The storm outside hadn't let up. Rain streaked down the arcade windows in silver threads, like the city itself was weeping through glass. Inside, silence clung to them, thick and stifling.
Kael stood, eyes still locked on the CRT screen where the black blade symbol pulsed faintly. Not flickering, not glitching—breathing.
"Guys…" he muttered. "Do you see that?"
They turned toward the screen again, drawn like moths to flame.
The blade shimmered once, then slowly faded, replaced by something else—an unfamiliar shape. A circle, surrounded by five smaller orbs, each glowing a different color. Red. Blue. Silver. Black. Gold.
The same colors from the vision.
Juno stepped forward, frowning. "It's showing us the tethers."
"Or what they represent," Rin added, her voice low. "Power, emotion, clarity, strength, and... balance."
Kael took a step closer, squinting at the center of the image. At first, it looked empty.
But then—there it was.
A sixth point. Hidden in the center. Flickering, dim, and unlit.
"What's that?" Mace asked, his tone suddenly wary. "There were five cords, right? Not six."
"No," Rin said slowly, brows furrowed. "There were five. But maybe that's not the full truth."
Kael's pulse quickened. "A secret tether?"
Juno nodded, eyes narrowing. "Or the origin of all the others. The core."
Kael's chest tightened. The sixth point felt familiar—wrongly familiar. Like a thought he'd buried, now unearthed.
The screen blinked again. This time, text scrawled across it in the same runic language that had marked their skin. Except now, the letters twisted and reshaped until they were readable.
> "Five threads. One root. Only the origin survives."
"What the hell does that mean?" Mace muttered.
Rin's voice turned hushed. "Maybe one of us is the root. The one meant to bear the cost."
Kael's stomach dropped.
"You're saying one of us is supposed to—what? Be sacrificed?"
"No," Juno said, tone flat. "She's saying one of us already is."
The words hit the group like a punch to the gut. Even the machines seemed to buzz quieter.
Kael backed away from the screen. "No. No way. We're not letting this thing divide us. If we're bonded, we fight together."
But the idea wouldn't leave his mind. The way the sixth point pulsed. The way the tethered vision had centered on him.
His hand went instinctively to the faint mark on his palm. It burned colder now.
"Either way," Rin said, trying to pull them back on track, "we need more than cryptic messages. We need answers. Real ones. My grandfather's journal mentioned a group—the Keepers of the Tether. They used to guard this kind of knowledge."
Juno's eyes flicked to her. "I've heard of them. Not by name, but... my mom used to talk about dream-walkers. People who could navigate the world between tethers. I thought she was just being poetic."
"She wasn't," Rin replied. "There's more. I found an old map hidden in the back of the journal. It points to a location in the lower district. An abandoned library near the edge of the East Wall. That's where they kept records."
Kael nodded slowly. "Then that's where we go."
"Tonight?" Mace said, eyebrows raised. "Right now?"
Rin gave him a pointed look. "The tether isn't going to wait for sunrise."
The four of them exchanged glances. Fear lingered in the room—but so did something else. Purpose.
Kael stepped toward the door. "Gear up. We meet in thirty. East Wall."
Juno smirked faintly. "You're starting to sound like a leader."
Kael gave him a look. "Let's just survive the night first."
Rin nodded. "Bring light. And whatever weapons you can."
Mace cracked his neck. "Finally. Something I'm good at."
As they filed out of the arcade into the rain, the screen behind them flickered one last time—showing the black blade once more, buried deep in a stone circle.
And above it, six glowing orbs.
One by one, they began to dim.
---
The game was no longer about survival.
It was about knowing who was chosen… and who was condemned.