The rain had been falling since morning.
Not the gentle kind. Not the romantic kind. This was the sort of rain that soaked into bone, that turned streets into mud and moods into quiet bitterness.
Kael Morvane stood barefoot in the execution square and wondered, distantly, if cold could be sharp enough to cut.
The stone beneath his feet was icy. Soaked. Old.
It had been washed by rain.
And by blood.
The square was full.
Not because people enjoyed executions—at least, not most of them—but because in the Empire of Veyrun, public death was considered educational.
A lesson.
A reminder.
A warning.
Kael's hands were tied behind his back with rough rope. His clothes—if they could still be called that—were little more than patched rags. Someone had tried to wash the dirt off him earlier, but it had only turned into streaks of gray across his skin.
He looked sixteen.
He was sixteen.
The guillotine towered behind him like a silent monument to finality. Its blade was wide, heavy, and so polished it reflected the gray sky above.
Kael did not look at it.
He looked at the crowd.
Thousands of faces.
Some bored.
Some curious.
Some quietly satisfied.
He searched them without really knowing why.
No one he knew was there.
That made sense. There was no one left.
A priest in white and gold stepped forward, holding a crystal tablet. His voice, enhanced by some minor sound-amplifying sigil, rolled across the square.
"Kael Morvane. Son of the traitor-executioner Halric Morvane. Convicted of existence violation, identity fraud, and fate irregularity."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"Fate irregularity" always did that.
It wasn't a crime most people even understood.
The priest raised the crystal.
"By decree of the Imperial Fate Registry, your life is forfeit."
He looked at Kael with thinly veiled disgust.
"May your next existence be more… cooperative."
Kael blinked.
"…Next existence?"
The priest frowned. "Do not speak."
Two soldiers pushed Kael forward, forcing him to kneel.
The rain ran down his face, into his eyes, down his neck.
Cold.
He did not tremble.
Not because he was brave.
But because he felt… empty.
Above the execution square, faint translucent symbols began to appear.
Everyone could see them.
They always could.
Each person in the crowd had a Fate Imprint.
A glowing, floating script above their head, visible only when the Registry or an execution ritual was active.
They looked like moving lines of light, constantly shifting, constantly rewriting themselves.
They showed:
Your life path
Your potential
Your probable end
The priest raised his crystal tablet.
"Let the system confirm the condemned."
The tablet glowed.
Light spread across the square.
Above every person's head, their Fate Imprint shimmered more clearly.
Above Kael's head—
Nothing.
The priest frowned.
He lifted the tablet higher.
The crystal chimed.
❖ SCANNING TARGET…
The light passed over Kael again.
❖ ERROR: NO RECORD FOUND
The priest's frown deepened.
He tried again.
❖ ERROR: NO RECORD FOUND
A murmur spread through the crowd.
"That's… that's impossible…"
"Everyone has a Fate Imprint…"
"Unless he's—"
The priest's face went pale.
He looked at Kael like he was no longer seeing a boy.
But a problem.
"…What are you?" the priest whispered.
Kael met his eyes.
"I don't know."
That was the truth.
He had never seen a Fate Imprint in his life.
Not on himself.
Not in mirrors.
Not in reflections.
When he was younger, he thought maybe he was just broken.
Later, he realized:
He was missing.
The crystal tablet began to vibrate.
Cracks of light spread across its surface.
❖ WARNING
❖ UNREGISTERED EXISTENCE
❖ THIS ENTITY IS NOT RECORDED IN THE CAUSAL ARCHIVE
The sky…
The sky twitched.
Just for a moment.
Like a bad painting being adjusted.
Then—
Everything stopped.
The rain froze in midair.
The crowd froze.
The priest froze with his mouth half open.
Even the wind stopped.
Sound vanished.
Kael felt it immediately.
"…What…?"
He tried to move.
He could.
He was the only one.
The world had become a statue.
Then something else appeared.
Not in the sky.
Not in front of him.
But inside his mind.
A voice that did not use sound.
