Power, like fabric, tears easiest at the seam.
But some seams are stitched in blood.
---
Ari's Betrayal
Silence filled the Weft Catacombs.
The air buzzed with tension.
Sloane sat at the Resistance table. Cassien beside her. Elian across. Everyone waiting.
Ari entered, still dressed in her Gala disguise.
Sloane stood.
"You fed intel to the Empire," she said calmly. "You tried to have the Empress killed — in our name."
Ari didn't flinch. "The Empire needs chaos. So does our cause."
"You could've killed hundreds."
"I would've killed one." Her eyes were steel. "And made the world listen."
Elian's hand hovered near his blade-thread.
But Sloane raised hers.
"No."
Cassien frowned. "She's a traitor."
"She's a tool. One we can use."
Ari blinked.
"You're not handing me over?"
"You're going to keep feeding them," Sloane said. "But this time, you feed them what I write."
---
The Loom Key Reacts
Deep in the atelier, the Loom Key vibrated.
Threads unraveled from it on their own, forming complex weaves midair.
Cassien stared.
"This shouldn't be possible. The Key needs touch. Emotion. Purpose."
Sloane approached.
The threads shifted toward her like vines seeking light.
Then, words formed in the air.
> "A Second Weaver Awakes."
Elian backed away. "There's another?"
Sloane's stomach dropped.
"No. There's someone trying to take control."
---
The Empire's New Weapon
Across the continent, inside the House of Static — a secret R&D lab under Empress Virelle — scientists and seamancers surrounded a hovering mannequin.
A prototype couture construct. No human inside.
Woven from myth-tech and stabilized by quantum stitches.
They called it Project VANTA.
The Empress stepped forward, voice glacial.
"You say it learns from its opponents?"
"Yes, Your Grace," said the lead seamancer. "Each design it encounters, it adapts. Absorbs. Evolves."
"Can it defeat the Loom?"
"We believe so. We've already cloned fragments of the original weave from House Kaltz's archives."
"Give it a face," she commanded. "A name. Let the world see what post-human fashion looks like."
---
Tension Between Threads
That night, Sloane sat alone in her chamber, her loom glowing with restless threads.
Cassien entered silently.
"You haven't slept."
"I don't have time to sleep."
He approached, slowly.
"Let me help."
She turned, eyes hard.
"Do you trust me?"
"Yes."
"But I don't trust myself anymore. Every choice I make costs something."
He reached for her hand.
"Then let me pay some of that cost with you."
Her lip trembled.
"I never wanted to lead."
"You were born to."
A beat.
Then she leaned in.
And for the first time since the betrayal — she let herself be held.
Not as a general. Or a symbol.
But as a woman trying to stitch herself whole.
---
The Seam Opens
At dawn, a tremor rocked the atelier.
The Loom Key split into two halves — one glowing crimson, one icy blue.
And between them, a crack appeared in the air — like a tear in fabric.
Through it, they saw something impossible.
A second world.
Not a mirror.
A rival reality.
Where someone — or something — had claimed the Thread Sovereignty first.
A voice echoed through the rip.
> "Sloane Vey — the Empire is not your only enemy."
> "The Seam is waking."
> "Prepare."