After a complete checkup, Sylas was released from the hospital. After they unwrapped his head, he was finally free to head outside.
Anna was waiting for him at the side of a small sailboat.
Today she was dressed in a simple black tunic, together with a dark mantle that gave her an air of mystery.
"It suits you." Sylas said without thinking.
Anna, who was adjusting the small sail, said without even looking at him,
"This is what I always use."
"...So?" Sylas said, while stepping inside the boat. His feet found a strange grasp, one that he didn't even realize.
After checking everything was in order, Anna raised the sails. With a last glance at the little kid seated quietly, she used the vessel True Name in a verse, together with Wind's True Name.
Instantly, the previously inexistent wind blew forward, dragging the boat with it.
Sylas was flabbergasted. A simple word made a breeze surge out of nowhere.
'Sorcery–'
A sharp pain assaulted his brain, forbidding him from remembering anything else.
"So, about the class you missed."
Anna said, taking a seat opposite Sylas.
"What about it?"
Sylas responded without thinking, as he was trying to memorize the way she had evoked the wind.
"You didn't think you could just skip it like that, right?"
She pulled a thick book out of her mantle.
"The last class was about the story of Weave. So it's pretty important."
Sylas's attention peaked, straightening his posture.
'So convenient. Exactly what I wanted to know.'
Anna frowned, surprised by the sudden interest from Sylas.
Even so, she cleared her throat and started the lecture with her professoral tone.
"As you know, Weave is a floating city that has countless artificial islands connected together to form a single whole. But it wasn't always like that. Before the war between the gods and the daemons, our ancestors lived outside of the Tomb. They came here searching for a safe place. Us, daemon's followers, aren't welcome here. So we got chased away far upstream for a long time before settling here. At least we–"
She stopped mid-sentence, only now noticing the thin trail of blood running from Sylas's nose. She rushed to his side, worry tightening her voice.
"Hey, are you fine?"
Sylas didn't listen. His head hurt so badly. It felt as if someone had driven a hook into his skull and torn out a piece of his brain.
Anna helped him to the floor, lowering him onto the cold wooden boards. He stared up at the sky. Five bright suns burned overhead, their light lancing through his vision and making the pain flare even sharper.
'Something… Something is missing.'
It didn't take a genius to understand what was happening.
His memories were fractured—shattered beyond repair—and every time something stirred them, his mind screamed in protest. The agony felt endless; it could have been minutes, or hours. Time dissolved into pain. Finally, when the throbbing dulled enough for him to speak, he forced out a whisper,
"I'm fine."
He wasn't sure who he said it to—Anna, or himself.
"Hang in there. We are almost at the temple."
Unfortunately for Sylas, he lost the chance to see the varied architecture of Weave.
Varied, airy and beautiful, he would have described it, with buildings made of stone, carved ivory, and some pavilions of sun-bleached, bright silk. The forest of narrow towers rising into the sky, most of them were windcatchers, with their blades rotating despite the wind. In the distance, floating fields and gardens were separated from the residential districts.
The boat slowed to a halt at a small island nestled at the center of all the others. Before it had even fully stopped, Anna scooped him up in a princess carry and leapt onto the shore.
As she ran, Sylas forced his eyes open just long enough to glimpse the temple ahead.
Its exterior was carved entirely from obsidian—dark, jagged, and towering—the temple radiated a frightening and sinister presence. Just looking at it made him feel dizzy and nauseous.
Before he noticed, his body grew limp and his consciousness faded.