Leira stepped forward, and the ground beneath her ended. Not like a cliff or an edge she had ever known, but like the world itself had peeled away, leaving a void, a hollow seam of reality, and above it stretched the broken sky. She inhaled, lungs burning from the heat and dust, the shard tight in her fist, her knuckles white with strain. The horizon was a roiling sea of fractured shadows and fractured light, colors colliding and tearing at one another, spirals of smoke and energy folding over themselves in violent, chaotic motion.
The air was different here, heavier, almost viscous, yet dry, scraping against her throat like sandpaper with every breath. The bond inside her chest flared, not gently, but like fire clawing upward, tearing along ribs, hooking her heart and pulling her forward with jagged, merciless insistence.
Kael. His pain, his desperation, the ragged thread of his voice, it surged through her in waves of agony that made her knees tremble, that made her vision swim in the heat haze and distortion.
She staggered into the empty expanse, the shard vibrating with his presence. Each step made the broken sky shudder, like she was walking through water made of light and shadow, each ripple responding to her heartbeat, to the anger and terror within her, until she finally entered it. She looked behind her, the three stalkers lingered at the last solid edge of the corridor she'd left, their twisted, crooked forms still, faceless masks flickering like static. They did not move. They never moved. They watched, waiting, testing her resolve, ensuring she could not retreat.
The ground beneath her was no longer solid, it wavered with every step, forming only enough to hold her weight, then dissolving in faint, jagged cracks behind her. She stumbled once, caught herself, and her heart slammed as the shard thrummed violently, almost burning in her grip. The bond inside her flared, tugging her toward something she could not yet see, toward Kael, tethered by something older, deeper, impossible.
Every breath was a struggle, the heat inside the broken sky sucking moisture from her lungs. Her eyes pooled with tears, not because she was sad, but because of how harsh the air was in here. She still tried her best and forced them open, refusing to blink, every nerve in her body screaming with exhaustion.
The stalkers were still there, distant, impossible, like carved statues imbued with awareness, observing her in a silence that pressed against her skull.
The ground shifted, subtly at first, a trembling vibration under her boots, then sharper, more insistent. A pulse ran through the air itself, like something alive beneath the void, listening to her steps. Dust and fragments of stone formed faint patterns, swirling around her ankles, crawling up in tendrils that dissolved before they touched her.
The force within her chest surged again, clawing and dragging her forward with relentless cruelty. She fell flat on her face, skin scraping against the hard, unyielding surface that had solidified just long enough to hold her, but she scrambled upright immediately, teeth clenched, shard still in hand.
The path ahead twisted. There were creatures and Shadows bending unnaturally in the heatwaves, moving across fractured planes of light like water, and every glance she stole to the periphery made the stalkers' presence feel heavier, sharper, more calculated. They did not chase her, yet the weight of their observation was like gravity pulling her backward, pressing her down even as the bond in her chest yanked her forward.
She forced herself to keep moving. Step by step, the broken sky stretched before her, fracturing, folding, a maze of light and shadow that had no top, no bottom, no center. Each vibration of the shard echoed the pain in her chest, Kael's agony like a drumbeat guiding her through the impossible space. A whisper, fragmented, almost lost in the heat, slid into her mind: Leira…
Her chest constricted, the thread of his presence sharp enough to cut bone. The ground pulsed beneath her, responding to the bond, vibrating in time with her panicked heartbeat, forcing her forward despite the heat and the fatigue, despite the shards of dust and energy snapping at her skin. Every step felt like climbing a mountain made of liquid fire.
The stalkers remained at the edge of the broken sky's entrance, now forcing her along the only path that led forward. Their crooked limbs twitched intermittently, masks flickering, but they did not move from their posts. They did not need to. Their very existence warped the world, shaping it into a trap, forcing her toward what awaited at the end of the fractured horizon.
Her lungs burned, throat raw, but she pressed on, the shard's warmth a fleeting comfort against the relentless pull dragging her through the scorching, oppressive air. The horizon twisted further ahead, folds of shadow and light colliding, forming an impossible slope she could not yet see the end of. The air around her felt heavy, dust and energy whirling in twisted, small tornadoes that grazed her boots and legs.
Another pulse. Stronger. Sharper. Kael's voice, barely more than a whisper inside her mind, threaded through the pain: Leira…
Her body trembled, sweat rolling down her skin. She could feel the shard vibrating with her heartbeat, in tune with the tug in her chest, almost alive with the sound of Kael's suffering. She pressed on through the impossible terrain, each movement a battle against gravity, heat, and the unseen force pulling her forward. A world held together by perception and sheer force of will, pulled relentlessly toward the place where he waited.
The landscape stretched on, endless and unnerving, with broken fragments of stone and twisted light forming jagged pathways that disappeared as soon as she looked away. Each step was a gamble. Each moment of hesitation, a chance for the stalkers to intervene, or worse, for the space around her to collapse.
A sharp tug tore through her ribs, sending her sprawling onto the jagged surface. Dust and pieces of sharp stone cut her palms as she scrambled upright, the invisible force dragging her forward through the unbearable heat. Kael was near. She could sense the sharpness of his suffering, a physical pressure against her chest that made every step a desperate act of endurance.
Her legs burned, muscles quivering under the strain, yet she could not stop. Each heartbeat reminded her of his agony, pushing her onward.
The air thickened, vibrating, alive in a way that made the hair on her arms stand on end. The stalkers were now far in the distance, but their presence still scared her.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the ground beneath her began to level, stabilizing just enough for her to take solid steps. The horizon rippled violently above, shadows and light swirling, colliding. The bond screamed, tugged, pulled with unbearable intensity, and she realized she was very close, close enough to feel the edges of Kael's presence directly, the chains around him radiating warmth through the air.
