Chapter 20: Shadows in Thornveil
Weeks slipped past in Thornveil, each one carving the ruin of the temple into something closer to a stronghold. Rain no longer poured through the cracked roof, patched tiles kept most of it out. Rubble had been cleared into neat piles at the edges of the hall. Lysera's woven charms steadied the hum of the Loom until the air inside was cooled and calm, almost reverent.
Thorek had gone from hammering madness on a bed of stones to forging true steel. His bellows pumped with a steady rhythm, smoke rushing through a vent he'd cut into the wall. He turned out nails, fittings, new blades, and experiments that worried everyone until they worked. The sound of hammer on anvil had become the temple's heartbeat.
They had grown too. Not from drills, they didn't bother repeating the details anymore, but from what it meant to survive together. Noll could raise a ward and hold it steady even under pressure. Elvi's arrows never wavered, even when shot through fog. Hale's voice could set them moving like one line, one shield. Lysera veiled and unveiled passages with a flick of her hand. And Elias… Elias no longer stumbled every time he asked the Loom for power. His Commander Resonance ,as he had begun to call it, pulsed in rhythm, steady as a drum, nudging allies where they faltered. He had even begun to twist the Loom with ideas borrowed from Earth, vibrating the spearhead to pierce tougher hides, starving air before igniting it so fire burst hotter and brighter.
Rook had grown too, his ThreadFang frame sleek and lethal, silver eyes catching every flicker. He patrolled the temple grounds like he'd been born to guard them, and when Elias scratched his ruff, the wolf leaned close with a gravity that made the others keep their distance.
But Thornveil didn't grow quiet just because they did. Each night the howls of Threadbeasts came closer. Wolves, sometimes, other things, too, low grunts that rolled underfoot, too heavy to belong to anything lean.
By the time Hale called for a deeper hunt, no one argued.
"We need meat," he said, setting his spear across the stone table like an order writ in iron. "And we need to test ourselves against something worse than wolves."
Thorek grinned. "I've a hammer that's been sulking for want of proper work."
Elvi rolled her eyes but strung her bow anyway. Noll checked his bracers, caught himself fussing, and forced his hands still. Lysera set two wards at the door and nodded once. Elias rolled his shoulder until it cracked and found the ache meant readiness, not weakness. Rook stretched and padded to his side, hackles already rising at the scent of the fog.
They entered Thornveil beneath a sky the color of lead. The fog clung low, curling around tree trunks like smoke, dripping from moss hung branches. The ground was wet, roots slick underfoot, the air tasting of iron and rot.
They moved in formation without needing to be told. Hale at the point, Elvi left flank, Lysera right, Noll tucked near Hale, Thorek in the middle to anchor, Elias at center with Rook.
Signs appeared soon enough. Churned soil. Trees with bark ripped in parallel arcs, low to the ground. Tufts of coarse hair snagged on branches. Elias crouched and pressed his palm to a fresh groove. Sap still bled slow from it. His Resonance Sense caught a dull vibration thrumming faintly along the mark, like a drumbeat buried under earth.
"Boars," he said.
"Threadboars," Lysera corrected, crouching beside him. Her fingers traced the scored bark. "Tusks like hooks. Armor ridges along their backs. They don't stalk. They charge until something breaks."
"Lovely," Elvi muttered. "A new way to ruin my day."
"Better than dying of boredom," Thorek said cheerfully.
Hale silenced them with a look and pressed forward. The sound reached them before the beasts did, low grunts, steady and deep, each one vibrating through the ground. Elias felt it in his ribs before his ears caught it, a rhythm of muscle and hunger. He lifted his head.
"Two," he said. "Left is fast. Right's slower, heavier."
Hale didn't hesitate. "We take the fast one first. Shift and break the line."
Noll's hands twitched toward weaving, but Hale steadied him with a glance. "Hold, not too early."
The ground trembled. Brush cracked. Then the first boar tore from the fog.
It was massive, shoulders ridged with plates of natural armor that caught the light like black stone. Tusks curved forward, hooked and cruel. Threads glowed faintly along its hide, not like a weave but like the Loom itself had pressed too hard when shaping it. The boar saw them and came, a living avalanche of muscle and rage.
"Line!" Hale barked.
Noll's ward flared, quivering, and Elias pulsed Resonance through it, smoothing the wobble. Elvi loosed an arrow, then another, the first sank above the eye, the second skipped off armor. Hale angled his spear to guide the charge wide.
Rook moved like lightning, launching forward with a snarl that split the fog. Elias followed, his spear humming with micro vibrations, the edge biting deeper than steel should. The point sank into a ridge, sliding through like mortar giving way. The boar screamed, thrashing, tusks gouging the earth.
Thorek was already there, hammer rising and falling, laughter booming with every crack of bone. Elvi's arrows kept finding gaps, Hale struck when the beast faltered, and Noll's ward held long enough to keep the line from breaking.
The forest erupted with sound.
