Episode 20
The Threshold of Dreams
The Dreamforge is not a place. It is an event, etched into stone, water, and mind. Located in a voidfold between Zebulun’s Compass Dream and Issachar’s Clock Cathedral, it appears as a staircase descending into clouds of amber light.
Above the door:
“Know thy Becoming. Or be undone by it.”
Each must face a trial crafted by their deepest truth and most dangerous temptation.
To emerge whole is to awaken the Dreamforge’s power.
To fail… is to be rewritten by it.
Trial One: Sunny — The Garden of Lost Selves
Sunny walks through a lush garden filled with golden versions of herself—each one a path she might’ve taken:
- A healer who stayed home, married, and raised children
- A rebel who never met Rudolph, leading revolts across the stars
- A queen of Levi, serene and cold, with no room for love
They all sing to her:
“Stay. You are complete in us.”
But Sunny remembers the price of sacrifice—the kiss she gave away in Simeon’s tower, the nights of waiting by broken sanctuaries, the song she made with pain.
She chooses the version of herself that is unfinished, uncertain, and burning with choice.
The garden falls away. She passes.
Trial Two: Kito — The Mirror Beast
Kito enters a hall of shifting mirrors—each one reflecting a creature he might become.
- A war-beast bred for destruction
- A mindless guardian of old Makers
- A tool. A pet. A memory without will
A voice speaks:
“You are bound. Without a Maker, you are nothing. Accept this and return to usefulness.”
But in one mirror, Kito sees something different:
A free being, walking beside Rudolph, not beneath him.
He chooses it. His form glitches—then stabilizes as a luminous feline draped in runes of his own making.
He passes.
Trial Three: Elder Amirah — The Lost Book
She finds herself in a collapsing library, chased by a question she cannot answer:
“What happens when memory dies?”
Scrolls burn. Names vanish. The Covenant itself fades into dust.
She finds one book still intact, her record of the Twelve Tribes. But the last page is blank.
She dips her finger in ash and writes a new line:
“We remember forward.”
The fire stops. She passes.
Trial Four: Rudolph — The Unseen Father
Rudolph steps into a room made of folded light.
Major stands before him—not as he was, but as he might’ve been: older, whole, smiling.
They embrace. Talk. Laugh.
Then Major asks:
“You can stay here. With me. No more burden. Let the Tribes fade. You deserve peace.”
Tears form in Rudolph’s eyes.
But then he sees it—his hands, calloused from battles he hasn’t fought yet.
He hears Minerva’s whisper, not of comfort, but purpose:
“The fire lives because you carry it.”
Rudolph lets go.
“I miss you, Baba. But my work isn’t done.”
The light folds back. The forge ignites.
He passes.
The Dreamforge Awakens
The four stand in the center of a ring of flame and memory.
Twelve orbs rise—one for each tribe—and spin in orbit.
The Word of Becoming etches itself into the air.
The Dreamforge speaks:
“Now you may see what must not come to pass… and what still may be shaped.”
Vision of the Coming War
They see:
- Tzel’el, the Echo-born god, leading the twisted tribe-born in siege across sanctuaries
- Covenant Scrolls rewritten, names lost, sanctuaries erased
- A broken Circle, Elders turned against each other by false memory
- Rudolph alone, speaking the First Word into a void
But they also see:
- The Circle united, singing the Original Word together
- The Twelve Sanctuaries are glowing, projecting a protective light across all of Earth and its moons
- New tribes are born from the fusion of memory and the future
The Path Forward
They awaken with fire in their bones.
The Dreamforge gives them a final gift:
A living fragment of the Original Covenant—able to resist Echo corruption and awaken sanctuaries remotely
And a final warning:
“Tzel’el has found the Vault of Benjamin. He will make war not to destroy you, but to replace you.”
The final war of True and False Inheritance begins.
To be continued. . .
Brufay 
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