Chapter 76: THE WATCHERS BEYOND
The expedition had been gone for three months. The Ninth Tower stood empty save for the skeletal administrative staff that maintained communications with the Eight Domains. In the Council Chamber, dust gathered on the ornate chairs where domain representatives once argued about the future of their fragile union.
Lania, Reed’s former lieutenant and now Acting Custodian of the Ninth Tower, stood at the massive arched window overlooking the sprawling city. Her reflection in the glass revealed the web-like scars that mapped her face—remnants of her encounter with an Unmaker’s servant five years ago. The silver filaments embedded in her flesh occasionally pulsed with a soft blue light that matched the rhythm of her heartbeat.
"Any word?" she asked without turning.
Councilor Thraz, the gaunt representative from the Third Domain, cleared his throat. "Nothing beyond what we received last week. They crossed the Ashfall Mountains and were heading toward the ruins described in Reed’s dreams."
She nodded, the movement causing the mechanical augmentation at her neck to whir softly. "And the anomalies?"
"Growing stronger. The reality fluctuations have been detected in all domains now."
Lania’s augmented eye—a marvel of both arcane engineering and biological adaptation—zoomed in on the distant horizon. Storm clouds gathered there, but they were not natural. They swirled in geometric patterns that defied meteorological explanation.
"They’re running out of time," she muttered.
"We all are," Thraz replied simply.
Beyond the fabric of reality as the inhabitants of the Nine Domains understood it, other eyes watched.
The chamber—if such a mundane word could describe it—existed in a fold between dimensions. Its walls rippled with colors that had no names in human language, shifting and flowing like liquid glass. The beings that occupied this space bore little resemblance to anything that might be recognized as life.