Episode 9
The signal came in whispers.
First in dreams. Then, through Kito, who woke gasping, eyes glowing with runes. Then from the shard’s remains, which began pulsing to a silent rhythm only Sunny could hear.
Rudolph and Minerva deciphered it together: a Maker’s call-sign, embedded in the pulse.
“MAJOR ELIAS MAKER – STATUS: LOST, HOLDING GATE – CYCLE UNKNOWN – REQUEST: BRING THE BOY.”
The Plan
To reach his father, Rudolph couldn’t simply cross the veil—he had to sail it.
The in-between was not a place but a pressure, a storm of memory and meaning, alive with thought. He would need to build the impossible:
A Veilship—a vessel capable of surviving not just magic, but intention.
It would need:
- A Heartcore — an emotional resonance powerful enough to stabilize time.
- A Living Hull — a structure that could shift with the veil’s mood.
- A Guide-thread — a song, sung from the other side, to tether his path.
Each required something rare. Something personal.
Gathering the Components
- The Heartcore
For stability, Minerva offered her wedding ring a conduit of lifelong devotion, grief, and fierce love.
“It holds memory better than metal,” she said. “And pain sharpens truth.” - The Living Hull
Rudolph carved the hull from a tree in the Grove of First Breath, a place where all Makers once pledged their oaths. The wood resisted him, until he whispered a story to it: his father’s absence, his mother’s fall, his own fear of never being enough.
Only then did the tree bend to his blade. - The Guide-thread
Sunny. Her voice had changed since the Broken Star. She could sing in dual harmony, one voice in the world, one in the veil. She tied a song to the ship’s bow, anchoring it with the melody her grandmother used to hum when no one was listening.
Kito’s Warning
“You know,” the cat said, now in the shape of a silver crow, “if you go, you may not return as you.”
Rudolph placed the final sigil on the ship’s hull.
“Then I’ll come back as more.”
The Launch
The Veilship hovered as it came alive—no sails, no engine. It thrummed with potential. The town gathered in silence.
Minerva kissed his forehead.
“You are more than your bloodline, Rudolph. But your bloodline should be very proud.”
Sunny pressed a stone into his palm.
“My song will follow you. Just listen.”
As he stepped aboard, the sky above him didn’t open; the world beneath him did.
The ship fell… and rose… and twisted…
Into the Veil…
To be continued…
Brufay 
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