The world was silent, the kind of silence that felt endless, that could be felt in the bones. Leira had no idea how long she had been falling, she only knew that when she opened her eyes, the whole world was dark, but she knew that she wasn't alone. There were faint shapes floating above and around her, but there was no water anymore, just the cold.
She tried to move but her limbs felt heavy, she struggled to make her body move, the mark on her wrist faded and lit up again.
Leira gasped, but the sound was swallowed by the emptiness around her… and then slowly, she began to hear it.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Her gaze was shifted to the direction of the sound and her eyes met the tiniest spark in the dark, floating midair. She reached for it but the closer her fingers got to it, the brighter the spark became, then the light revealed… her face. It looked like hers but it wasn't her, the image looked creepy, evil, soulless. When she looked into its eyes, it looked endless, she felt the same pain that she felt when she watched the past versions of herself die repeatedly.
She quickly pulled back, her eyes widened with fear, and her heart began pounding rapidly in her chest.
"Where… where am I?" Her voice trembled.
Once again the answer came in a low, cold chorus of voices. "Below."
The sound sent vibrations through everything, her body, the walls, if there were walls. Slowly, faint like began creeping into the darkness, revealing symbols, and figures carved into the surface of rocks. They began glowing faintly, revealing themselves one after another.
The slowly turned around in place, the ground beneath her feet felt strange. It felt like it was made of glass and it was being guided by a current, gradually taking her to a destination.
She moved through black, trying to see if she could find anything, maybe another light source and hopefully not one as horrific as the last. After a while, she began to see a tall, jagged gate in the distance with veins of shadows
"You've come far, child of the Veil."
She gasped. "Who are you?"
The voice seemed to be coming from the gate itself. "We are what remains when gods forget. We are what he serves."
The name rolls off her tongue, her lips trembled as she let it out. "Cassian..."
"He remembers. You released them."
Her stomach was in knots. The shadows seemed to twitch at the mention of his name. She saw flashes: him standing on a cliff, sword drawn, his face marked by regret. She also saw his eyes blackening as darkness consumed him. The images came so quickly that they felt like her memories were trying to force their way back into her mind.
Leira took a step back, her hand going to her temple.
"You broke the mirrors, and with them, the walls between what was and what is, and now every echo you conquer brings him closer."
Her pulse quickened. "What do you mean 'closer'? You mean, if conquer my next echo, that will show him where I am."
"Precisely. With each echo, he has an opportunity to do what he was made to do… kill you."
A light on the gate shinned very bright and then it dimmed again as a shadows began falling around her. They were so many around her that it became hard to her to even breathe. Suddenly, something began moving behind the gate. She couldn't see it but she could feel its hunger, it was practically pulling her.
He wrist began glowing brighter, it was as if her light was trying to reveal the images behind the gate. As her light grew brighter, the shadows and Keepers began hissing in unison.
"You carry what you have stolen from us."
She shouted, "I didn't steal anything from you!" Her voice cracked half way through. "You can't have it!"
"It's not yours to keep."
The golden light pulsed, pushing back against the dark. The Keepers hissed in unison.
"You carry what was stolen from us."
She shouted, "I didn't steal anything!" But her voice cracked halfway through. "You can't have it!"
"It is not yours to keep."
"Yes, it is," she said, her chest rose with confidence. "These are my powers, and you do not scare me!"
The voice lets out a very loud shriek for the first time causing a violent tremor. This shakes Leira until she fell to her knees, she used her hands to keep her balanced on the glassy surface.
"You stupid girl! Who do you think you are?"
Leira lifted her head up slowly, eyes burning and intense. "I am… the Veil's Keeper." She said with full conviction. For the first time, she actually believed, it was as if she channeled the old her.
The voices hissed and let out cracks of bleeding shadow. For a moment, "Leira thought she saw faces pressing through it, their hands were reaching and stretching against an invisible barrier.
And then she heard her name, it was faint and distant.
Leira!
Her head snapped upward. It was Kael's voice. The water hadn't deprived him from entry, it forced him to stay on the boat while it tormented Leira. But when she looked up, she saw nothing, just dark water far above, and her reflection staring back from its dancing surface.
Her voice shook. "Kael?"
"He cannot reach you here."
Again, the air around her shifted; the whispers crawled closer.
The temperature dropped quickly, so much so that her breath came out in mist. She turned toward the gate again, and she saw more movement on the other side. But this time, it looked like a person walking toward her.
The silhouette stepped forward; tall, cloaked in shadow, faint reflection of a blade hung by his side.
Cassian.
But his eyes weren't golden anymore. They were almost fractured, as if gold and black fought for dominance in their irises, flickering like two souls were at war.
"Leira," he said softly.
She gasped. The voice was his, yet the tone was different.
It sounded layered, one human and one hollow.
She stepped back. "Is that really… are you real?"
"He is… and he remembers."
Cassian's figure stood still, his hands curved into fists, his head tilted slightly, as if something inside him was struggling to break free. "I told them I'd never hurt you again."
Tears welled up in Leira's eyes but she tried to remain stern, fear began creeping back into her chest. "Then don't."
He blinked and a tear, as black as ink, rolled down his cheek.
"I don't think I have a choice." The gate started to shake violently, the shadows began screaming in unison. The Keepers' voices rose above them all.
"Return the light, child of the Veil… Or we will take it."
Cassian's voice cracked. "Run."
But there was nowhere to run. The floor started growing black splinters beneath her feet. Leira's mark on her wrist burst outward in a wave of gold.
Cassian flinched, covering his eyes. The shadows recoiled back as the gate shattered. Through the light, just for a brief moment, Leira saw the truth. Cassian was chained to the spot, not by metal, but by darkness itself, wrapped around his chest like armour, pulling him backward while he fought to move toward her.
"Leira…" his voice broke as he reached out, but the chains yanked him back. Her vision flickered
and then… something shifted. The mark on her wrist pulsed once, twice, and then burned blindingly bright. Cassian's eyes widened in horror as a similar mark, buried beneath the darkness on his chest, flared in response.
It was like a single thread of light shot between them for a moment and then it snapped like glass. Leira gasped, and then she began convulsing as pain surged through her body, her scream was swallowed by the dark water around her. And for the first time since Leira began her journey of echoes, this one felt like it may have bested her.