Leira's knees trembled, but she pressed forward, each step a scream of determination. The air hummed with energy, tense and fragile, responding to her every heartbeat.
Then, at last, the horizon opened into a vast expanse. The path ahead swirled violently, shadows colliding with light in impossible spirals, and beneath it, faint but unmistakable, she heard it, a scream, ragged, tortured, unyielding. Kael. This wasn't in her head, he was really close.
And then, for the first time since she started this journey, the stalkers moved, not toward her, but they assembles themselves behind her, their limbs bending and shifting, closing the the sight of the shifting path behind her. They didn't hunt; they trapped, forming a one sided cage of grotesque angles, forcing her attention to the what was in front of her.
It was a cliff now, she was standing at its edge, it came out of nowhere, and when she looked down, she saw it…she saw…him.
Kael.
It was a ritualistic Circle and a boy within it. The Circle pulsed beneath Kael, shadows rising from the ground like smoke, coiling around him, whispering in tongues she could feel but not hear, tugging at a tether connected to his heart… it was their bond, trying to twist it, trying to pull him from her even as she ran toward him. The air around her rippling with the raw energy of the unmaking.
Leira fell flat on the scorched ground, chest heaving, the shard clattering against the fractured earth, and for a moment, she just listened, to the rasp of Kael's breath, the unnatural hum of shadows, and the thread of his agony that wrapped around her soul.
The bond yanked her upright, hard, pulling her across the burning terrain. The shadows writhed and hissed as she stepped closer to the edge of the cliff, calculating how to get down there, to save him, the earth beneath her feet cracking underfoot, sending spidery fractures outward that glimmered faintly with heat. Her lungs screamed with each inhale, each exhale rasping like wind through dead bone.
A piece of earth formed in front of her, it floated, not connected to anything. It was as if the forces here wanted her to come down to meet Kael, like they were inviting her to join them.
She stepped onto the floating platform, the stalkers followed and the earth slowly floated down, gradually taking her to the corner of the Circle. She stepped of it and slowly walked around it, observing Kael.
His chains, metal scorched and pulsing, caught her attention first. And then she walked into the circle, toward him. She knelt beside him and traced the broken links with her fingers, feeling the residual warmth of his fear and pain, a raw imprint that burned through her palm. The shadow tendrils writhed over his body, attempting to find a way to reach the bond, but she pressed herself against him, almost threatening the shadow, raising the shard.
A flicker in her peripheral vision, the three stalkers, grotesque and silent, bending in impossible ways, watching.
The bond inside her chest surged violently, dragging her forward as if it knew exactly what to do, and the turned to back to him, her eyes locked onto Kael, his chest rising in uneven, tortured gasps, his lips moving soundlessly, inaudibly whispering her name. She could see the shadow trying to find an entry to reach him, try to rewrite him, to twist the bond, to turn him into a weapon against her. Rage flared through her chest, raw and searing, and she gritted her teeth.
She struck.
The shard plunged into the nearest tendril of shadow as it rose to lunge at him, a burst of light snapping from the contact, searing, splitting the darkness for a moment. The shadows hissed and recoiled, but the pulse of unmaking continued, strong and deliberate. Kael screamed then, a sound that tore through her very bones, pulling her closer, igniting the bond into a flare of pain and hope intertwined.
Leira pressed raised the shard again and drove it into the writhing shadow that had crawled up Kael's side, and for a fraction of a moment, the tendrils shrank, the air stilled, the unmaking paused, and she felt a glimmer of connection, the thread of his life, of his soul, raw and bleeding into hers.
But then the stalkers shifted again, bending the air, compressing the circle, forcing her to stop moving, and the ground cracked beneath her knees, splitting in long jagged lines that tried to unseat her balance. The bond yanked again, violently, and she felt Kael's terror spike through her, more shadows had formed now and they began clawing at him, rewriting, reshaping, bending him into something that was not him.
Leira screamed, and was about to raise the shard again, but then… Kael's eyes lifted.
But they were not his eyes.
Dark, liquid, shadow tainted eyes, reflecting the spiral of the circle around him. And then, he whispered, hoarse, ragged, her name, the syllables carrying the weight of the shadow, carrying pain, carrying darkness, carrying something horrifyingly wrong.
"Kael…" she gasped, voice breaking, shard shaking in her grip, sweat burning her eyes, "Don't let them…"
The air twisted violently, shadows now swirling around her, and the stalkers moved slightly, their presence intentionally pushing her toward him, keeping her trapped within the Circle's. She didn't fight them, didn't even look at them.
Kael's shadowed gaze was fixed on her, lips moving soundlessly. In that moment, pain, fear, rage, love, fury…every feeling coiled together, searing into her chest, guiding her movements, forcing her hands and feet to act.
A final surge yanked her across the jagged ground. She thrust the shard into the thickest shadow coiling around him, and it shrieked, a sound like tearing metal and bone and fire all at once, writhing violently before recoiling. Kael shuddered beneath it and dropped his head, for a brief moment, the shadow receded, hissing, snapping, but not gone.
He lifted his head again.
Eyes still not his own. He whispered her name again
Leira inhaled through the scorching air, hands trembling, her pulse in sync with his, and she whispered, voice raw, voice ragged, "I'm going to save you, Kael, I will not let them do this to you." She didn't ask the Veil to help this time; she commanded it to fight, no matter the consequences. Slowly, the light in her eyes grew, pushing the shadows back as they writhed and recoiled at the threat of her essence, and then she took a deep breath braced herself, knowing she would have to fight the unmaking itself, the now corrupted bond, and the shadows that had dared touch him.
And as she stood to her feet, Kael's whisper followed, haunting, shadowed, and trembling:
"Leira…"