And then the second boar came crashing in from the right.
Elias felt it first, his Resonance Sense vibrating sharp in his bones. He shoved power outward, nudging Hale's stance, snapping steadiness into Noll's hands, sparking warning across Lysera's veil. When the beast slammed through, they weren't standing where it expected.
The tusk grazed the ward but didn't shatter it. Rook hit its flank like a thrown blade. Hale pivoted. Elias swung his spear, feeding the hum until it bit deeper, faster, cleaner.
The fight was chaos, fog and tusks and silver light, and it had only just begun.
The second boar's charge rattled the earth, trees shivering as it barreled through. Fog tore apart in front of its tusks. It was larger than the first, hide ridged in jagged plates, eyes glowing a dull amber that caught the Loom's hum like embers in ash.
"Right flank!" Hale barked, pivoting his spear in a fluid sweep. Elvi was already moving, boots crunching over wet leaves, bowstring pulled taut. Her first shot slammed into the beast's shoulder joint, didn't pierce fully, but the impact twisted its lunge enough to keep it from skewering Noll outright.
Noll's ward flared a heartbeat too late, but Elias pushed resonance into it, his Commander's pulse steadying the weave before it collapsed. The tusk hit, sparks hissing across the barrier, but this time the shield held.
Rook streaked past with a snarl, silver eyes burning, claws raking across the beast's flank. The boar screamed, a guttural sound that shook Elias's teeth. It bucked hard, flinging mud into the air as it tried to twist after the wolf.
"Now!" Hale snapped, and they moved.
Elias's spear thrummed in his hands. He fed resonance down the shaft, not the usual raw channeling, but a tight vibration he remembered from Earth, like a cutting torch humming against metal. The blade sang as it struck the boar's ridge, slipping through armor where it should have bounced. Hide parted with a screech. Blood sprayed hot across the fog.
The beast reeled, and Thorek was there, hammer crashing down with a bellow of joy. Bone cracked. The boar staggered. Hale thrust deep, clean and efficient, his spear sinking through the wound Elias had carved.
But the first boar wasn't dead. It lurched upright with a snort, tusks gouging the earth, blood streaking its snout.
"Fuck," Elias growled, ripping his spear free.
Elvi dropped to a knee, loosing three arrows in quick succession. Two found soft gaps under the armor plates, sinking to the fletching. The third skittered wide, but it didn't matter, the wounded boar shrieked and wheeled, still deadly even with half its blood on the ground.
"Keep them apart!" Hale barked, shifting to anchor between them.
Noll's face was pale but set. He raised his ward again, arms trembling but steady, holding his ground instead of falling back. Elias caught the fear under the boy's jaw and pulsed resonance into him, a reminder, a steady drumbeat saying stand, stand, stand.
The younger boar thundered toward them again, tusks lowered.
Elias didn't think, he remembered, fire drills on Earth, oxygen starved engines catching when the mix finally flared. He wove fire, then pulled at the air around it, stripping oxygen from a pocket before letting it collapse back in. The flame didn't just burn, it exploded, bursting into a white, hot roar that engulfed the beast's head for a blink. The shockwave staggered it, tusks gouging dirt instead of flesh.
"Hell yes!" Thorek roared, swinging his hammer into the stunned beast's ribs. The impact boomed, reverberating through the ground.
Lysera stepped forward, hands weaving a thin veil across its eyes. The boar shrieked, blinded and furious, crashing against trees it couldn't see.
"Finish it!" Hale commanded.
Rook lunged, silver streak tearing across the beast's throat. Elias followed, spear humming, vibrating through muscle and vein. The blade sank clean, deep, until the boar collapsed with a crash that shook leaves from branches.
The last one still stood, panting, bleeding, tusks gouging furrows in the dirt. Elvi circled, firing steadily, each arrow sinking deeper now that its armor was cracked. Hale advanced with relentless steps, every thrust precise.
Elias caught its final lunge. He braced, spear vibrating, humming like a live wire. When tusk met steel, the resonance tore through, splitting the ridge down to bone. The boar screamed once, then Thorek's hammer silenced it in a single skull crushing blow.
Silence fell heavy in the fog.
Steam rose from split hides, blood soaking into the forest floor. Their breaths came ragged, boots slipping in the churned muck, but they stood.
Elias leaned on his spear, chest heaving, sweat stinging his eyes. "Shit," he muttered, voice rough with adrenaline, "that's one way to skip morning drills."
Thorek barked a laugh. "Shortstack's learning! Knew there was a forge fire in you somewhere."
Elias shot him a look, half grin, half glare. "Keep calling me that and I'll let one of those bastards use you for a chew toy."
Elvi, deadpan as ever, lowered her bow. "He'd still laugh through it."
The dwarf beamed like she'd just handed him a medal.
Rook padded back to Elias, muzzle bloodied, chest heaving. The wolf pressed against his leg, grounding him in a way nothing else did. Elias scratched his ruff, breathing out slowly, pulse finally finding calm.
