The Loom shuddered. Time cracked—not with noise, but with a feeling, like nostalgia turning to dread.
Tylor stood frozen as his eyes met the Chronarch's. This version of himself—older, weathered, haunted—radiated a cold, unrelenting fury. His cloak shifted like film reels, constantly replaying Amaira's final breath in a thousand twisted versions.
"You let her die," the Chronarch said, voice edged like broken glass. "And now you fight to protect what you don't understand?"
Tylor stepped forward, defiance steadying his voice. "I remember now. Dad wasn't taking Amaira away—he was saving her. From this. From you."
The Chronarch raised a hand. Threads twisted into a spear of pure time energy and hurled it toward Tylor—but Kayla caught it mid-air, her hands glowing with blue fractal patterns.
"I've seen this moment," she hissed. "But it keeps changing."
Amaira reached for the knot-shaped pendant around her neck—the Spiral Key hummed to life. The Loom reacted, illuminating pathways they hadn't seen before. Memories of lives not lived spiraled around them—versions of themselves, paths not taken, moments lost.
Suddenly, Elias's voice came through a fracture above them: "I've found the Loom's Heart! You can sever the Chronarch's control—but only with the original code. Elena's code."
Kayla's eyes widened. "The one hidden in her final note…"
Amaira opened her sketchbook—on the last page was a puzzle she'd never drawn, spirals interlocked with binary digits.
Tylor understood. "She left the code with Amaira—because Amaira is the constant. The thread that never breaks."
The Chronarch charged, time folding with every step, erasing everything behind him. The Loom trembled, pathways collapsing.
"Stop him!" Elias shouted. "If he touches the Heart, time resets!"
Tylor ran, flames of memory trailing behind him—his first day with Amaira, Kayla's confession, Lila's final breath. He wasn't just fighting a tyrant.
He was fighting himself.
At the edge of the Loom's Heart, Amaira stood still.
"I'm not your knot," she said to the Chronarch. "I'm our choice."
She opened the sketchbook—and light exploded.
The Chronarch screamed as spirals wrapped around him, absorbing his fractured timeline into the code.
Then silence.
The Loom reset.
And Amaira, Kayla, and Tylor were gone.
But not erased.
Somewhere new.
Somewhere... after.