This flower is definitely trying to tell me something but what exactly and why is it making my teeth ache just looking at the pattern?
By nine in the morning, the Runestorm drizzle had started to fade and partly cloudy sky let patches of sunlight through, warming the temperature to about thirteen degrees Celsius. The Marketplaza was filling with residents going about their daily business, maybe fifty people moving between the steam-powered stalls and calling out greetings to each other.
Alucent crouched beside the flickering Glowrose, his frock coat already stained with amber ink from the Runequill in his pocket that kept leaking whenever it got excited about something. The violet flower continued its erratic pattern, petals opening and closing in a rhythm that made his teeth ache and his head throb.
Three long two short one long, it's like the flower is having some kind of mechanical seizure and trying to communicate at the same time.
Raya stood beside him, her green cloak billowing in the morning breeze and her auburn braid whipping around her shoulders. The scar on her left cheek was way more visible in the sunlight, a three-centimeter line that twitched every time the flower pulsed like they were connected somehow.
"I've never seen a Glowrose do this before" she said, her hand remaining near her sheathed Weaveblade. "They're supposed to be stable, clockwork mechanisms don't just malfunction for no reason"
Unless maybe something's interfering with them, something that definitely doesn't belong here and is messing with the natural order.
That's when a small voice spoke up from behind them.
"It's been doing that since yesterday"
They turned to see a boy, maybe twelve years old and four-eight in height with a wiry build and tousled brown hair. Hazel eyes that seemed way older than his years, like he'd seen things no kid should have to see. He wore a patched tunic and oversized boots that looked like hand-me-downs, clutching a brass Runetoken worth about a penny in Earth money.
"Who are you" Raya demanded, using that intimidating voice that probably worked on most people.
"Tavin" The boy stepped closer, seemingly completely unafraid of Raya's intimidating presence and intense stare. "I live in the orphanage near the old mill. I've been watching this flower since the Runestorm started"
An orphan like me now I guess, though I'm technically twenty-two in this body and he's actually lived his whole life without parents.
"Watching it, why?" Alucent asked, trying to keep his voice gentle since the kid seemed nervous.
Tavin's hazel eyes focused on him with startling intensity, like he was looking right through to something deeper. "Because I can hear it. The flower I mean. It's trying to warn us about something really bad"
Hear it, that's actually not the weirdest thing I've experienced lately considering I died and woke up in a different world with magic.
"What kind of warning"
"About the fate-weaver" Tavin whispered, glancing around like he was worried someone might overhear. "He's coming. The threads are getting tangled and everything's going wrong"
Raya's expression darkened and her scar twitched again. "Fate-weaver? Kid you're talking nonsense"
But I'm not so sure about that, the journal mentioned fate-weaving and this Tavin seems to know things he really shouldn't know at his age.
Alucent pulled the Runequill from his pocket, the amber ink swirling way more actively now, like it was responding to something invisible in the air. "Tavin what do you know about fate-weavers?"
"Just what the voices tell me" The boy's grip tightened on his Runetoken until his knuckles went white. "They whisper sometimes when the Runewells get bright. About someone who writes destinies, someone who shouldn't exist"
Voices from the Runewells, that's either a sign of mystical sensitivity or complete insanity and given everything that's happened to me I'm leaning toward mystical.
The Glowrose's pattern suddenly changed, becoming way more frantic and urgent. Its violet petals snapped open and closed in rapid succession like a telegraph key gone crazy, and a high-pitched screech emerged from its mechanical center. About one hundred hertz, like a smoke alarm running out of battery and trying to wake the dead.
"That's really new" Raya muttered, taking a step back from the flower.
Alucent knelt beside the flower and carefully touched one of its petals, the metal was warm and vibrating under his fingers. The Weave Anchor ring on his finger grew hot, and he could feel something really wrong with the Glowrose's internal mechanisms. Not broken exactly but corrupted somehow.
It's like there's something dark influencing the clockwork, something that definitely doesn't belong in this world and is trying to twist everything.
