Dorian came for me at midnight.
His shadow seeped under the door first—dozens of eyes blinking in darkness. Then him. No knock.
"You think you're special." Flat. Cold.
I sat up. "I don't think anything."
"You unmade five fragments today. Lost nothing. Chocolate. Rain. A nurse's name." His voice cracked. "I lost my brother's face. Everything. Gone. Because I chose to fight."
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry doesn't bring him back." He grabbed my collar. "When you've sacrificed something real, come talk to me."
He released me. Walked out. His shadow lingered—watching—then vanished.
---
The breach happened an hour later.
Alarms—deep, resonant, like bronze bells drowning—shook the Spire. I was on my feet before awake.
Aldric met me in the corridor. Grim.
"Real fragment. Not simulation. It breached the outer wards." He was already moving. "Seraphine and Liora are there. Dorian is missing."
"What happened to the wards?"
"They didn't fail. They were opened. From inside."
---
The eastern edge of the Invisible City was chaos.
Buildings crumbled—not destroyed, unmade. Silver dust choked the air. Anomalies fled past us, wrong faces twisted in terror.
The fragment waited at the center.
Eight feet tall. Humanoid. Limbs ending in absence. Where it stood, reality screamed.
Seraphine's flames roared white-hot, striking its chest. It recoiled but didn't dissolve.
"It's stronger than the simulations!" she shouted. "The wards kept them weak. This one is fed."
Liora stood at the edge, offset existence flickering. "I can see its core. Seven layers. Like the Covenants."
I pushed past Seraphine.
The fragment turned toward me. And I felt recognition.
Eclipse. The word bloomed cold in my mind. You are the one we have been erasing.
I didn't answer. I reached for the core.
First layer dissolved. Second. Third.
The fragment screamed—a sound that bent light. It struck with void-limbs. Seraphine's fire intercepted.
"Keep going!"
Fourth layer. Fifth.
Dorian appeared from nowhere. His shadow surged, wrapping the fragment's lower half. Dozens of eyes blinked furiously.
"I can hold it for thirty seconds! Make them count!"
Sixth layer.
My mother's voice echoed: Find the other path.
Seventh layer.
The core lay exposed. Absolute nothing. So dense it warped reality.
I reached with everything. Every lost memory. Every traded piece. Every echo of her inside me.
Unmake.
The core collapsed.
Silver dust exploded—coating rubble, fleeing anomalies, my face. It absorbed in a rush so violent I nearly fell.
The cost hit.
I grabbed my mother's photograph.
Blank.
White paper where her smile had been.
I stared. Waiting for grief. Rage. Nothing came. I couldn't remember what I'd lost. Only knew something precious was gone.
That was worse.
---
We gathered in the Spire's entrance hall an hour later.
Dorian sat apart. Shadow subdued. He'd lost something during containment—wouldn't say what. Seraphine's flames burned low. Liora's echoes hummed with new weight.
Aldric stood at the center.
"Someone opened the wards. From inside. A traitor."
Silence.
"There are factions within the Covenant who think the Eclipse is a danger. They believe the Stillness can be negotiated with. Some people would rather surrender than watch everything end."
"Who?" Seraphine demanded.
"I don't know yet. But they're afraid of you, Kael. Because you're not just an Eclipse." He met my eyes. "You're a counter-pattern. The Stillness erases. You were designed to restore."
"Then why am I still losing pieces?"
"Because you're paying alone. Costs were meant to be shared." He glanced at Liora. "She carries echoes. You carry restoration. Together, you might restore without losing yourself."
Liora met my eyes.
"There's a way," she said. "But we'll need to test it. Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow," I agreed.
Tonight, someone had opened the wards. Someone inside the Covenant wanted us dead.
I would find them.