Hollow Throne is where the barriers are thinnest. It's likely the first place that will fully break if the seals fail.]
'And you didn't think to ntion this before?' He thought irritably.
[You weren't ready for that information.]
After breakfast, they packed up camp. Their plan was to head back to the guild to report their success.
"Master, look!" Jia suddenly pointed at the sky.
A thin silver line had appeared above them, like a crack in the air itself.
"Another fracture?" Ruby asked, grabbing her daggers.
"No." His new senses told him this was different. "It's too small, and the energy signature is wrong."
He raised his hand, silver light gathering in his palm. The crack in the sky seed to respond, pulsing with the sa silver glow.
"I think... I think it's calling to ," he said, surprised.
[Interesting. The Reality Anchoring ability seems to have established a connection to the network.]
The silver line widened slightly, revealing a glimpse of sowhere else - not another fracture, but a place with twisted black spires under a bleeding sky. At its center stood an enormous throne carved from what looked like frozen darkness, completely empty yet sohow watching.
"What is that place?" Regina whispered, her voice trembling.
"I don't know, but I think we're ant to go there."
"Is it safe?" Wren asked.
He tested the air with his new senses. "It's stable, not corrupted. And sohow... familiar." The emptiness of that throne seed to pull at sothing deep inside him.
[This is unexpected. The Void Lattice normally doesn't reveal itself to beginners. Your absorption of the fracture core must have accelerated the process.]
'Void Lattice?'
[The true na of what the researcher called "the network." The fractures are rely nodes in the Lattice - doorways into the space between spaces.]
"So what do we do?" Ada looked at him, waiting for his decision.
He thought for a mont. "We need to report back to the guild first. But we'll co back here after. Whatever this is, it's important."
As if responding to his decision, the silver line narrowed and faded away.
"It's gone!" Ruby said.
"Not gone, just waiting. I can still feel it, like a thread I could pull if I wanted to."
They continued their journey back to town. As they walked, Vell felt the silver energy settling deeper into his being, becoming more a part of him.
"Master," Wren said after they'd been walking for an hour, "do you think the researcher was right? About the fractures being connected?"
"I think he discovered sothing true, but didn't understand it fully, or maybe he understood too well, and it drove him mad."
"What does that an for us?" she persisted.
He looked at her thoughtfully. "It ans our job just got a lot more complicated. We're not just clearing random fractures anymore. We're part of sothing bigger."
[She's smart, this one. Careful how much you reveal.]
'She is my kid, if anything, I trust her more than you,' he thought back. 'They deserve to know what they're getting into.'
[.....]
By midday, they reached the edge of town. The guild hall stood at the center, its banner flapping in the breeze.
"Let's report our success, but keep the details about the researcher and the core between us for now. And especially nothing about the Hollow Throne. Sothing tells not everyone needs to know everything."
The girls nodded in agreent.
As they walked through town, he noticed sothing strange. His new senses picked up tiny silver threads in the air, invisible to normal sight. They crisscrossed the town like a web spun by so cosmic spider, connecting to certain buildings and people.
'What am I seeing?' he wondered.
[The Void Lattice is everywhere, once you know how to look for it. Those threads connect to others who have encountered fracture energy - most don't even realize they're being watched through it.]
His eyes narrowed as he followed one thread to a rchant smiling at custors. The man seed normal, but a faint silver glow surrounded him, and for just a mont, he thought he saw sothing else standing behind him - sothing tall and thin with too many joints.
'How deep does this go?' he thought, suppressing a shudder.
[That's what you're here to find out, isn't it? What sits upon the Hollow Throne?]
As they approached the guild hall, he made a decision. This was just the beginning of sothing much darker than a simple adventure. The tower, the fractures, the mysterious Hollow Throne - they were all connected.
And sohow, he was now at the center of it all.
"Ready?" Ruby asked as they reached the guild doors.
He nodded, his hand resting on his sword. "As ready as I'll ever be-"
For a brief mont, he thought he felt the cold emanating from that empty throne, as if it had already claid him.
[The real climbing begins now, Vell. What waits beyond the Hollow Throne is watching.]
"Master?" Ruby called, "are you ok?"
"Huh? yeah, let's head in." but then he stop abruptly, "stop, let's leave, we don't jabe to tell this people anything, we don't even know them. What was I thinking coming here like a fool."
[I was thinking the sa, you were not acting like yourself master.]
'oh, you are back, I am guessing the tower has disconnected.'
[Disconnected? its not a network lol.]
He shook his head, feeling like he was waking up from a trance. The silver threads he'd been seeing around town suddenly looked different - not a helpful guide but more like puppet strings.
"Master, what's wrong?" Wren asked, looking worried.
"Change of plans," he said firmly. "We're not going in after all."
Ruby tilted her head. "But don't we need to report our mission?"
"Think about it,"he said, leading them away from the guild hall. "We found sothing strange in that fracture. The researcher was studying these events for a reason. What if reporting this brings unwanted attention?"
The girls exchanged uncertain glances.
"Rember," he continued, "we chose this mission ourselves from the board. But who posted it there? And why was such a dangerous task left for anyone to take?"
Ada nodded slowly. "I did think it was strange how a fracture mission was just sitting there, available to newcors like us."
"Exactly, let's find sowhere private to talk."
They found a small tea shop on the edge of town. It was nearly empty, with just an old man dozing in the corner. Vell chose a table far from the windows and ordered tea for everyone.
When they were settled, he leaned in and spoke quietly. "I've been seeing things since I absorbed that core. Silver threads connecting certain people, buildings."
"Like what you saw in the sky?" Jia asked.
"Similar, but different. And just now, when we were about to enter the guild, I felt sothing trying to... guide my thoughts. Push toward sothing."
"The Hollow Throne?" Regina suggested.
"Maybe." He pulled out the black box with the research notes. "Let's take another look at these."
He opened the box and spread the papers on the table, careful to keep them hidden from view. Most were covered in scribbled diagrams and equations, but one page stood out - a map with locations marked all over it.
"Look," he pointed to a symbol in the center of the map. "I think this is the Hollow Throne the researcher ntioned. And these marks around it must be fracture locations."
Wren studied the map carefully. "The fractures make a pattern around it, like they're... protecting sothing?"
"Or containing it," he muttered.
[She really is smart.]
'Where were you anyways?'
[Watching. The tower was feeding you half-truths. I couldn't interfere directly without alerting it.]
'So the tower was lying?'
[Not entirely. The fractures are real. The danger is real. But the tower isn't trying to help you stop them - it's trying to use you to unseal sothing.]
'and you know this how?'
[Because you are the one who sealed that thing in the first place.]
'huh?'
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