The Codex's pages folded back, sealing themselves behind Lyle and Juno as Valen stepped forward.
No words.
No warning.
The Thread moved first.
It shot forward like a whisper sharpened to a scream—twisting, unraveling reality in its wake. Not cutting flesh. Not targeting the body.
It went straight for the Bond.
Juno caught it mid-air with her blade—metal shrieked against raw glyphlight, her stance perfect but sliding. She skidded across the Core floor, boots carving sparks from parchment-stone.
"Not strong enough to block it," she snapped.
"Not trying to." Lyle raised both hands, eyes flaring.
His mana didn't burn.
It bent.
Folded around the Thread like fingers gripping wire—twisting its trajectory, not stopping it, but redirecting it through the Codex's rules.
The Thread screamed.
Valen narrowed his eyes.
"You learned to bend reality," he said softly. "But I came to unmake it."
---
His second cast came without motion.
No sigils. No glyphs.
Just a thought—and the Core responded.
The ground beneath Lyle collapsed into glyphfire.
Juno lunged and caught his arm, flipping him mid-fall and slamming him back onto the platform.
"You alright?"
"I think so. Did he just rewrite gravity?"
"No," Juno muttered. "He rewrote you out of it."
---
Valen walked slowly, the Thread uncoiling behind him like a tail of frayed silk.
"Do you know why this is called Silences-Two?" he asked.
Lyle said nothing.
Juno tightened her grip.
Valen answered for them.
"Because the first version of the spell didn't erase enough. This one? This one silences bonds. History. Love. Anything that links one soul to another."
He raised it again.
"And I made it for you."
---
The attack hit them both this time.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Lyle saw his parents' faces—gone.
Juno saw her brother—gone.
Memories unraveled like threads from their hearts.
Juno dropped to a knee.
Lyle stumbled, blood dripping from his nose.
> It's working.
It's cutting us apart.
But in that moment—
when even memory failed them—
they reached for each other.
Their hands touched.
And the Codex flared between them:
> [Thread Severance Detected – Counter Protocol Engaged]
[Bond Loop Activated – Glyph Inversion Deployed]
The Thread coiled.
But the Codex bent it back.
It hissed.
Shrieked.
Then for a single second—cracked.
Valen stepped back, blinking.
He bled from his palm.
"…Impossible."
Lyle stood, panting. "We're not just linked by memory."
Juno wiped blood from her cheek. "We're linked by choice."
"And you," Lyle said, raising his hand—
"Keep mistaking that for weakness."
---
The Codex glowed.
Pages spun.
And the unnamed glyph began to burn in his mind.
It wasn't time yet.
But it was close.
Very, very close.