Hale turned, eyes sweeping the team like he was tallying a ledger. He gave a short nod. "Better," he said simply.
No one argued.
They hadn't just survived, they'd won clean. Together.
The fog curled back slowly, carrying the stink of blood and burnt air. The Threadboars lay broken where they had fallen, tusks gouging the ground like dead roots, their armored hides steaming in the damp.
Hale let his spear point sink into the earth and leaned on it, eyes scanning the tree line as though expecting more. Nothing came. Just the wind, soft and uneasy.
"Strip the cores," he said finally. "Fast and clean. We don't linger."
Thorek was already rolling up his sleeves, humming like a man about to crack a keg instead of a carcass. Elvi knelt without a word, knife flashing as she began to open the first beast's chest.
Elias crouched by the nearer boar, Rook watching him closely, silver eyes bright with hunger. The wolf's ears flicked forward every time Elias's blade cut through hide, as though he could already feel the resonance inside. Elias carved carefully, pulling flesh aside until the faint glow shone from within.
There it was. The core. A hard knot of crystalized thread light, pulsing faintly like a slowed heartbeat.
Elias gritted his teeth, slid the knife under, and pulled the core free. It pulsed hot in his hand, faint light dripping across his palm like threads of molten glass. He handed it to Rook, who snapped it up between his jaws and swallowed whole, throat working once before he licked his muzzle with a satisfied huff.
Elias rubbed his hand off on his trousers. "That's… unsettling."
"Better unsettling than dead," Hale said curtly, moving to help Elvi with the second beast.
They cracked the ribcage open, bone groaning, and Thorek reached in with scarred fingers to haul the core loose. He laughed as it came free, the sound booming in the fog. But his laughter stopped as soon as he turned it over in the forge-light.
"Saints blind me," he muttered, voice lower than usual. "Look at this."
The others gathered. Elias leaned close and felt the prickle before he saw it, lines etched into the surface of the core, not natural striations but deliberate marks, fine as spider-silk, curling into sigils that hummed faintly against his Resonance Sense.
Lysera's face hardened. "That's woven."
Elias frowned. "You mean someone… branded the damn thing?"
She nodded once, slow. "This wasn't born in the forest. These boars were altered."
Elvi swore under her breath, stringing her bow again even though the beasts were dead. Noll swallowed hard, eyes darting between the carved symbols. "The Church?" he asked.
"It has their stink," Lysera said bitterly. "Their Wardens twist beasts for war, claim it's holy work, say the Loom provides. But these marks… they're crude. Rushed. Someone's cutting corners."
"Or hiding tracks," Hale said grimly, closing his fist around the core as though to smother its glow. "Doesn't matter who. What matters is we're standing on the board now."
The silence that followed was heavier than the fog.
Thorek finally broke it with a snort. "Well, shit. If the bastards are tinkering with boars, I can't wait to see what they do to snakes. Maybe give 'em wings."
Elias shot him a look. "Don't give them ideas."
The dwarf grinned without shame. "What, you think priests can't dream up worse than me? I'm insulted."
But the grin faded as his gaze went back to the etched core. Even Thorek knew this wasn't just another fight.
By the time they had finished, the fog was thickening again, curling low, the forest alive with distant sounds. Not just howls now. A deeper note, rumbling, as if something larger moved far off.
"Time to go," Hale said firmly.
They hauled the carcasses just far enough into the brush that scavengers would find them, then made for the temple at a hard pace. No one spoke until the wards Lysera had left on the entrance shimmered faintly in greeting, welcoming them back into the shelter of stone.
Inside, they laid the core they hadn't fed to Rook on the altar steps. It glowed faintly in the dark, like coals banked for later.
Elias sat heavily against the wall, wiping blood and sweat from his brow. His ribs ached, but not with injury—just the reminder of strain. He glanced at the core, then at the others. "So the Church is making Threadbeasts worse on purpose."
Lysera's gaze sharpened. "It's not the Loom. Not the world. It's them."
"Why?" Noll asked, voice small but steady.
"To control through fear," Elvi said flatly, leaning on her bow. "Unleash monsters, then claim to be the only shield. It's what they do."
Hale's jaw tightened. He looked at each of them in turn, then down at the blood still slicking his hands. "This is our proof. Our first thread pulled loose."
No one argued.
The fire crackled in the hearth Thorek had built, shadows dancing across the temple walls. Rook settled at Elias's side, head heavy on his lap, silver eyes half lidded but still alert.
Elias stroked the wolf's ruff, staring at the glowing cores across the room. His Resonance Sense thrummed faintly in his bones, not just with the hum of the Loom, but with the knowledge that the fight ahead wasn't just beasts and hunger anymore. It was men twisting the threads of the world for their own gain.
He whispered under his breath, too soft for the others to hear. "Damn. We're in it now."
The Loom hummed low in reply, the temple's stones holding the sound like a secret.