Leo was trying to fix a leaky faucet. It was a mundane, annoyingly normal Tuesday morning. His younger sister, Maya, was sketching at the kitchen table, and his mother, Elara, was humming a tune he hadn't heard in years while polishing a strange, silver locket.
The locket was the only relic of their past, a time before they had moved to this quiet, nameless city. It was covered in intricate patterns that seemed to shift when you weren't looking directly at them. "Mom, why do you polish that thing every day? It's just an old piece of metal, right?" Leo asked, wiping grease from his hands.
Elara's humming stopped. She looked at the locket, her expression unreadable. "Some things, Leo, are more than what they seem. They hold memories... and warnings."
Warnings? What kind of warnings could an old locket possibly hold? he wondered. Before he could ask, Maya pointed a pencil toward the window.
"Leo, Mom... look at the sky," she whispered, her voice trembling.
The sky was no longer blue. It was bleeding with colors Leo had never seen—shades of deep indigo and shimmering amber, swirling together in a silent, cosmic dance. A profound quiet fell over the world, as if all of sound had been erased. Then, a thin, white line of light tore through the heavens, widening into a crack that revealed glimpses of impossible universe.
The Convergence had begun.
As the world outside fractured, a sharp, cold pain shot through Leo's eyes. He squeezed them shut, and when he opened them again, the world was a different place. He could see faint, shimmering lines of energy connecting everything. He saw a soft, green aura around Maya, pulsing with fear. But it was his mother who drew his gaze. A powerful, deep blue energy, calm and ancient, swirled within her, completely hidden until this moment. What is this? Am I going crazy?
Suddenly, a guttural screech echoed from the street below. A creature, something that looked like a grotesque, winged rat, was perched on their neighbor's car, its claws digging into the metal. Its aura was a chaotic, muddy red, pulsing with hunger.
"Mom, what is that thing?" Maya cried, hiding behind Elara.
Leo's new sight gave him more information than he wanted. He saw the flow of energy in the creature's body, a physical life force he could somehow measure. A number appeared in his mind: Vitae Score: 18. He also saw a weak point—a flickering spot of unstable energy right between its wings.
Just then, his mother stood up. She clipped the silver locket around her neck and turned to face the window, her face grim. The deep blue energy within her began to glow brighter, visible even without Leo's new sight. She held up a hand, not in fear, but as if preparing for a fight.
The creature on the street was a monster from another world, but looking at his mother's calm, powerful stance, Leo had to ask himself a more terrifying question: who, or what, was she?