Chapter 175
Chapter 175
Elenwe surrenders to the loom to become the hollow's cage, but her sacrifice reshapes the threshold in ways none foresaw, leaving the child with a new thread and a new sky beyond the chamber.
The loom's threads, like spectral tendrils, tightened around Elenwe's arms, drawing her inexorably forward. The bone-white frame of the ancient device groaned, a tortured sound that vibrated through the chamber, and the intricate weave of light and shadow shimmered, as if the very fabric of reality shuddered. Within her chest, a cold, alien pulse began to stir – the hollow's seed, awakening. It spread through her veins like a creeping frost, a chilling echo of winter rivers. Behind her, the child cried out, a thin, desperate sound that reached Elenwe as if filtered through leagues of water, already distant.
"Elenwe!" Ren's voice, sharp and raw with a desperation that tore at her, sliced through the encroaching numbness. But she could not turn, could not break the terrible, inevitable pull. The threads, impossibly strong, were already coiling around her shoulders, across the delicate curve of her collarbone, binding her to the loom’s pulsing heart.
The remnant stood at the precipice of the weave, a figure of stillness in its grey robes. "You are choosing the cage," it stated, the words not a question but a pronouncement, a confirmation of a path already taken. "Once woven, you will not return. The threshold will close, and you will become the vessel for the hollow's seed, forever sealed within the memory of the first world."
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