Chapter 16: Echo of the Lost Flow
The sky above the Beyond Institute shimmered with a glassy hue, its clouds moving in slow geometric patterns — like reality itself was thinking.
Talia sat on the edge of the training dome, legs dangling over the side, her pulse synced with the faint hum of the Beyond energy core below. She'd been restless since dawn — something in her chest felt off, like a faint ache that wouldn't fade.
Juno was sitting cross-legged a few feet away, her hand tracing runes across the air. The holographic threads glowed faintly blue, shifting with every flick of her wrist.
"You've been quiet for an hour," Juno said finally, her voice calm but wary. "That's a record. What's going on in your head?"
Talia didn't answer right away. She closed her eyes and reached into the astral field — the web of energy that connected every Dreamer to their inner realm.
Then she froze.
"Juno…" Her voice trembled slightly.
Juno's eyes snapped open. "What is it?"
"I… I can feel something. It's faint, but it's—" She focused harder, her eyes glowing faint gold. "—Kael."
Juno straightened. "That's impossible. His link's been dormant for two days. The Beyond core isn't even registering his presence."
"I'm telling you I feel it!" Talia snapped, her heart pounding. "It's like a pulse — fractured but still burning."
Juno stood, her own circuits flaring a cool violet as she extended her senses into the field. For a moment, there was nothing. Just silence and the distant hum of the institute's energy coils.
Then she felt it too.
A flicker. A ripple through the astral network — chaotic, distorted, but unmistakably him.
"Oh no," Juno whispered. "That's Kael's signature, all right. But… it's wrong. It's unstable — like something's rewritten part of it."
Talia's breath caught. "Rewritten?"
"Yeah. Think of it like… a song you know by heart suddenly changing rhythm halfway through. It's still him, but someone — or something — tampered with the melody."
The air between them crackled as Juno pulled up a holographic interface. Lines of Beyond-code and astral data scrolled upward, forming an energy lattice.
Kael's signature appeared — fractured streams of golden and black light, colliding violently before splitting apart.
Talia stared. "That's not supposed to happen. Kael's energy doesn't mix with Tranceed flow. It's supposed to repel it."
"Exactly," Juno said. "But look — it's doing the opposite. It's merging. Slowly."
Talia took a step back, her hands trembling. "If the Beyond and Tranceed flows merge inside a host—"
"It could tear him apart," Juno finished grimly. "Or worse."
They stood in silence for a few seconds, both processing the same thought: Kael's alive… but something's wrong with him.
Finally, Juno exhaled. "We need to trace it. His energy trail is still warm — it's not far."
"Where?" Talia asked immediately.
"Somewhere near the lower astral boundary — the place between our realm and the real world."
Talia's heart skipped. "He tried crossing back?"
"Looks like it," Juno said, pulling on her cloak and activating her Beyond band. "But there's a problem."
Talia frowned. "What now?"
"The energy flux he used… it's not natural. It's like someone guided him through. Look at this pattern."
She expanded the holographic map. Among the fractured codes of Kael's energy trail, another pattern overlapped — faint, ancient, and unfamiliar. It spiraled like a galaxy folding inward.
Talia's brows knitted. "That symbol…"
"Yeah," Juno said darkly. "That's not Beyond tech. That's older. Way older."
For the first time since she met Kael, Talia felt real fear tighten in her chest.
"What if he didn't just cross worlds?" she whispered. "What if he met something beyond even us?"
Juno didn't answer. She simply deactivated the hologram and looked up at the skyline — where streaks of light pulsed faintly like heartbeat veins across the clouds.
"Then," Juno said softly, "we're already too late."
The air around them pulsed once — a faint tremor rippling through the astral field, as if the world itself shivered.
Talia looked up, her eyes wide. "Did you feel that?"
"Yeah," Juno said quietly. "That wasn't just Kael. Something followed him through."
The light dimmed. The hum of the Beyond Core faltered for the first time in years.
And far below the institute, buried deep under miles of crystal and metal — a dark energy flared to life.