❖ CRITICAL ERROR
❖ ENTITY WITHOUT FATE DETECTED
❖ QUERY: SHOULD THIS VARIABLE BE ERASED?
Kael's head began to hurt.
"No… wait… what…?"
❖ THIS EXISTENCE IS NOT PERMITTED BY CURRENT REALITY PARAMETERS
❖ RECOMMENDED ACTION: DELETION
His chest felt tight.
Like invisible hands were closing around his heart.
❖ …
❖ COUNTER-PROPOSAL: OBSERVATION
The pressure eased slightly.
Kael fell forward onto his hands, gasping.
"Who… are you…?"
The answer came not as a voice, but as meaning.
❖ DESIGNATION: THRONE SYSTEM
❖ FUNCTION: SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT OF REALITY SUCCESSORS
"…That doesn't help."
❖ YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO EXIST
❖ YET YOU DO
❖ CONCLUSION: YOU ARE A VARIABLE
The darkness inside his mind shifted.
Something like a crown-shaped shadow slowly rotated before his consciousness.
❖ PROPOSAL: BECOME USEFUL
"…Or?"
❖ OR BE ERASED TO MAINTAIN CONSISTENCY
Kael laughed weakly.
"…That sounds like a threat."
❖ IT IS A STATEMENT
Then:
❖ HOST BODY: WEAK
❖ HOST SOUL: UNSTABLE
❖ HOST EXISTENCE: UNANCHORED
❖ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 0.0007%
"Great."
❖ SOLUTION: IMMEDIATE AUTHORITY ACQUISITION REQUIRED
The image of the guillotine lit up in his mind.
❖ NEAREST COMPATIBLE CONCEPT DETECTED
❖ SOURCE: EXECUTION PLATFORM
❖ TYPE: MINOR AUTHORITY — DEATH (DEGRADED)
Kael's eyes widened.
"…You want me to take that?"
❖ WARNING: SUCCESS RATE: EXTREMELY LOW
❖ FAILURE RESULT: TOTAL EXISTENCE ERASURE
Kael was quiet for a long moment.
Then he looked at the frozen world.
At the blade.
At the crowd.
"…If I do nothing, I die anyway, right?"
❖ CORRECT
He closed his eyes.
"…Then stop asking and do it."
The world moved again.
But something else moved too.
The guillotine shuddered.
Black, thread-like shadows began to leak from the ancient wood and metal.
They smelled like rust.
Like old blood.
Like endings.
People screamed.
The priest fell backward.
The soldiers reached for their weapons.
And Kael felt the cold hands of death touch his chest.
The first thing Kael felt was cold.
Not the kind that touched skin.
The kind that touched meaning.
The black threads pouring out of the guillotine did not behave like smoke or shadow. They moved with purpose, writhing like veins torn out of the world itself. Wherever they passed, the air seemed to age.
People screamed.
Some tried to run.
Some fell to their knees.
Some simply stared, unable to understand what their eyes were seeing.
The priest dropped his crystal tablet. It shattered on the stone.
"This—this is impossible! The platform is just a tool! It's not a relic! It's not a—"
The guillotine breathed.
A deep, soundless pulse ran through the square.
The black threads converged on Kael.
He wanted to run.
He wanted to scream.
But his body would not move.
❖ CONCEPT ASSIMILATION INITIATED
❖ HOST COMPATIBILITY: UNKNOWN
❖ BEGINNING SOUL INTEGRATION
The threads pierced his chest.
Not like spears.
Like roots.
Kael felt his heart stop.
He did not feel pain.
He felt absence.
The world went black.
He was standing in a field.
No—calling it a field was wrong.
There was no sky.
No ground.
Just an endless gray plain made of something that looked like ash and memory.
And all around him…
Doors.
Millions of them.
Floating. Standing. Half-buried. Broken. Intact.
Each one had a name carved into it.
Each one led to a last moment.
Kael took a step forward.
A door opened.
He saw a man begging.
A blade falling.
Darkness.
Another door.
A woman coughing blood in a bed.
A child crying.
Another door.
A soldier impaled on a spear.
Another.
Another.
