The Celestial Realm was silent.
Not with fear—but with awe.
Where once the Loom's threads stretched rigid across the stars, now they shimmered freely, weaving, unweaving, and dancing with a rhythm the gods had never known. Reality no longer moved in obedience to a divine script—it breathed.
Kael stood at the edge of the throne's remains, where Vaelion's reign had ended. Around him, shards of broken laws hovered, glowing softly. He reached for one, and it turned into a spiral of light—undefined, alive.
Behind him, Lyra approached. Her gaze swept over the fractured court, her voice low. "They're afraid. Not of you… but of what this freedom means."
"They should be," Kael replied, not cruelly, but with quiet certainty. "Choice terrifies those who've only ever known obedience."
Across the floating spires of the realm, the surviving deities began to stir.
From the eastern winds came Elaris, Goddess of Memory, her mind fractured from trying to hold the old and the new at once. "What are we now," she whispered to herself, "without the certainty of the Loom?"
From the Sea of Echoes rose Thorne, the blind god who had once enforced Vaelion's judgments. Now he wandered the ruins, listening not for verdicts, but for possibility.
And in the shadows of the Abyss, something else stirred.
Kael felt it before he saw it—the Abyss responding to the change. The entity within him pulsed, not with malice, but with anticipation.
"The Abyss is awakening," Kael said, eyes narrowing. "Not just as a void… but as a voice."
Lyra's brow furrowed. "You mean it's… alive?"
Kael turned to her. "It always was. But now, with the laws broken… it's no longer bound. It wants to speak. And it's coming."
Just then, the skies above them fractured.
A rift formed—not of destruction, but of raw potential. From its depths, echoes poured out—glimpses of alternate realities, versions of Kael who never broke free, versions of Selene who ruled as a tyrant, and even glimpses of Vaelion, reborn in mercy instead of control.
The gods stared in horror. Possibility was beautiful—but it was also infinite. Without guidance, it could become madness.
Kael stood at the heart of it all, his power flickering between divine and human. The entity whispered to him again, its voice clearer now.
> "You are not just the Celestial God. You are the First Catalyst."
Kael understood.
He was not here to rule the new world.
He was here to guide those who would shape it.
"I need to return," he said. "To the mortal plane. To the place where threads begin. If the world is to survive the unwritten, it must learn how to dream again."
Lyra touched his arm. "Then I go with you."
The rift widened.
Below, Earth stirred.
And above… the Abyss opened its eyes.
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