The dusk swallowed them.
Behind, Delta-9 had sealed itself like a wound closing with no scar—perfect, unnatural, final.
Kael said nothing for a long time.
The wind howled across the ridges, blowing dust into orange spirals. His team moved silently across the jagged trail, boots crunching against shattered bone-rock, eyes always on the path forward. No one trusted the terrain anymore.
Reality had shifted once.
It could shift again.
They stopped at a ridge outcropping, where a half-collapsed waystone marked an old hunter's camp. Tessia swept the area quickly for threats, ears twitching. Dren lit a fire with a flick of his rune-ring. Sera uncapped her canteen, then offered it silently to Kael.
He didn't drink.
He stared into the flames instead.
"They carved my name into the ruin."
Sera didn't flinch. "We saw."
"No," Kael said, quiet and sharp. "My real name. Veyron."
Zarith stirred. His fingers twitched, muttering words in sleep-speech again. "Roots… names… echoes…"
Kael finally turned to face them all. "Someone knew I'd come back. Not the world. Not the gods. The ruins. They're not just places—they're archives. Engines. Watchers."
Tessia's gaze was flat. "You're saying they were waiting for you?"
"I'm saying they remembered me."
Dren threw a stone into the dark. "So what? You're some forgotten king?"
"No." Kael's voice was colder than usual. "I'm the fracture. The one the cycle didn't expect."
Sera leaned forward. "Then we need to talk about what comes next."
Kael nodded. "We head east. There's a convergence zone forming near the ruins of Aelthorn Reach. Faction scouts won't beat us there if we move by night."
Tessia nodded once. "Aelthorn's wild. Untouched. The ruins there are said to bleed when the stars align."
"That's the one," Kael confirmed. "It's the next pressure point. And it may hold the key to what Veyron really means."
Dren looked up. "You think it's a bloodline thing?"
"I think it's worse," Kael replied. "I think it's a position."
A pause.
Then Zarith spoke, voice distant but clear: "Veyron… it's not a family name. It's a designation. Like a fail-safe written into fate."
The fire crackled.
Kael stood. "We move in an hour. No more than three words between us until we pass the iron pines. If they're watching…"
"They are," Zarith whispered. "More now than ever."
Elsewhere —
On the coast of South Veritas, a ruined observatory pulsed with light. A forgotten beacon—once tied to the Mind-Class ruins—flared to life for the first time in 400 years. It sent a ripple across the ley-grid that only the most attuned felt.
Princess Elira felt it while sparring in her training courtyard. She dropped her blade without realizing it.
In Runeblade Academy, Raven looked up from meditation and opened a sealed tome that hadn't responded to magic in decades. Inside was a single page:
"The one named Veyron will awaken the Interlace."
In the dead dunes, Warlord Skarvek cracked open a captured ruin core and roared in satisfaction. "The fire spreads," he said. "Let it burn deeper."
And in Aerathurn, Chancellor Myrael lit the Astral Table. Its orbits all tilted toward one name.
Kael Veyron.
Back in the wildlands
Kael's team descended the ridge under the stars. No words now. Just shadows, and the sounds of a world that had noticed them.
The Interlace trembled.
The players were moving.
And Kael?
Kael was already three turns ahead.
[ END OF CHAPTER 16 ]