The platform of the Middle Wheel stretched before us, broken and vast, a graveyard of forgotten dreams.
Votharion Mountain lood in the distance, its shattered spires clawing at the heavy skies.
I moved.
Thauron moved.
Two currents winding silently through the ruins, the fragnts of collapsed paradox vibrating softly underfoot as we passed.
Each of us gathered Sigil Fragnts, the shimring shards of so deeper authority, with fluid ease, our Null Forms drifting across the dead terrain like specters.
And as we moved, Thauron spoke.
Only I could hear him.
The others watched, Primarchs, Resplendent Monads, entities of renown, but they heard nothing. The space between us was soundless to them.
But not to .
Never to .
"There was once," Thauron began, his voice like the shifting of ancient stone, "an Existence."
His vast hand, clawed and unhurried, swept down to gather another fragnt glowing faintly with the authority of ti.
"A being not unlike the rulers you see here."
He gestured lightly, at the distant, curious gazes of those watching, at Kalysta, standing cautious and wary, and beyond her, at others scattered like careful sentries across the platform.
"Fold Dwellers."
His tone held no reverence.
"Those who dwell within the Nullvein Gravewake Folds. The powerful ones. The rulers of regions. Territories carved from paradox and collapse."
He glanced sideways toward as we moved in perfect synchrony, two titans tracing forgotten lines across the Folds.
"You know of them, Stranger?"
I smiled faintly. "I know so of the nas."
Thauron chuckled, low and dry.
"There are many. The Deathlight Folds, illuminating the paths of the Dead Things for a better life. Chronosect of Threadbound Folds," he murmured. "Tyrants of ti. Those who believe history itself is a leash to be pulled tight."
He flicked his gaze to the side.
"The Veiled Sunfolds, hiding behind the splendor of dying stars, cloaked in veils of collapsed suns and burned-out skies."
Another chuckle.
"The Genefolds, where flesh and spirit are rewritten endlessly, evolution turned into an art of grotesque creation."
A soft, hollow smile.
"Powerful. Many of them, reigning with grandeur across the Folds."
Another fragnt slid into his hand.
"But… not supre."
HUUM!
His words held weight.
"Fold Dwellers," he continued, "are mighty. They hold dominion over the regions they inhabit. They are kings and queens of their broken corners of the Folds."
"But the Nullvein Gravewake Folds…"
Thauron's voice dipped lower.
"They are larger than any Fold Dweller."
Another step. Another fragnt.
"Because there are those who move beyond the Fold Dwellers, who have been alive and dead far longer than them."
His tone shifted, reverent, almost wary.
"Those whose nas are not spoken. Those whose existence is neither Living nor Dead."
I stilled internally.
Listening.
"They are not Fold Dwellers."
A pause.
"They are the Foldless Ones."
…!
The weight of the words was imnse.
He had not said their na.
Because no na was given.
Only that title, whispered, unclaid, untouched by oath or record.
"Lineages of Living Paradoxes," Thauron said softly. "They are not of Life. Nor Death. They are of Sothing Else."
I moved, another Sigil Fragnt falling effortlessly into my grasp.
"And this Existence," Thauron continued, "this Prisoner…"
He spoke slowly, each word carved with deliberate weight.
"He was one who dwelled among the Fold Dwellers."
"A na. A being of might and legend."
"Fold Dwellers respected him."
"Feared him."
"The Chronosect marked his movents."
"Even the Livifolds whispered of him."
"Even the Genefolds twisted their creations with his shadow in mind."
Another pause as Thauron's vast Null Form shifted.
"But he was not content to rule his domain."
"He sought more."
"He sought the roots of the Folds."
"The foundation beneath collapse and possibility."
"And so… he journeyed deeper."
Deeper.
Where not even Fold Dwellers dared to tread.
"He delved into the depths of the Gravewake. He found a Key and opened doors."
"Into places where even mory refuses to follow."
"And there…"
Thauron's voice grew softer.
"There… he did sothing."
A fragnt, ancient, seared with abyssal weavings, crumbled into dust between his fingers.
"Sothing he cannot rember. Sothing that was deed wrong, sothing that crossed the rulings of the True Rulers of the Folds. And that is a grander sin than any paradox."
HUUM!
A long, heavy silence.
"The Foldless Ones," Thauron whispered, "do not forgive."
"They do not forget."
"They do not erase."
"They do not kill."
"They imprison."
Another step.
Another breath.
"They wove a prison not of stone, or iron, or bindings."
"A prison of existence itself."
"A cage within the Nullvein Gravewake Folds."
"A place where the Prisoner could be and not be."
"Where he could think and not think."
"Where he could rember only that which was permitted."
"Where he could exist… and forget why."
I plucked a fragnt from the air, watching it spin, slow and heavy, the very notion of ti slipping across its surface.
"And there," Thauron said, "he remained. For a long, long ti."
"…"
My eyes squinted.
"How long?"
He shrugged, a great, tectonic shifting of his colossal form.
"Long enough for ti to forget him."
"Long enough for even the Fold Dwellers to forget about him as his fable turned to myth. Long enough for him to forget himself."
A pause.
A breath.
"But myths are patient."
"And perhaps…"
Thauron's voice dropped even lower, a thread of thunder in the silence.
"Perhaps he found a way to loosen the chains of his prison. Or perhaps he served his ti."
"Perhaps he walks the Gravewake once more. Freed, no longer a Prisoner… and yet his power is not where it was before. His mories are not where they are before. He does not even rember what he was jailed for… not entirely anyways."
…!
I moved silently, another fragnt whispering into my grasp, the storm of paradox around tightening, growing more intricate.
Kalysta, standing at a distance, watched us with silent trepidation, though she could not hear a word.
Neither could the others.
Only Thauron and I.
Only us.
The Prisoner.
Too unknown even to himself.
Dangerous and Paradoxical!
And likely…
The very one who now walked alongside .
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