{Winter's Coming}
Lyra gathered the family.
Explained what was happening.
The Aether was returning.
The atmosphere had thickened.
And with it—snow. A true winter.
Laure trembled.
Dreaded it.
The final act had begun.
Lyra whispered, voice barely above a breath—
"Oh, mother of my love, if there were anything he cannot withstand, then nobody in this world would be safe from it."
They turned to the holoscreen.
The broadcast flickered.
"Yesterday, you were a soldier on the frontlines."
"But today, the frontlines are history."
"Uniforms are relics. The war rages everywhere. And there will be casualties."
"I—"
The screen shut off.
Silence.
No one needed to hear more.
{Aether Flux}
Before it began, Amon stood beneath the sky.
He could feel it.
"Something shifted."
The world held its breath.
Everything fell into an eerie quiet.
The tension settled into the bones of every living thing.
Then came the Anomalies.
They emerged without warning—
Humanoid figures.
