Chapter 81 — The Fractured Symphony
I. The Thousand-World Chord
It was said that when the Symphony of Worlds first took form, the universe breathed in time.
Every planet contributed its own vibration—some low as thunder, some high as crystal light—and for an age that harmony held.
Now, centuries later, the song had grown too vast to hear at once.
From the outer moons of Telren to the deep oceans of Cerys, every world kept its own variation of the universal melody. And slowly, inevitably, differences became doctrine.
At the Celestial Convocation—a meeting held once every decade—envoys from a thousand systems gathered around the Resonant Sphere. Its mirrored surface glowed with living chords, pulsing in the air like a heartbeat.
Liora’s name was spoken with reverence; though she had l
