She jerked back, gasping. Amina caught her arm. “What did you hear?”“They know,” Sophia whispered. “The echoes know. They want release—even if it destroys the Monument.”Raven’s eyes darkened. “If it collapses here, the resonance wave could spread through every city tied into the lattice. It won’t
Chapter 179: Fractures in the LatticeThe warning came at dawn.Raven’s tablet pulsed crimson as data from Maracay surged across EmberNet. Lines of resonance that had been steady just hours before now spiked into violent peaks, jagged as broken glass. He shoved the device into Sophia’s hands.“It’s
Chapter 178: Monuments of EchoThe caravan moved through dawn-lit plains toward Puerto La Cruz. The sky hung low, dense with clouds that threatened rain, or perhaps grief itself. Sophia rode in silence, the weight of the cities behind her pressing like stone against her chest. From every vantage, th
Chapter 177: CaracasCaracas did not sleep.Through the night, chants wound through alleyways and laughter spilled into plazas. The Living Stones glimmered with candles tucked between tiles, with songs painted on walls, with children weaving dances around the anchors of memory. The hollowing had bee
Chapter 178: The Weight of StoneCaracas awoke to clay.By dawn, plazas were dotted with crude tiles drying in the sun—imprints of palms, etched verses, fragments of thread woven into earth. Walls bore hurried carvings, alleyways echoed with chants etched the night before. The Bone Circles had sprea
That night, fear swept through camp. If even their own could be hollowed, who would remain to carry the threads? Elise sat by the fire, stitching frantically. “We need anchors outside ourselves. If one circle forgets, another must hold them. If one hand is hollowed, another must stitch it back.”Sop