A Starpath to Nowhere
Guided by starlight coordinates from the Looping Observatory, Cael and Mireth reach the Virelin Marshes—a sunken, mist-choked bog where the moon never reflects correctly off the water.
"This place is… wrong," Mireth mutters.
Even animals avoid the region.
Even maps avoid it—its boundaries shift.
The Cult of the Shaded Bloom
The marsh isn't uninhabited.
Cael and Mireth are ambushed by robed figures, their bodies tattooed with half-faded glyphs. They speak in riddles:
"He comes wearing absence. The Bloom opens."
They are part of a sect called the Cult of the Shaded Bloom, worshippers of the First Fracture, believing that true knowledge lies in undoing reality.
When they discover Cael can control Void glyphs, they don't kill him. They kneel.
The Root of Madness
The cultists guide Cael to the heart of the marsh: a sunken stone temple, long-buried, now raised by Void anomalies.
There lies the Fracture Seed:
A crystalline black core floating above a dead pool, pulsing with inverted light.
Its presence bends the marsh—roots grow upward, water flows sideways, and Mireth begins hearing whispers.
"This Seed is a relic," Cael realizes. "From the very first rift."
"And they've been… feeding it," Mireth adds, noticing bones at the base.
A False Coronation
The cultists declare Cael the "Scribe of the Endglyph," believing he is the one destined to "write the Final Seal."
They offer him their sacred text—a tome bound in flesh, filled with counterfeit Void runes. They want him to awaken the Seed.
Cael refuses.
But as he reaches for the true Seed, the temple reacts violently. One cultist breaks rank—mad, jealous—and triggers the Seed prematurely.
The reality around the temple fractures. Cael grabs the Seed and draws a Void rune midair—not to bind or control, but to absorb.
The Seed enters his Essentia Core, changing it permanently.
Mutation
After the Seed is absorbed:
Cael's veins briefly glow like starlight in reverse
His glyphs now manifest with temporal delay—echoing through space
He gains a new ability: Void Trace — the power to inscribe afterimages of intent, leaving effects that trigger seconds after he casts them
But the side effects?
Mireth touches his arm and recoils.
"Your soul… it's heavier than it was. Like it's dragging something else behind it."
Cael doesn't respond.
Because he hears something now.
A heartbeat, slow and deep—echoing from inside his own mind.