Silence was the first thing Kael heard.
Not quiet—but the kind of stillness that lived in the bones of old places. Places that remembered war.
He opened his eyes slowly.
White ceiling. Flickering lights. A hum—like machinery submerged in water.
His body ached in strange ways. Not pain. More like… disconnection.
He sat up slowly.
He was lying on a steel table inside what looked like a derelict medical chamber. The walls were covered in long-dead monitor panels, wires torn out like veins. Dust choked the air. A rusted symbol was etched into the ceiling:
◯◯◯ — Seven Circles Intertwined.
Kael froze.
It matched the symbol he saw in his vision—during the Threadfall. The Soul Loom glyph.
His chest pulsed.
[ARX.PROTOCOL: Active]
[Soul Loom Resonance: 14%]
[Thread Count: 3 / 7]
Dormancy mode deactivated.
Kael stood. His balance returned too fast—his legs moved like they already remembered something his brain didn't.
He walked toward the broken door, brushing aside a fallen chair. Faint light streamed through the cracks, illuminating old books and shattered glass cases filled with melted injection tubes.
Then came the voice.
Low. Smooth. Not human—but not digital.
Old. Deep. Familiar.
"You should not have survived the Threadfall."
Kael froze.
"Who said that?" His voice was hoarse.
No one answered.
Only the room replied—groaning slightly as the air shifted. Then—
"Look inward, Kael Iroh. The voice is not from the outside."
"It never was."
His Loom pulsed.
Then the world rippled like water.
Kael fell to his knees, gasping.
A vision flooded him again—but different this time.
It wasn't memory. It wasn't time.
It was a place inside him.
An inner realm.
He stood now in a vast, dark chamber lit by glowing threads floating in the air, like stars trapped mid-fall. There was no floor—only woven strands beneath his feet, humming like heartbeat rhythms.
And at the far end of the chamber stood a figure.
Tall. Hooded. Its face hidden behind a mask of interlocked threadwork.
The Watcher.
But now Kael understood. This wasn't a person. It wasn't a spirit. It wasn't a system avatar.
It was… him.
Or part of him. Pulled from something deeper.
"What are you?" Kael asked, voice shaking.
"I am the thread that chose not to break."
"The scar that remembered."
"I am your Primordial Self."
Kael's breath caught.
"You… live inside me?"
"Not quite. I am a fragment, born of the first collapse. A remnant of what your soul once was—before memory, before name."
"When the Loom awakened, I returned."
Kael staggered back. "Why now? Why choose me?"
The Watcher raised a hand—and with it, threads unraveled the air itself, revealing the
Hollow Zone, the boys he'd fought, the moment the sky split.
"Because something ancient stirs. The Arkanexus has pulsed for the first time in nine thousand years."
"You are the first vessel to survive a full Threadfall since the original collapse. The first Loom not to break under the weight of it."
Kael clenched his fists. "I didn't ask for this."
"And yet… here you stand."
Kael turned from the Watcher.
"Why show yourself now?"
The Watcher stepped closer.
"Because you must understand what you carry."
The chamber shifted.
In the air above them, seven rings appeared—each orbiting a glowing core. A loom made of stars and scars.
"Your Soul Loom is one of seven core vessels. Each contains a Thread of Law—an ancient binding force that once held reality stable."
"Yours has inherited the first thread: Echo—memory, emotion, mind."
"But six others remain."
Kael stared at the rings. "And if I… collect them?"
The Watcher's mask tilted.
"You won't just grow stronger."
"You'll start rewriting the laws of the world itself."
"But there's a cost. Every thread you bind cuts something loose. Each time you take, something must be unwoven."
"Your name. Your past. Your fate."
Kael took a long breath.
"I want to know the truth."
"Then weave it."
A thread hovered in front of him—shimmering blue.
[Thread Path: Echo Recall]
[Upgrade Available: Inner Thread Expansion]
— Unlock memory loop for personal lineage.
Kael reached for it.
And the world shattered again.
He woke back in the real world, gasping.
The clinic was still. The lights dim.
But something inside him had changed.
The Watcher was still there. Quiet now. A presence, not a voice.
[Soul Loom Status: Enhanced]
[Primordial Thread Detected: Memoryline Activated]
[New Skill: Self-Refract - Reconstruct lost identity fragments through internal resonance]
— Progress toward Primordial Unity: 3%
Kael exhaled.
The Arkanexus hadn't just given him power.
It had given him... himself.
Or the pieces he'd forgotten he lost.
And something told him—he wasn't the only one being put back together.