The walking has become a gathering.
Seven carriers awaken across the Realms. Each one bears a fragment of warmth that should not exist. Each one is hunted by a system that calls them back to comfort, back to silence, back to the version of themselves that does not choose.
Codetharis rises. The Algorithm Priests file the soul. Nael wakes in a field with a question he did not ask. The Liminal Veil parts for those who refuse to be optimized.
Power does not corrupt.
It reveals what was already willing to be corrupted.
The carriers must find each other before the morning forgets them.
The chain holds. By choosing. And by staying.
