The fifth tower did not have stairs.
It had descent.
Cassian stepped forward, coinless now, guided only by the stitched ones and the symbols that pulsed in his dreams.
The floor beneath him folded.
Not down.
Inward.
The Descent
The stitched ones moved without speaking.
Their threads glowed faintly, responding to the tower's pulse.
Cassian followed, each step echoing with memories not his own.
The walls shimmered — not stone, but stitched light.
Each thread held a moment.
Each moment, a warning.
The Vault Door
It was not locked.
It was not closed.
It was waiting.
A spiral of symbols hovered in the air, rotating slowly.
Cassian reached out.
The stitched child beside him placed a hand on his.
Together, they touched the spiral.
It unraveled.
The Vault Opens
Inside, there was no treasure.
No relic.
Only echoes.
Cassian saw them — memories stitched into space.
- A stitched one being unmade.
- Aurex Vell whispering to the loom.
- A coin forged in silence.
- A tower collapsing in reverse.
Cassian gasped. "These are futures."
The stitched child nodded. "And pasts."
The Memory Spiral
At the center of the vault was a spiral staircase made of light.
Cassian stepped onto it.
Each step triggered a memory.
- Lyra catching the burning thread.
- Juno confronting the headmasters.
- Nova screaming as her glyph fractured.
- Cassian flipping the coin before he was born.
He paused. "This isn't time."
The stitched child whispered. "It's recursion."
The Loom of Truth
At the bottom of the spiral was a loom.
Not the one in the archives.
This one was alive.
It pulsed with symbols, each one a truth too dangerous to speak.
Cassian approached.
The loom reacted.
A thread floated toward him — stitched with fire and silence.
He caught it.
It didn't burn.
It sang.
The Song of the Coin
Cassian heard it — not with ears, but with memory.
The coin had been forged from the loom itself.
Each flip was a question.
Each landing, a choice.
But the edge?
The edge was the loom's voice.
Cassian whispered, "It's not chance. It's language."
The stitched child nodded. "And you're fluent."
The Final Memory
The loom offered one last thread.
Cassian hesitated.
The stitched ones knelt.
He took it.
The vault pulsed.
The tower above them screamed.
And Cassian saw it:
> Aurex Vell did not stitch the first one.
> Cassian Thorn did.
> In a future that had already happened.