Far from the Hollowroot, past the Shattered Straits and the lightning-wracked cliffs of Myr-Kel, a tower of black glass rose from the earth like a blade impaled into the world.
It pulsed with light from within—soft, rhythmic, unnatural. A heart beating where no life should exist.
Inside, in a chamber wrapped in silver runes and humming with cold resonance, Archivist Lenahr stood before a circular panel of obsidian, its surface rippling with phantom images. Data threads flickered across it—visions of ruined towns, shifting ley lines, ancient tombs cracked open by power no longer dormant.
But the image in the center… it was still.
A boy. A flickering specter, hunched before a withered Core. Kael.
"He touched the Heart," Lenahr whispered.
The room seemed to hear her. A second figure stepped out from the shadows—tall, lithe, and clad in robes woven from starlight and threads of silver chain. Magister Ril'an, Commander of the Outer Directive.
"I told you the Hollowroot was not stable," he said, his voice a sharp edge wrapped in velvet. "I told you the moment someone reached its core, the bindings would fracture."
"He wasn't supposed to reach it," Lenahr replied, her voice brittle. "He was a misfire. An anomaly. His signature was unregistered. No access points. No bloodline trace. He shouldn't even exist in the weave."
Ril'an stepped forward, tapping the image with a gloved hand. The boy's face sharpened, paused mid-breath. "Then how did he survive the Heart?"
Lenahr didn't answer. She didn't know. And that terrified her more than she would admit.
The Heart—one of the Seven Roots—wasn't just a relic. It was a gate. A remnant of the First Singularity, bound beneath layers of defense, illusion, and time. Only those with a Nexus inheritance were ever supposed to reach it.
But Kael had. Alone.
Ril'an turned. "We need to contain this. Before the Outer Realms catch scent. Before the Guilds begin to dig. Send an Echo-class retrieval squad. One silent, one tracking. If he resists—burn the region."
Lenahr blinked. "We can't just erase another Riftland. That entire corridor is—"
He cut her off with a look. "The Astral Cartel doesn't allow uncontrolled variables. We both know what he's becoming."
Lenahr swallowed. "A Resonant."
"No," Ril'an said, his eyes glowing faintly as the weave bent around him. "A Catalyst."
Kael's awakening hadn't gone unnoticed. And the storm was only beginning to build.