> Location: Emberveil Nexus, Strategy Hall – 12 hours post-Choir breach
The warning came not through flame threads, but through disconnection.
One moment, the Nexus felt the subtle pull of the world—threadlines linking it to regions beyond: mountain cities, lowland fortresses, remote outposts still loyal to flame freedom.
The next?
Those lines were gone.
---
The Silence Spreads
Lin Suyin slammed her dataplate onto the strategy table, the flame projections flickering wildly.
"They've initiated a thread severance," she snapped. "Every known channel, down. No region recognition. No data backflow. Even the emergency glyph paths are collapsing."
Jiang stared at the glowing map—formerly crisscrossed with glowing lifelines.
Now: black veins.
Empty.
Dead.
"They're isolating us," Tian Xue said quietly.
Yan Feng stepped into the room, face grim.
"It's the Skycleave Edict."
Su Lian turned, dread in her voice. "You know it?"
He nodded. "It's not about destruction. It's worse. They cut a place out of the system completely. Make it… unanchored. Forgotten."
---
The True Threat
Xia Zhi stood in the corner, silent for most of the exchange. Now, her voice rang out, cold and clear:
"If they succeed, we'll vanish."
Jiang turned.
"Not just from communication?"
"No," she said. "From history. From memory. The threads won't just ignore us. They'll rewrite us. As if we never burned at all."
Everyone froze.
Even Tian Xue looked shaken.
"But," Xia Zhi continued, "there's a way to anchor ourselves."
---
Flame Anchors
She stepped to the center, raising her hands. Her Echoframe Flame ignited—images dancing through it. People. Places. Memories. Moments not hers.
"We need witnesses. External memories of us, of the Nexus. Not stored in threads, not dependent on the Sovereign system."
Jiang caught on.
"People. Survivors. Friends we helped. Lives we touched."
"Exactly," Xia Zhi said. "If they remember us… we exist. But only if the memory is real. Deep. Felt. Otherwise, Skycleave works."
Su Lian looked up, alarmed.
"That means we need to reconnect with those we saved."
"Fast," Suyin added.
---
The Mission
Jiang straightened.
"Then we split into three teams. Not to fight. To reignite memories. We find the children we rescued from Astral Grounds. The sparkbearers freed from Vex. The allies who heard our song when the Choir came."
He looked to Xia Zhi.
"You'll stay here. If the core pulse fades, you're the last thread tethering this place to the world."
She hesitated. "What if I forget?"
"You won't," he said softly.
"Because I'll remember you."
---
Final Moments
As the teams prepared to depart through unstable thread corridors, Su Lian handed Jiang a backup glyph beacon.
"If the cleave catches you mid-transit, this might pin you long enough to fight your way back."
"'Might'?" Tian Xue asked.
Su Lian smiled faintly.
"It's a very optimistic 'might.'"
Jiang turned toward the shimmering horizon, where the world beyond Emberveil was rapidly fading.
"Let's burn bright enough they can't look away."
And then he stepped into the breach.