Chapter 122: The Thing Beyond Names
The sky tore open.
It wasn't a metaphor. It wasn't a spell. It was a tearing—like claws raking through silk, except the silk was the fabric of reality. Light and shadow bled through the cracks, and from those wounds in the world came the whisper of something ancient. Something that remembered the birth of time and had grown hungry in the silence between stars.
The Source.
It had no name because it had never needed one. It was not a being. It was the hunger that sparked being into existence. The Council Leaders thought they were summoning power. What they'd summoned instead was judgment.
Liana stood at the head of her army—no, not an army. A family. A collection of souls who had chosen to stand together. Her palms were open, her heart steady, though every instinct in her screamed to run.
