*LORD OF DESTINY: Chapter 23: The Spire School
The walk back to the Spire took four days.
Not because it was far. Because of the kids.
Ella kept stopping to feel grass with her feet. “It’s still there,” she’d whisper.
Jorin asked a thousand questions. “Can I learn that pull? Can I braid too?”
Nira didn’t let go of Mira’s hand once.
Fifteen threads spun above them the whole way. Not scared anymore. Curious.
When they reached the Spire, it was different.
The knot in the middle was bigger. Brighter. And it was humming.
Coren was waiting at the door. He looked at the group. Counted. Then he just nodded.
“You brought them back,” he said. “All of them.”
“We’re not done,” Kael said. “There’s one more. East. He’s collecting.”
Coren’s face went hard. “I know. He sent a message. To me.”
He held up a piece of parchment. One line, written in white thread:
_Bring me the Lord of Destiny. Or I’ll take them one by one._
Lyra ripped it in half. “Then we don’t let him.”
Kael looked at the fifteen kids behind him. Some were scared. Some were angry. All of them were his.
“New plan,” he said. “We don’t go to him yet. We get ready.”
*TWO WEEKS LATER*
The Spire wasn’t a ruin anymore. It was a school.
Morning: *Lesson One. Small pulls.*
Mira taught Jorin how to untie a knot without breaking the rope.
Toven taught Ella how to find a lost thread in the dark.
Afternoon: *Lesson Two. Braid, don’t cut.*
The seven originals paired with the eight new ones. Black with black. Black with white. Even Mara taught Nira how to feel when a thread was about to snap.
Evening: *Lesson Three. Consequence.*
Kael showed them his scar. “Every pull costs. You have to decide if it’s worth it.”
He let them touch the gold line. “But sometimes it is.”
The knot in the center grew with every lesson.
Selin and the other two former Menders taught too. “This is how they think,” they said. “This is how you stop them.”
On the last night, all fifteen kids sat in a circle. Their threads didn’t just hover anymore. They wove. In and out. Making a net.
Kael stood in the middle of it.
“We’re not an army,” he said. “We’re a braid. And when he comes for one of us...”
Fifteen voices answered: “...he gets all of us.”
Through the rope, Kael felt it.
The tug from the east.
Closer now.
And with it, other threads. Four new ones. Crying.
He opened his eyes. “Time’s up,” he said. “Class is over. It’s time to go to work.”