The four threads

In the heart of the empire, there were four who moved closer to the goddess—though none yet realized how tightly fate had begun to weave them together.

Stryker – The Shadow Who Watches

Tae-Hwan preferred silence to speech, steel to sentiment. As Duke of the Eastern Highlands and the empire’s most gifted tactician, his presence alone was enough to command attention—even when he said nothing.

He was Kael’s closest friend, the one who had once pulled him from the flames of a battlefield and said only one thing as he carried him away:

> “If you die, I’ll never forgive you.”

Since then, Kael trusted him with everything—except, perhaps, emotion.

Stryker had always felt… something strange around the temple grounds. A tingling on the back of his neck. A flicker in the air.

He didn’t believe in visions or spirits.

But he believed in Kael. And Kael believed in Her.

So Stryker watched.

And waited.

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✨ Liora & Selene – Faith and Sight

Liora had been the first to feel the goddess. Selene had been the first to see her soul.

Their friendship began as shared silence in the temple gardens. Selene rarely spoke to anyone, and Liora rarely stopped speaking to the stars. But they sat together, and over time, Selene began to trust her.

Now, they had become two halves of the same devotion:

Liora, heart open and unshaken, believed without question.

Selene, eyes burdened with truth, believed despite her questions.

They both felt something shifting.

And it came to a point the day they met Stryker

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🌿 The Meeting of Threads

The temple had summoned Kael for a ceremonial blessing—an old tradition honoring the Goddess of Fate. Stryker came only as protection.

But the moment Stryker stepped into the outer sanctum, Selene turned her head sharply.

> “You feel it too,” she said.

Stryker raised an eyebrow. “I feel your gaze. That counts?”

> “Don’t joke. The moment you entered, the threads bent.”

He studied her. “Are you another prophet?”

> “Visionary,” Liora corrected kindly, stepping between them. “Selene is rare. She sees things others cannot.”

Stryker didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t dismiss them either.

> “So, what do you ‘see’ now?”

Selene stepped closer, eyes narrowing. “You carry something that doesn’t belong to you. Not a curse. Not power. Something… borrowed. A piece of someone else’s fate.”

For a moment, Stryker’s mask cracked.

His voice was quieter when he answered:

> “I was supposed to die once. Someone else did instead.”

Liora looked between them and whispered, “Then maybe… maybe that’s why the goddess is guiding us now. Maybe we’re all holding pieces of something that wasn’t meant to be ours… but we have to protect it anyway.”

A wind swept through the chamber.

The candles flared—just slightly.

And Kael entered through the archway, pausing only a second before speaking:

> “She’s listening.”

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✨ Closing Scene: Four in the Garden

That night, the four stood in the moonlit temple garden—Kael, Stryker , Selene, and Liora. No priest. No soldiers. Just trust and silence.

None of them could see the goddess.

But they all felt her.

And she… watched them with quiet awe.

> “I don’t know how to be divine.” ELARIA said

“Then don’t,” Selene thought. “Just be real.”