The warped creature’s tentacles hauled me off the ground and dragged me toward its mouth. Hundreds of tooth-rimmed suckers shredded my skin. Blood rained down from more wounds than I could count. I was so cold, and the stars were so close...
The pain was like acid in my mind. It corroded my thoughts and made it difficult to think my way out of this. I retreated into meditation and pushed myself deep into the nothingness between breaths to hide from the agony. The tactic gave me a split second of clarity.
Four of my serpents clutched the intangible threads of fate, but were too weak to pull the thread. I still had two serpents left, though. If I couldn’t bring the ends together, maybe I could bridge the gap between them.
“Stitch them,” I groaned.
The warped monstrosity closed its mouth over my legs. My skin bubbled within its corrupted gullet. It wasn’t just eating me. The creature was unmaking me, stripping my essence apart and scattering it into the void.
My serpents clicked and popped as they wove filaments of black thread from aspects they harvested from the environment. Bit by bit, they gathered the material they needed to heal the wound I’d carved through my thread. Their methodical movements mesmerized me, and I clung to the steady rhythm of their stitches to distract me from the pain. The gap closed, one tiny sliver at a time. It wasn’t fast enough.
The squid-faced beast ground its gums against my stomach. Steam rose from its mouth, rich and heady with the smell of seared meat.
Seared me.
A loud crack echoed in my head. The world spun around me, and my back slammed into something hard and unyielding. I drew in a deep, ragged breath, and blessed jinsei roared into my empty core. Racking shivers raced through my body, and my vision blurred. Long seconds passed, and all I could do was shudder and gulp air. My mind was out of my control. It reeled with a new understanding that I’d never experienced before. The Grand Design swam in my thoughts, too powerful, too complex.
And then darkness came and swallowed me whole.
The Talk
HAHEN LOOKED AT ME like I’d lost my mind when I explained what had happened. “You did not learn the Sleepless technique?”
I spluttered and threw my hands up in the air at Hahen’s disapproval. I’d just fought off an existential threat and he was irritated that I hadn’t unlocked the secrets of a technique.
“The trip wasn’t a total loss,” I grumbled. “I learned the Weaver of Fate technique.”
“And what is that?” Hahen asked as we headed back to my dorm room. “It sounds like something that mad spirit would use to trap you.”
The rat spirit’s strong opinion wasn’t incorrect. Mama Weaver hadn’t lied to me during our little chat, but she hadn’t been completely honest, either. Sure, threads of fate could be cut, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea. Slicing through that little cord had robbed me of all my abilities and summoned a warped eater. A heads-up from the spirit would have been nice.
If she had warned me, though, I wouldn’t have learned anything. Cutting the thread, despite the pain and near-death experience, had been worth it. Especially because the wounds I’d suffered had vanished along with the warped monstrosity who’d given them to me. Even my robes looked as fresh as when I’d put them on that morning. It was as if the fight had never happened.
And, I had learned a new technique, even if I didn’t totally understand what it did or how it worked.
“It lets me repair threads of fate,” I said. “And it saved my life.”
Hahen glanced at me and twitched his whiskers. He didn’t have to say anything for me to get the point. If I hadn’t cut the thread, I wouldn’t have needed the technique to save me. That didn’t mean it wasn’t useful, though. Anything that affected the thread could prove useful in mastering Sleepless, and that would help me reach artist level that much faster.
I kept telling myself that through the long days that followed while we waited for Abi to give us the go-ahead. He was right to be cautious, even if it did try our patience. It was important to avoid attracting the PDF’s attention. Not because I was afraid they’d stop us, but because I was afraid the information would leak out to our enemies. We had to wait until Abi could arrange for the apprentices and interns he trusted to be on duty before we went after the last resting place of Master Saito. In the meantime, I encouraged my friends to follow my example and work on advancement. Eric and I pushed each other to improve our fighting skills for the battles we all knew lay ahead.
“What’s eating you?” Eric asked one day after we’d paired off in our advanced martial arts course. “We’ve got a plan. We know where to go. I figured you’d be thrilled, not moping around like Clem just told you she didn’t like your haircut.”
It was a struggle to suppress a barking laugh at Eric’s question. I hadn’t told the others about the tentacle-faced monsters chewing on the Grand Design. Or about the one that had tried to eat my face in Mama Weaver’s place. If things worked out, they’d never have to know what I’d seen. And if they didn’t, well, all the worrying in the world wouldn’t change what came after that. I fell into a defensive posture and forced myself to smile at Eric’s jibes.
“You know how it is,” I said. “It’s a lot of pressure to be both the beauty and the brains of this team.”
“You’re a funny guy,” Eric said. “Let’s see if you can keep up with
