Elian touched something he shouldn't have.
He knew it the instant the Threadsense flared — not like unlocking a door, but like pressing your ear to a wall and realizing the voices on the other side were already speaking about you.
A tight pressure bloomed behind his eyes. Not pain — something colder. Sharper.
A presence, coiled at the edge of perception.
Not a voice.
A watcher.
Then, without prompt or transition, foreign text carved itself into his vision. Not system blue. Not orderly.
These bled red.
[Unauthorized Access Logged]
[Violation: Thread Breach – Classification: Seedborne]
[Retaliation Delay: Pending…]
"Retaliation?" Elian breathed. "For learning?"
The corridor twisted. Threads turned hostile — flaring red and knotting in violent spirals. The walls pressed inward like a closing wound.
Rejecting him.
He ran.
Boots echoing against stone as the air thinned, his thoughts sharp with calculation. This wasn't panic. It was pressure — and pressure meant leverage. Somewhere, there had to be a seam.
A flicker of light appeared ahead. A narrow doorway, rune-lit, almost pulsing.
He dove through.
Behind him, the wall folded shut like a snapping jaw.
[Stability Drop: 26% → 23%]
[Cognitive Load: Elevated. Lucid Trait Holding.]
The chamber was circular and still. No doors. No Threads.
At its center stood a terminal — if one could call it that. Not machine. Not relic. A fusion of bone and stone, rising like a spine from the floor, its surface etched with unstable glyphs. Not in any language Elian recognized, but there were patterns.
Frameworks. Hints.
Like an interface never meant to be completed.
An abandoned system node.
He stepped closer, hand hesitating above the surface. His Threadsense clawed at the edge of meaning — something deeper nested beneath the visible interface.
"If I touch this," he muttered, "what's going to break?"
The answer came before he moved.
Not from the system.
From something beneath it.
[Break it.]
No hesitation.
He touched the console.
It didn't spark. It didn't scream.
It fractured.
[Thread Severance Initiated – Zone: Fringe Depth B]
[Result: Surveillance Null Field Established]
[Threadbreak Event Triggered.]
Elian staggered back.
The runes on the wall dimmed, then extinguished.
A tremor passed through the floor — not violent.
Just… empty.
Like a vast gaze had just blinked — and found only dark.
He inhaled.
For the first time, it felt clean. No weight behind his thoughts. No trace of the watcher.
Just his mind. His will.
His move.
[Trait Gained: Threadbreaker I]
[Effect: In unstable zones, you may sever non-critical system threads. Note: High anomaly risk. Further usage attracts attention.]
Elian's fingers flexed. He looked at the now-dead terminal.
"Good," he said softly.
Not in triumph.
In understanding.
Whatever he'd just done hadn't made him stronger.
But it made them weaker.
And that?
That was a start.
He smiled.
Not out of relief. Not to mask fear.
He smiled because something larger than him — something untouchable — had just flinched.