Leira's hand froze in the air. The glowing Clock Root hung just out of her reach, spinning slowly, shining as if it had a heartbeat of its own. Her chest still burning, and her legs stilll weren't moving. The shards of broken time swirled around her, sharp… spinning
And Kael… he wasn't there.
She blinked, trying to make sense of it. One second he was beside her, guiding her, holding her up, whispering, telling her to keep going. The next… gone. She swallowed hard, panic rising.
"Kael…" she whispered, voice shaking. "Don't… please don't leave me."
Her hands waved through the air where he had been. She tried to feel him, to touch him, anything, but he was gone. Her heart thumped fast, then slowed, then skipped. Time here wasn't so unsteady, it bent and cracked around her. The poison inside her raced with it, speeding up when time ran fast, slowing down when it stopped, crawling closer to her heart every time the moments twisted.
Her knees buckled as she hit the floor with a small grunt, clutching at the cold stone beneath her. The shards of broken time swirled higher, faster, glowing brighter. They almost seemed to laugh at her struggle, mocking her for being too weak, too human. She tried to crawl toward the Clock Root, but her arms shook violently. Her fingers brushed the edge of its light, and the energy surged through her, making her chest burn hotter, almost unbearable.
"Leira…" she whispered, trying to steady herself. "I… I can do this. I have to." She had to force her mind to concentrate. Kael wasn't there anymore so she had to remind herself of everything Kael kept saying
Step by step.
The air pulsed. The Clock Root twisted in midair, as if it were alive, as if it could feel her fear and her need. Its white-gold glow was mesmerizing. She could feel it calling to her, like it knew she was the only one who could touch it, the only one who could make it move.
She tried to stand, pushing her legs under her. They trembled violently, like they didn't belong to her. Her vision blurred. One second, the floor tilted up, throwing her off balance. The next, she was almost falling through it, yet the shards held her like invisible threads. She gritted her teeth and forced herself forward, inch by inch.
The poison in her veins screamed. It burned hotter, spreading faster, climbing into her throat. She coughed, trying to take a breath, but the twisting of time made her lungs feel heavier than stone. Her head spun. She could feel herself fading, the edges of her vision going gray, her body weak, almost collapsing under the weight of the Hollow Star.
"I… I can't stop now," she whispered. "I have… to…"
The Clock Root pulsed. Its light seemed to reach into her chest, into her heart, into the very poison inside her. She could feel it recoiling, twisting back, almost slowing the burning for a moment. Her fingers shook, but she stretched her hand toward it. Every nerve in her body screamed, every breath felt like dragging a stone uphill.
Then, time shifted. Everything slowed, stretched, then jumped forward in a blur. The shards spun faster. She gasped. The air cracked like glass, and for a moment, the Hollow Star seemed to tear open.
And then… she was alone.
Kael had vanished completely. Not just flickered but he was actually gone.
Her throat went dry. Her hands fell to the ground. She sank to her knees, the air around her heavy and cold. Every step, every movement forward, was now hers alone. She had no one to lean on. She had no guide. Her pulse raced. Her mind scrambled.
"I… I can do this," she whispered again, forcing herself to stand. "Step by step… one step at a time."
She reached out again. The Clock Root hung just ahead, glowing brighter than ever. She could feel its heartbeat in her chest, pulling her forward. She willed her legs to move. Her knees buckled, then she pushed, staggering forward, dragging herself inch by inch.
The shards of broken time rose around her. Some spun upward like whirling knives, others fell slowly like shattered glass. She dodged and weaved, feeling the poison burn hotter, feeling her heart pound against her ribs. Her skin prickled. Every step forward felt like running through fire and ice at the same time.
Light surged through her, flooding her chest and limbs with a warmth that both startled and comforted her, and in her palm, the white-gold twist of energy pulsed steadily, as though it were alive, as though it recognized everything she had endured to reach it, and for the first time since the echo had begun, the poison inside her screamed in agony, twisted and writhed violently, and then, almost imperceptibly at first, it began to unwind, loosening its grip on her veins and heart, and slowly, painfully, the fire in her chest softened, her pulse steadied, and her lungs expanded with a breath that no longer felt like dragging stone, and the ache in her veins faded until she could feel them again as her own, untwisting and ordinary, allowing her a fragile, trembling relief she had almost forgotten existed.
But the Clock Root's light was sharp, slicing through her awareness like a blade, beautiful yet painful, and as she held it, she realized that its power demanded payment, that every pulse of its energy drew something from her, invisible but undeniable, tugging at her bones, whispering through her memory, whispering at the edges of her strength until she staggered backward, leaning against the glowing root for support, feeling herself diminished in ways she could not name, ways she might not even notice until later, a faint emptiness trailing behind her like a shadow she could not shake.
"I… I did it," she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath, and her grey eyes glimmered with tears, relief and terror warring in her chest, because she did not know what exactly she had lost—perhaps a memory, perhaps a fragment of herself, perhaps something deeper she would feel only later—but in that moment, she did not care, because the most important thing was that she was still alive, still standing, still breathing.
The Hollow Star pulsed once more, slower this time, a rhythm that felt almost like breathing, and the shards of broken time above her began to settle, spiraling down to rest in a silence that was both eerie and comforting, while the white-gold glow of the Clock Root softened slightly in her hand, still alive, still humming with potential, as she drew a shaky breath and looked around at the empty space she now occupied, the echo complete, Kael still absent, and the weight of having done this entirely on her own pressing into her chest like both triumph and warning.
Her legs ached, her chest still burned faintly, and there was a weakness in her body she could not describe, a hollowed-out exhaustion that went beyond fatigue, but still, she was alive, and that alone grounded her, reminded her of the reality she had fought tooth and nail to reach, that she had touched the Clock Root, that she had survived the echo, and that the Hollow Star's strange, flickering light washed over her with a calm she did not entirely trust, comforting yet distant, aware that she was still incomplete, still fragile, still in danger, even in this fleeting moment of victory.
Leira took a careful step back, inhaling the twisted, strange air around her, feeling it press against her lungs and hair like it carried the echoes of time itself, and for a moment, she allowed herself to imagine she was safe, that the echo had ended, that she had survived, but then she felt it, a subtle vibration, a faint tug through the threads of broken time, whispering of another echo, another trial, another danger waiting somewhere ahead, waiting to test her in ways she could not yet foresee.
Her body trembled, but she tightened her grip on the Clock Root, anchoring herself to its pulse and to the cold, strange stone beneath her feet, and though she did not know what the next echo would bring, though she did not know whether she could endure it as she had endured this one, she knew one undeniable truth: she had come this far, she had faced the Hollow Star and lived, and she would not turn away from whatever lay ahead.
One hand clinging to the Clock Root, one hand bracing against the uneven, alien stone, Leira drew in a deep, steadying breath, feeling the pull of time stretching behind her, the shadow of the next echo already whispering and calling, and with the tiniest flicker of determination igniting inside her chest, she took her first forward step into the unknown, and then another, and then she walked.