The Grand Threshold was not a chamber. It was a world.
The cavern beneath the old harbor stretched for what felt like miles - a vast underground sea of Veil energy, its surface rippling with currents of blue-white light. Stone pillars rose from the energy sea like the legs of some enormous creature, their surfaces carved with the same ancient symbols that covered Leo's locket. And at the center of it all - suspended above the energy sea, wrapped in cocoons of crystallized Veil light - was the seal.
And inside the seal was his father.
David Chen hung in the center of the crystalline structure like an insect trapped in amber. His body was emaciated - seventeen years of sustained energy drain had reduced him to little more than skin and bone. His eyes were closed. His chest rose and fell w
