The Year the Wards Failed

For generations, the wards held.

They protected cities from collapse, kept the land obedient, and reassured people that permanence was something you could build. No one questioned what they cost, or what they were quietly pressing down, until the year they failed.

When the wards begin to fracture, the world does not end all at once. Instead, it strains. Roads resist. Structures settle wrong. Places that once felt safe begin to push back. As panic spreads, a reluctant figure steps into the spa...