Another.
❖ THIS IS THE ECHO FIELD OF ENDINGS
❖ YOU ARE WALKING THROUGH A DEGRADED CONCEPT
Kael fell to his knees.
"…This is… death?"
❖ A FRAGMENT OF IT
He clutched his head.
"It's too much… I can't…"
❖ YOU DO NOT NEED TO UNDERSTAND
❖ YOU NEED TO SURVIVE
The doors began to open all at once.
Screams filled the void.
Pain.
Regret.
Fear.
Acceptance.
Hatred.
Hope.
Everything that ever ended.
Kael felt himself tear.
❖ INTEGRATION: 12%
❖ SOUL STABILITY: CRITICAL
He screamed.
Not out loud.
But in meaning.
❖ 23%
❖ 31%
❖ 44%
His memories began to mix with others.
He remembered dying in a hundred ways.
He remembered being old.
Young.
Loved.
Hated.
Alone.
He felt a blade cut his neck.
A sickness eat his lungs.
Fire burn his skin.
❖ 57%
❖ 68%
"STOP!" he screamed.
"I don't want this! I don't want to be this!"
❖ YOU ARE NOT BECOMING IT
❖ YOU ARE BORROWING IT
❖ 79%
❖ 88%
The doors began to collapse into light.
❖ 96%
Kael felt his heart start again.
❖ 100%
❖ MINOR AUTHORITY ACQUIRED: DEATH (FRAGMENTED)
❖ SYNCHRONIZATION: 11%
❖ STATUS: UNSTABLE
Kael woke up screaming.
He was on the execution platform.
Rain pouring down.
The crowd frozen in shock.
He was alive.
He touched his chest.
His heart was beating.
"…I…"
He stood up.
Slowly.
The guillotine behind him was rotted, like something centuries old.
Black veins faded from his skin.
Above his vision, faint text hovered:
❖ WARNING: YOU ARE CURRENTLY BORROWING A CONCEPT
❖ EXCESSIVE USE MAY RESULT IN SOUL COLLAPSE
A soldier finally moved.
"Kill him!" someone screamed.
The soldier charged.
Kael looked at him.
And saw it.
A thin, pale thread above the man's head.
Leading upward.
He didn't know how he knew.
He just did.
"…If I pull that…"
He reached out.
Not with his hand.
With intent.
The thread snapped.
The soldier dropped.
Dead.
The square exploded into chaos.
Kael staggered backward.
"I… I didn't touch him…"
❖ NOTICE: YOU HAVE APPLIED END WITHOUT OWNERSHIP
❖ RECOMMENDATION: DO NOT DO THAT OFTEN
"That's not reassuring!"
More soldiers rushed forward.
Kael turned and ran.
He jumped off the platform.
People screamed and scattered.
He ran.
Through the square.
Through the streets.
Through the rain.
Behind him, bells began to ring.
CONCEPT ALERT.
The city was being sealed.
Kael didn't stop running until his lungs felt like they were on fire.
He ducked into alleys.
Climbed over broken walls.
Slipped through places that smelled like rot and old water.
Finally, he collapsed in the shadow of a ruined chapel.
"…Okay… okay…"
He laughed weakly.
"I was executed… and now I'm a criminal… and also… whatever this is…"
He looked at his hands.
They were shaking.
"I killed someone…"
❖ CORRECTION: YOU ENDED SOMEONE
"…That's worse."
He slid down the wall.
The rain hid the tears he didn't realize were there.
"…Dad… you said… just live quietly…"
He covered his face.
"I tried…"
A voice spoke from the shadows.
"You're terrible at that."
Kael's head snapped up.
A girl stepped into the faint light.
Silver hair.
Cold eyes.
And her left arm was transparent crystal, light pulsing inside it like trapped lightning.
She looked at him like one would look at an interesting disaster.
"My name is Seris Vale," she said. "And you're currently the most dangerous mistake in this city."
Kael swallowed.
"…Are you here to kill me?"
She tilted her head.
"Depends."
A faint smile touched her lips.
"Are you worth more alive?"