CHAPTER 12: WEAVER’S WEB
Silas's psychic web clung to New Avalon like rot—and Kael *saw* every infected strand.
The Soul-Sight hadn't faded. It **burned**.
Kael retched behind a collapsed coolant pipe in the sub-tunnels, his skull splitting. Violet-indigo filaments pulsed at the edge of his vision:
- **Silver threads** leashing enforcer Hunters' minds to the Academy Spire.
- **Black cords** binding half-Forged thralls to ruined Soul-Forge labs.
- **Pulsing nexus points** where the web thickened—anchored in Gates across the city, humming with stolen will.
And weaving through it all, the **spider**—Silas's consciousness, vast and glacial, spinning his cage for the world.
Lyss pressed another ore shard into Kael's trembling hand. The hybrid rune devoured it, quieting its hunger but not the Soul-Sight's acid drip behind his eyes. **"How long?"** he gritted out.
**"Until you go mad? Or until Silas finds us?"** Lyss's violet gaze tracked a silver thread vanishing into the tunnel ceiling. **"Same deadline."**
---
They moved through corpse-lit alleys. Above, the Gates bled indigo light through smog—closer now, *merging*. Where two Gates overlapped, reality glitched: buildings flickered like bad holograms; gravity tugged sideways. People ran, not from monsters, but from **the sky itself**.
**"The anchors,"** Kael panted, dodging a rain of shattered glass as a Gate-pulse hit. **"If we sever them—"**
**"—you kill the anchor."** Lyss didn't look at him. **"Silas grafts his web into living minds. Cut the thread, the mind snaps."** She stopped before a rusted access hatch. **"Here. First anchor."**
The hatch opened into a derelict rune-tech substation. Inside, a woman in tattered Academy engineer coveralls sat shackled to a resonator chair. Wires pierced her temples, feeding into a glowing indigo crystal. Her eyes were open, unseeing. Silver threads pulsed from her skull into the walls.
**"Elara?"** Kael whispered.
The woman from the lab—now hollowed out. A living conduit.
Lyss touched her own scarred ear. **"Silas recycles his failures."**
Kael stepped forward. His rune flared, resonating with the anchor crystal. The Soul-Sight sharpened:
- He saw Elara's memories—a son in the slums, lost when Gates devoured his block.
- Silas's voice: ***"Serve, and I'll spare him."***
- A lie. The boy was already dust.
**"We can't,"** Kael choked. **"She's still in there!"**
**"Then you let Silas win."** Lyss's hand hovered over Elara's chest. Violet light gathered. **"Her pain, or thousands more?"**
---
A blade hissed through the air.
Kael shoved Lyss aside. Valen's whirring arm buried itself in the resonator chair, spraying sparks.
**"Found you,"** Valen rasped. His human eye was bloodshot; the green sensor blazed. Silas's voice leaked from his vocal processor: ***"Kill the girl. Bring Thorn's rune to me."***
Valen ripped his arm free. **"He's… in my head. Always whispering."** He lunged at Lyss.
Kael intercepted, rune-first. Light exploded. Valen screamed—not from impact, but from **Soul-Sight backlash**. Kael saw it: Silas's psychic hook buried in Valen's mind, yanking like a puppet string.
**"Fight him!"** Kael grabbed Valen's human shoulder. **"You hate me! *Use* it!"**
For a heartbeat, Valen's green sensor dimmed. His human eye focused. **"I… wanted… your power…"** His bladed arm trembled. **"…not this…"**
***"OBEY!*** Silas shrieked through him.
Valen's sensor reignited. His arm pistoned toward Kael's throat—
—and Lyss slammed her palm onto Elara's anchor crystal.
**"NO!"** Kael yelled.
Too late.
Violet light tore through the room. The crystal shattered. Elara's body convulsed, then stilled. Silver threads snapped, whipping back toward the Academy Spire.
The Soul-Sight showed Kael the exact moment **Silas screamed**—a psychic shockwave of rage and pain.
Valen collapsed, clutching his head. **"GET OUT! GET OUT!"**
Lyss swayed, blood trickling from her scarred ear. **"Anchor down. But Silas felt it."** She met Kael's eyes. **"Next one's yours, Rune-eater."**
---
Above, the sky tore open.
The merging Gates—now a colossal indigo maw—began **descending**. Not a rift. An *invasion*.
Kael dragged Valen into the streets. Chaos reigned. Buildings warped. Gravity failed in pockets—debris floated upward. Through the Soul-Sight, Kael saw why:
The Gates weren't just openings. They were **mouths**. And Silas's web was the leash.
Lyss pointed to the Academy Spire. The web's nexus blazed there—a knot of stolen wills and dying anchors. **"Cut the head. The body dies."**
Valen stirred, his green sensor dark. Only his human eye worked now, clear and terrified. **"The Spire… resonator core…"** he gasped. **"Silas is fused to it. He's not controlling the web… *it's controlling him*."**
Kael stared at the descending Gate-maw. At the Spire. At Valen's broken form.
The rune in his palm pulsed—not with hunger, but **purpose**.
**"Then we feed it something it can't digest,"** he said.
Silas wanted a weapon?
He'd get one.
Right through his heart.
End of chapter 12