Chapter 62: The Goddess Who Hid Herself

They awoke to a song.

Soft. Ancient.

A melody no one remembered ever hearing.

It came from the forest beyond the ruin. A grove untouched by time.

Liss walked ahead. The others followed—quiet, uncertain.

They found her there.

A woman.

Old. Young. Made of bark and stardust.

She sat beneath a tree carved with thousands of names.

"I was the Thirteenth," she said. "Before you." "I hid. Because I feared becoming real."

Liss sat across from her.

"I didn't have the choice."

"And still, you became."

The goddess smiled.

"You broke the pattern. You are not the thirteenth. You are the first."

The tree blossomed.

Names lit up. The friends. The Host. Liss herself.

And space… shifted.

Because the universe was beginning to write again.