Ezra stood very still.
His heartbeat had slowed, but the weight in his chest—the pull of something unseen —remained.
The woman's words rang in his mind.
"The first chain has broken. The second will follow soon."
Ezra exhaled, rubbing his temple. "You people really love your cryptic nonsense, don't you?"
The woman said nothing.
His other self chuckled. "You're acting like you don't already know."
Ezra's fingers twitched. Because, annoyingly, he did.
Not fully. Not completely.
But deep in the pit of his stomach, he knew what she meant.
Something had changed.
And it had started with him.
The woman turned toward the monastery entrance. "You will need to leave soon. The monastery is no longer safe."
Ezra snorted. "Right, because it's been a five-star vacation spot up until now."
His other self laughed.
The woman ignored him. "You will find your path soon enough."
Ezra narrowed his eyes. "And what if I don't want it?"
A pause.
Then she finally turned her head slightly, her hood still hiding her face.
"Then it will find you instead."
Ezra's breath caught.
And then—
The world shifted.
The air cracked. The walls trembled.
A deep, hollow sound echoed through the monastery.
A sound Ezra had only heard once before.
The sound of a chain snapping.
His other self grinned. "Ah. There it is."
Ezra didn't hesitate.
He moved.
Straight for the monastery doors.
Because whatever had just broken—
It was coming.
And he needed to be anywhere but here when it arrived.
Ezra ran.
Not out of fear—well, not entirely. Fear was rational. Fear kept him alive.
But more than that, he knew staying wasn't an option.
The monastery shook, dust cascading from the ceiling as the hollow echo of the broken chain reverberated through the air. It wasn't a normal sound. It wasn't even a sound meant for human ears.
It was something deeper. Something that rippled through existence itself.
His other self walked casually beside him, untouched by the chaos. "Any idea what just got loose?"
Ezra gritted his teeth. "If I did, would it make a difference?"
A chuckle. "Nope. Just curious how screwed we are."
Very.
Ezra shoved the monastery doors open— and froze.
The world outside was wrong.
The sky, once a dull, overcast gray, had split.
Not like a storm. Not like an ordinary rupture.
The clouds had peeled back , revealing something beyond them—something vast, something watching.
The air smelled of metal. Of ink. Of something ancient.
Ezra's grip on his dagger tightened.
The monastery was on a mountain ridge, overlooking the valley below. The town in the distance— the one he'd barely learned the name of —
It was changing.
Buildings warped at odd angles. Shadows stretched and crawled , moving against the light. The streets twisted, looping into themselves.
And at the center of it all—
Something rose.
Something tall, thin, and wrong.
It wasn't a creature. It wasn't a structure.
It was something that had been buried in the town's foundations, hidden beneath the ordinary world—
And now it was waking up.
Ezra exhaled slowly. "Yeah. Okay. Definitely should've stayed in bed."
His other self grinned. "Told you the second chain would be fun."
Ezra hated when he was right.
Ezra's breath came slow, measured. Not calm— controlled.
Because what he was looking at shouldn't exist.
The thing rising from the town's foundation wasn't natural.
It wasn't a beast, wasn't a structure, wasn't something that should be seen.
It was conceptual.
A tower, but not a tower.
A body, but not a body.
It stretched upward endlessly , flickering between shapes. One moment it was stone , the next it was flesh , the next it was pages bound together with sinew and ink.
And all around it, reality bent.
Ezra exhaled sharply. "Tell me I'm imagining that."
His other self grinned. "You're not."
Great. Fantastic.
The woman in the hood had stepped beside him, her gaze locked on the rising entity. "The second chain is gone."
Ezra shot her a look. "Yeah, no kidding."
She didn't react.
Because it was still rising.
The town was screaming.
Not just the people—the streets. The buildings.
Ezra felt it in his bones, a deep, unnatural pull—like the town itself was being rewritten by whatever was waking up.
And then—
It noticed them.
Ezra felt it before he saw it.
A presence. A weight.
Not eyes.
Something worse.
Like a conceptual acknowledgment.
It had been rising— but now it had stopped.
And it was looking at him.
His other self let out a low whistle. "Well, that's unfortunate."
Ezra didn't move.
Because the moment he did—
It would, too.
And he had a feeling he wasn't ready for that.
Ezra didn't move.
Not out of fear—well, not entirely. Every instinct screamed at him to run, to disappear, to stop existing before it could register him further.
But he knew that if he moved first, he'd lose.
Because the thing in the town? It was waiting.
Not mindlessly. Not like some rampaging monster.
It was aware.
His other self hummed beside him. "You feel that?"
Ezra clenched his jaw. Yes.
The weight of its gaze wasn't normal. It wasn't like being watched by something alive—it was like being acknowledged by a rule of the world itself.
A law that had been buried.
A story that had been sealed.
And now that it had seen him—
It remembered.
Ezra's fingers twitched around his dagger. "What are the chances it just… goes back to sleep?"
His other self laughed. "Slim to none."
Of course.
The hooded woman took a slow step forward. "You should not be here when it fully awakens."
Ezra exhaled sharply. "Yeah, I figured that part out."
The thing in the town shifted.
Its flickering form wavered, pages folding into flesh, flesh stretching into stone, stone cracking into something unknown.
It was settling.
Defining itself.
Ezra didn't know what was worse—the fact that it was waking up, or the fact that he could almost recognize it.
Like something he had read before.
Something he had forgotten.
His heart pounded. No.
He had never seen this thing before.
Had he?
The woman turned toward him. "Go."
Ezra hesitated.
The entity in the town stirred again.
And this time—
It moved.
Not all at once. Not violently.
It simply tilted.
Toward him.
And Ezra knew, deep in his gut—
It was coming.
His other self grinned. "Well? You gonna run, or do something stupid?"
Ezra cursed under his breath—
And moved.
Because whatever was about to happen—
He wasn't facing it here.