The laughter beneath the city lingered.
Not in the air.
In memory.
Eryndor sat motionless.
The shattered remains of his cup lay scattered across the tavern floor.
Nobody spoke.
Even the fire seemed uncertain whether it should continue burning.
Kael finally broke the silence.
"...I hate when reality laughs."
A nearby patron immediately stood up.
Placed money on the counter.
And left.
"Where's he going?" Eryndor asked.
Kael watched the door close.
"Somewhere reality isn't laughing."
"Does such a place exist?"
"No."
"Then why leave?"
Kael sighed.
"Hope."
That was depressingly reasonable.
Across the tavern, conversations slowly resumed.
Quietly.
Nervously.
People had felt something.
Most couldn't explain it.
Ordinary people rarely understood Concept pressure.
They only knew that sometimes their instincts screamed.
And wise people listened.
Nysera remained standing.
Her eyes were distant.
Focused on something far below.
The shadows around her feet had become unnaturally still.
That worried Eryndor more than when they moved.
"What happened?" he asked.
Nysera's gaze didn't leave the floor.
"Something woke up."
"That's not reassuring."
"It wasn't meant to be."
"...Fair."
Kael pinched the bridge of his nose.
Every conversation he had lately felt like losing an argument against a puzzle.
The envelope still sat on the table.
Unopened.
Kael pointed at it.
"Open it."
"No."
"Why?"
"It might be dangerous."
Kael stared.
"Eryndor."
"What?"
"You walked into an underground city beneath reality."
"..."
"You fought a regressor."
"..."
"You followed a woman whose shadows have opinions."
For the first time—
Nysera looked mildly offended.
"My shadows are perfectly reasonable."
Kael blinked.
"...That wasn't the part I expected you to respond to."
Eryndor immediately opened the envelope.
Some things were simply too strange to ignore.
Inside was a single piece of paper.
Only one sentence.
COME ALONE.
Below it:
A location.
A time.
Tonight.
Kael stared.
"...That's suspicious."
"You think?"
"It literally says come alone."
"Maybe they value privacy."
Kael looked at him.
Then at Nysera.
Then back at Eryndor.
"...You are going to get kidnapped."
"Probably."
"You're saying that far too casually."
Meanwhile—
far above the city—
inside the Scholar Tower—
an emergency meeting had begun.
Lysandor stood before a projection displaying dozens of reports.
Each one contained contradictions.
One stated that Eryndor was responsible for the anomaly.
Another proved he wasn't.
Both reports were authentic.
Both reports were impossible.
A scholar raised a hand.
"Which one is correct?"
Lysandor looked tired.
Very tired.
"Yes."
The scholar lowered his hand.
Nobody asked further questions.
Deep down, everyone knew.
Reality was no longer providing reliable answers.
And that frightened them more than the anomaly itself.
Elsewhere—
in a hidden workshop buried beneath old city foundations—
a man stared at a floating weapon.
The sword hung suspended in the air.
Covered in hundreds of inscriptions.
Conceptual equations.
Interpretive diagrams.
Research notes.
The man adjusted a lens.
"No."
He erased three pages of calculations.
"Still wrong."
Another hour of work vanished.
He didn't seem upset.
Only interested.
The weapon trembled.
A faint pulse emerged from its core.
The researcher froze.
Slowly smiling.
"There you are."
The smile widened.
"Interesting."
The sword had just responded to something.
Something happening elsewhere in the city.
Something connected to a Thread.
And for a man who loved questions—
that was irresistible.
Far beneath Velkaris Prime—
the thing that had laughed continued walking.
Ancient streets stretched before it.
Golden Threads drifted through the darkness.
Most moved around it.
Some broke.
One vanished entirely.
The figure paused.
For the first time—
it looked upward.
Toward the surface.
Toward Eryndor.
And somewhere deep inside the city—
an ancient mechanism activated.
Not a weapon.
Not a door.
A signal.
One that had not been sent for centuries.
One that would be noticed by people all across the Infinite Weave.
The game board was expanding.
And new players were beginning to hear the invitation.