Chapter 948
That night, no one slept easily. The book pulsed on the table, unread but aware. The faceless girl did not visit Jude in dreams. Instead, he dreamt of a vast hall of mirrors, each one reflecting a different future. In one, he was alone in a city of rust. In another, he was sitting in this very room, laughing with his wives as the orchard bloomed into endless spring. In the final mirror, there was no reflection, just the sound of waves crashing and a ribbon floating downward like a falling star.
When morning broke, the house was filled with quiet purpose. No one had to ask what they were doing. They would read the book. Together. Carefully.
They took turns deciphering the spiral script, with Ashra guiding the pronunciation and Jude anchoring the visions that bloomed from each page. They learned of the First World, where the girl had walked alone for centuries, carving reality with each step. Of the Silent Devourers, god-creatures that turned dreams into extinction. Of the creation of the island, not as a paradise, but as a cage. A place to bury the girl when her dreaming grew too dangerous.
And most horrifying of all, they learned that the gods had not vanished.
They had merely slept, waiting for the girl’s story to fade. Waiting for her to be forgotten. And now, because Jude had remembered her, had spoken to her, had seen her, she was awakening again.
By the fifth day, the orchard began to shift. The watchers were no longer just passive shapes in mist. They whispered as they passed, snatches of broken sentences, memories not their own. The vines that grew along the house hummed at night. And near the volcano, a light began to pulse from within the stone pedestal.
Scarlet was the first to speak the fear aloud. "They’re coming back, aren’t they? The gods."
Jude didn’t lie. "Yes. Not all. But some. Drawn to the pulse of memory. And to us."
"Then we have to prepare," Serena said. "We’ve fought monsters before. We’ll fight again."