The Regulator didn't retreat far.
Because it wasn't allowed to.
Something pulled it back not physically, but narratively like a line being dragged into the margins.
I felt it instantly.
Not an enemy.
Not a presence.
A decision.
The space above reality folded into a flat, colorless plane no depth, no distance Just text without language.
And then it spoke.
KAEL VEYRIS,
YOU ARE A CONTINUITY FAILURE.
This wasn't a voice.
It was the reason voices exist.
Aethern went rigid.
Nyx couldn't breathe.
Selene collapsed every future burning out at once.
That's not an author Aethern whispered.
That's the Editor.
The being that corrects authors.
The one that deletes gods who write themselves too freely.
The Editor didn't try to erase me.
It reframed me.
The world shifted genres.
from power to tragedy,
from dominance to inevitability.
I felt myself narrowing.
Not weakening.
Simplifying.
ALL STORIES MUST RESOLVE the Editor stated.
YOU REFUSE.
I clenched my fist.
Because resolution is optional I said quietly.The Editor made a gesture.
Not an attack.
A revision.
Reality sliced cleanly through my chest.
No blood.
No pain.
Just absence.
I dropped to one knee.
For the first time.
I couldn't immediately stand.
The Editor watched calmly.
YOU WILL END, it said.
OR BE REMOVED FROM ALL POSSIBLE TELLINGS.
I looked up at it.
Breathing slow.
Smiling faintly.
Then I replied,
you'll have to finish something that doesn't belong to you.
And somewhere deep inside the narrative.
Something in me shifted, preparing to answer.