Sam didn't sleep that night.
He couldn't—not with ancient fire coursing through his veins, and not after watching the sky itself remember a war the world forgot.
He sat in the back of a hovering transport drone, wrists bound by resonance cuffs that flickered with the same golden hue as his awakened thread. Across from him sat the scarred woman—silent, arms crossed, eyes never leaving him.
They were flying over a fractured archipelago—his homeland, but not how he remembered it.
From the sky, he saw the broken cities of Manila—concrete veins overgrown by glowing roots, ruins where Riftstorms had torn through history. Neon grids of N.R.A. sectors clung to life like scars on the landscape.
Sam finally broke the silence. "Where are we going?"
The woman didn't answer. Instead, a voice from the drone's comm unit crackled in.
"Echo Base, prepare landing pad. We've secured Subject Veinflare."
Sam flinched. "Veinflare? That's not my name."
The woman finally turned to him, eyes like sharpened obsidian. "It is now. You bonded with an Eternal. The system doesn't care about your name anymore—it only sees threat levels."
He clenched his jaw. "So what, I'm a weapon?"
She paused, then sighed. "You're potential. That's more dangerous."
The drone touched down atop a hidden cliffside facility—glass domes merged with jungle vines, built on the edge of a collapsed volcano. As they stepped out, the air was different here. Heavy. Buzzing with spiritual tension.
Echo Base.
Sam was led through halls where other Resonant trainees sparred, meditated, or channeled their threads into elaborate rituals. His thread kept flaring, reacting to them all.
And they reacted to him.
Whispers followed him: "That's the one who summoned Lapu-Lapu…" "No way he's a Zero..." "Did you see the sky glyph?"
They arrived at a wide chamber—the Vein Chamber.
Circular, ancient, with a holographic map of the entire archipelago. Floating above it were spectral images of the five confirmed Eternals… and one flickering silhouette still unclaimed.
A tall man in ceremonial threads approached—bald, eyes glowing faint gold, and hands marked with vein glyphs.
"Samuel Reyes," he said. "You bear the Flame of Mactan… but do you know what that means?"
Sam shook his head. "I just… survived."
"Survival," the man said, "is the first resonance. The Lineage chose you. But it is not a blessing."
Behind the elder, an image shifted: another Eternal spirit flickering in red mist.
Gabriela Silang.
"And now… the others are waking."