BOUND BY TANGLED FATES

sharp indicator of private unrest. Inside the Virell study, Master Elarin Virell paced, each s

rolls, ink, and broken wax impressions. His hands hovered a

and eyes burning with questions. Burnin

didn't answ

at we owe the Threadari a daughter in

that tale was a myth. A footnote left to rot and

coldly, teeth grit

omehow laden with dust, sealed with a sigil half-faded: a thread and f

on. The Threadari, your robe maker's people, had begun to rise against the Guild. Their

carefully. Symbols unfurled like a map

unite both bloodlines-Threadari and Storyteller. Each to offer a child.

rowed. "But we did

t be necessary. The boy they sent vanished soo

len stands i

nod

d across his face, making him lo

what this means?

ding pact is forgotten. Privately, it is treason by blood. If

rn," she finished for him, a

bout balance. If the Threadari robe truly recognizes him and if y

d. "You taught me that. Stories bend

, child. Tell me how you'll explain why a Virell da

ooked

ame. He is a threat to the thread hierarchy. If he remains, if that robe sp

t me to the festival to wear our heritage like a crown, and now t

er. His silenc

teller of the age, had taught her to honor legacy above all else, bu

croll. Her fingers moved

ealed with living thread and magic. It wasn't j

they are the only two surviving heirs..

id. "Claim that we

e weary. "Then we must contain it

pped to a hiss. "Co

id. "Contai

t Night in Ka

ouched food, shoved into his space. The robe hung nearby, coiled on a hook. It had quieted

he didn't answer. A

oyingly, "Come to bind me in anot

said, brushing past

ed her. "Tal

ossed. "You're not

y m

for another. My bloodline was meant to repay the Threadari, your people, with a daughter. W

subconsciously between the robe and her. "So t

oven with living thread meaning it lives. It recognized

you're saying....thi

ietly. "It was a

retched be

re shackled together by some dus

Guild might decide to act. My father wants to suppress the truth.

s," he said. "

ave he

But I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't as

just slightly.

ined but still. Crispy and burnt a

mbers more than we do. It's the key to what happened. If we'r

se. "Then

ha

e were. If I'm bound to this hist

dded once. "Then we st

nd the G

yte rolled back a wall panel and lit the torches behind it.

n in a gray rob

stirred," th

the last thread is unraveling then