Without fully understanding what he was doing Alucent began sketching a rune on the flower's largest petal with his finger, a detection rune three centimeters square designed to reveal hidden influences. The geometric pattern came naturally to his hand as if his muscles remembered something his mind had never learned.
Runeforce flowed from the nearby Runewell twenty meters away, amplified by the residual energy from the morning's storm and crackling through his arm. The detection rune began to glow with violet light instead of the usual amber.
That's definitely not right, detection runes should be amber unless they're detecting something specifically wrong and dangerous.
The moment the rune activated, Alucent saw it, a tiny fragment of something dark embedded in the Glowrose's mechanical heart. Not metal not organic but something that seemed to absorb light instead of reflecting it, like a hole in reality.
"There" he said, pointing with a trembling finger. "Something's inside the mechanism. Something that really doesn't belong"
Raya leaned closer, her green eyes narrowing as she tried to see what he was pointing at. "I can't see anything"
"The rune shows it. Look through the violet light"
She positioned herself so the detection rune was between her and the flower's center, squinting through the strange glow. After a moment her expression changed to one of complete disgust like she'd bitten into something rotten.
"That's a Voidshard fragment" she said, backing away from the flower. "How the hell did that get in there?"
Voidshard, I've heard that name before from my inherited memories, something dangerous and expensive and definitely illegal.
"What exactly is a Voidshard?"
"Corrupted Runeforce" Raya explained, checking her Weaveblade instinctively. "It's what happens when someone tries to channel power from the wrong sources. Worth about twenty Goldweaves per shard on the black market but completely illegal to possess"
That's about two hundred dollars in Earth currency, serious money for something so small.
Tavin's eyes widened and he clutched his Runetoken tighter. "The fate-weaver uses those. The voices told me. He collects them to break the patterns"
Break the patterns? like the patterns in the Loom of Threads? this is all connected somehow and getting more dangerous by the minute.
Before Alucent could ask more questions, one of the steam-powered stalls nearby began making really concerning noises, grinding and hissing like something was seriously wrong with the boiler. The vendor, a five-five man with gaunt features and thinning hair, was hunched over his merchandise with unnatural stillness like a statue.
Then he looked up and his eyes were bright red.
Oh hell, that's not normal, that's definitely not normal and probably really bad news.
The possessed peddler moved with jerky unnatural motions like a marionette being controlled by someone who didn't quite understand how human bodies worked. In his hand was a twenty-centimeter knife that gleamed with an oily sheen and looked way too sharp.
"The boy knows too much" the peddler said, his voice hollow and echoing like it was coming from somewhere else. "The threads must not be revealed"
He lunged toward Tavin with the knife raised and murder in those red eyes.
No way, I'm not watching a kid get murdered right in front of me, not after everything I've been through.
Alucent threw himself sideways, tackling Tavin to the ground just as the blade swept through the air where the boy's head had been. One second of pure instinct and adrenaline, his heart pounding from trauma memories of the warehouse and being helpless.
Raya was already moving, her Weaveblade singing as it left its sheath with a sound like wind chimes. She didn't swing it though, instead she pressed her palm against the cobblestones and channeled Runeforce through the Marketplaza's Runepaths.
A binding rune appeared under the possessed peddler's feet, ten centimeters square and glowing with amber light that spread up his legs like living rope. The entire fight lasted maybe five seconds before he was completely immobilized and harmless.
That was really efficient, remind me not to get on Raya's bad side because she's apparently lethal when she wants to be.
The peddler's red eyes cleared immediately, confusion replacing the unnatural fury and his face going slack with shock. "What? where am I and why am I holding a knife?"
"Voidshard possession" Raya said grimly, examining the blade without touching it directly. "Someone's spreading corruption through the market goods"
She pointed at the knife handle. "There's another fragment embedded in the blade. This is definitely coordinated"
Coordinated by who, this Veyris person that Tavin mentioned or someone else entirely?
Alucent helped Tavin to his feet, the boy was shaken but unharmed and still clutching his Runetoken like a lifeline.
