“I didn’t come here to have my fortune told,” I said, struggling to keep my tone even. I didn’t like being pried at, and the threads put me on edge. “I came to learn from you.”
Before the spirit could interrupt me, I described the thread extending from my core and asked what she knew about it.
“The thread of fate.” Her mechanical teeth clicked and chattered. “All mortals are tied to the Grand Design. Few have the wisdom or skill to see that bond. You have come far from the weak boy I first assayed.”
She was right. My enemies, Tycho, Grayson, Deacon, and all the others, had preyed on my weakness. They’d tried to destroy me. But all their machinations had failed to tear me down. Instead, they’d hammered me into a new, more dangerous, shape.
“The thread of fate,” I repeated. “It lets dangerous aspects into my aura.”
“Ah, yes,” Mama Weaver responded, a steel-toothed grin stretching her cheeks tight. “The thread is the conduit into your aura and core. Many things, good and ill, pass through that cord.”
Having my theory confirmed made my heart race. That’s what I’d hoped to hear.
“Can the thread be cut?” I asked.
She considered that for a moment. A loud, rhythmic clicking came from her throat. The goggles slid in and out of their housing, and the oil-stained tip of her pink tongue left black smears across her lips. Mama Weaver leaned in so close I felt the chill from the metal dome that crowned her head.
“I do not tell fortunes.” Her whispered words carried the smell of grease and smoke. “It can be cut.”
The dangling threads vanished, and Mama Weaver went with them, leaving behind only the smell of oil and hot metal.
It was time to put my theory to the test.
My fusion blade appeared with a rasping hiss. It was the perfect tool to sever the thread of fate. One quick swing, and there’d be no way for any exhaustion aspects to find me. The Sleepless technique would be mine. It took me only a moment to find the thread drifting out of my aura like a cobweb. I couldn’t believe such a fragile-looking thing could cause me so much trouble.
The thread of fate parted with no resistance, but the severed ends of the silken strand strained toward one another as if desperate to reunite. Jinsei dribbled from the tip of the end no longer connected to me, and the thread that emerged from my core darted through the silver drops like a tongue lapping at honey. It was a fascinating scene, and I wanted to study it until I’d unraveled all its secrets. There was power here, raw and primal. If only I could—
“Oolorthshog,” a sloshing, glutinous voice called out from above me. “Oolorthshog!”
A cold bolt of dread shot through my core at the repulsive chant. Instinct raised my fusion blade in a defensive line overhead.
Dark fluid rained down on the floor in front of me. It splashed against the walls and into the air, thick as tar and reeking of ammonia. Strands of the vile, viscous liquid rose from the puddle like grasping limbs. Bubbles burst through the black pool’s surface and unleashed the putrid scent of decay. A misshapen head and a pair of lambent eyes the size of basketballs followed the stink out of the puddle. The thing’s hourglass pupils fixed me with a baleful gaze. It hungered.
For me.
“Oolorthshog,” it groaned.
“Nope.” I darted forward and plunged my blade into the black space between the warped monster’s eyeballs.
My weapon hissed and crackled. Its razor-sharp chisel tip vanished into the creature’s warped skull without resistance. It was like stabbing a quivering blob of Jell-O.
And my attack had about as much effect. My blade sliced down through its body and slammed into the floor. Even worse, the black liquid had stained the fusion blade’s length and choked out its light.
My weapon vanished with a sudden explosive crack.
The shock of my blade’s destruction ripped through me like a whirlwind of razor blades. I staggered back from the monstrosity in front of me, hands raised to protect my head, and cycled to banish the pain and fill my core with jinsei.
Nothing happened.
I couldn’t cycle.
The gruesome creature lashed out at me with the tentacles around its mouth. It was impossible to dodge the swarm of rubbery limbs. One slapped against my robes, and the barbed teeth around its suckers bit into the fabric. Another tangled around my left ankle, and a third snared my right arm. My foe squeezed me tighter and ignited fiery pain across my body.
Disbelief rattled my thoughts. This thing had shattered my blade. Its teeth had defeated the defenses of my disciple-level core. I couldn’t gather more sacred energy to defend myself. Panic burrowed into my mind and threatened to defeat me from within.
“Enough!” I shouted.
This monster had the drop on me and made the most of it. But it would not defeat me. I was more than my blade, more than my core.
I activated the Thief’s Shield technique. The monstrosity had made a mistake putting its slimy tentacles on me. I’d drain it dry and rip out its heart. I’d show it what it meant to cross an Eclipse Warrior. I’d feast on its—
The Shield had no effect on the creature. The beast continued to loop tentacles around my waist, my legs, my chest.
My neck.
Pain ripped through my ravaged body. My constricted throat trapped my breath. Red light flashed across my vision. I had seconds, maybe less, before the creature devoured me, body and core.
In that timeless slice between life and death, I struggled to find the way out. This thing had come for me when I’d cut my thread of fate. If I fixed the damage I’d done...
A handful of aspects still danced in my aura. I burned them to summon my serpents. The sluggish supernatural limbs slipped between the tentacles that surrounded me. Two of them snatched the severed thread out of the air and