"Thank you" Tavin whispered, his voice barely audible. "The voices said you would help. They said you're really important to the pattern"
Important to the pattern? whatever that means but this kid seems to know things about the bigger picture that I definitely don't.
A small crowd had gathered around the incident, drawn by the commotion and the sight of someone being magically bound. Sir Vorn appeared from the direction of the Scribe's Tower, his monocle glinting in the sunlight and his expression serious.
"Voidshard corruption in the Marketplaza" he observed after examining the scene carefully. "This is quite troubling. Someone is deliberately seeding these fragments"
He turned to Alucent with something that might have been approval. "Your detection rune was well executed. Ten Copperweaves for discovering the corruption source"
A dollar for potentially saving lives, I guess that's fair though it seems like this kind of thing should pay way more.
Sir Vorn handed him the copper strips, warm from being charged with prosperity runes and humming faintly with contained energy. "I want you to check the other Glowroses in the plaza. If there are more Voidshard fragments we need to find them before anyone else gets possessed"
"What about him?" Raya pointed to the confused peddler who was sitting on the cobblestones looking completely lost.
"The possession appears to have passed. The Shadowcage Taboos should prevent him from being affected again for at least a day" Sir Vorn's expression was really grim. "But this attack was specifically targeted. Someone wanted to silence young Tavin"
Because he knows about the fate-weaver, which means this Veyris person doesn't want her existence known and is willing to kill kids to keep her secrets.
Alucent walked over to a flower vendor's stall and traded three of his newly earned Copperweaves for a healthy Glowrose, thirty cents seemed reasonable for something that might help him understand what was happening.
The moment he touched the new flower his Runequill began glowing way brighter, the amber ink responding to something in the Glowrose's clockwork mechanism. Not corruption this time but information like the flower was designed to store and transmit messages.
These aren't just decorative plants, they're some kind of communication network and someone's been using them to send coded messages around town.
"Tavin" he said, crouching down to the boy's eye level. "You mentioned the fate-weaver. Do you know anything else about him, a name maybe"
The boy's hazel eyes went distant like he was listening to something only he could hear, voices that came from somewhere else entirely. "Veyris" he whispered. "His name is Veyris and he's been waiting for you Alucent Luci"
Waiting for Me? how could he even know I exist unless whoever brought me to this world had done it for a specific purpose?
Unless his death and rebirth weren't random events but part of some larger plan that involved cosmic weaving and reality repair.
Raya's scar twitched again as she studied Tavin with new interest and concern. "Kid where exactly do you hear these voices"
"Near the Runewells mostly, when they pulse bright" Tavin pointed toward the center of the Marketplaza with a shaking hand. "But that one's been acting really strange too. Look"
The three-meter-wide Runewell at the plaza's heart was indeed behaving oddly, instead of the steady amber glow it should have maintained, it was flickering in the same erratic pattern as the corrupted Glowrose had been.
If the main Runewell is compromised this could affect the entire town's Runeforce supply and leave everyone defenseless.
"That's really not good" Raya said, unconsciously echoing his thoughts. "If someone's corrupting the Loom-Anchors themselves we're all in serious trouble"
She didn't finish the sentence but Alucent could imagine the implications, no Runeforce meant no steam-tech, no preservation systems, no defenses against whatever was spreading the Voidshard corruption.
And no way to maintain the connections to this Loom of Threads that everyone keeps talking about but nobody really explains.
Tavin was already walking toward the erratic Runewell, his oversized boots making soft sounds on the cobblestones and his face pale with concentration. "The voices are getting way louder" he said. "Something really big is about to happen"
Something big? wonderful.
Alucent looked at Raya who was checking her Weaveblade's amber glow, the weapon seemed to be responding to the same disturbances affecting the Runewells and Glowroses.
Whatever's happening, it's affecting all the rune-tech in the area, this Veyris person isn't just corrupting individual items, he's targeting the entire infrastructure.
The question was whether they could figure out how to stop her before she succeeded in whatever she was planning.