Kalo hit the ground hard—grass, not stone.
He gasped, rolling over as his eyes adjusted to… daylight?
A wide field stretched before him, blanketed in pale golden flowers that swayed though there was no wind. Above, the sky was split into two halves:
One side bright and blue.The other midnight black, filled with constellations.
The horizon never chose which belonged.
Lira landed beside him, breath ragged. "We made it."
Kalo stood slowly, staring. "Where are we?"
Lira brushed shimmering dust from her robes.
"The Outer Verge," she said. "Where Time sends the pieces it doesn't want—yet can't destroy."
Kalo swallowed hard.Am I one of those pieces?
Before he could speak, a distant bell tolled—soft but endless, like a heartbeat made of metal.
Lira stiffened. "The Astrarium has noticed your arrival."
Kalo rubbed the ache in his chest where sand had spilled out. "Then we need to keep moving."
Lira didn't answer.
She was staring—frozen.
Kalo followed her gaze.
A figure stood at the edge of the flowers, cloaked in robes patterned with spinning gears. A mask covered their face—glass, showing reflected stars instead of features.
Their presence bent the light around them, warping the flowers to ash and back again.
"Kalo Renn," the figure said, voice echoing several seconds too late. "The Council summons you."
Kalo's throat tightened.
"So they can erase me?"
The figure tilted its head."If you are not meant to exist."A pause."But if you prove you deserve your timeline… the Astrarium may grant you identity."
Kalo took a step forward."This is my identity."
He pressed his palm to his cracked Hourglass mark.
The figure's mask flickered—distorted, as if noticing a glitch.
"You should not be able to access that power. Not without a Guide."
Kalo blinked. "A Guide?"
Lira tensed beside him.
"Kalo," she whispered. "Don't trust—"
But the cloaked figure's hand snapped up—
Time froze.
Lira's words died in her throat, her body held in suspended mid-breath.
Every flower halted mid-sway.
Every sound ceased.
Only Kalo moved.
The figure stepped closer—footsteps silent yet heavy.
"Do you feel the pull?" they asked."The thread tying you to him?"
Kalo's pulse pounded.
"You mean Nox."
The masked head nodded.
"You and he share a singular existence. One will be overwritten. One will survive."A beat."Which are you willing to let become the ghost?"
Kalo's breath faltered.
The figure leaned close.
"A Guide will strengthen you. Without one—you fall into Nox's shadow."
Then, as if delivering a final verdict, they stepped back.
"You will meet the Council at the Third Meridian. Come. If you falter even once… the decision will be made for you."
Time snapped back into motion.
Lira stumbled, gasping—realizing she had been frozen.Her eyes widened in fear and fury.
"Kalo, you can't talk to them alone. They'll rewrite you before you even speak."
Kalo looked in the direction the figure had gone—toward a distant city floating between day and night.
He clenched his jaw.
"If they want to judge me… they'll have to face me directly."
He took a step forward.
Then another.
But doubt whispered—
What if they're right?What if I'm the shadow?What if Nox is the one who deserves to be real?
Lira touched his shoulder—gentle.
"Listen to me, Kalo. Time didn't choose you by accident. I didn't choose you by accident."
Kalo turned to her, eyes uncertain.
"Then tell me why you chose me."
The flowers rustled.The sky twisted.Lira's answer lingered on the edge of a truth she wasn't ready to reveal.
"I will," she promised quietly. "But not here. Not yet."
Far behind them, the sky cracked—
A tear of pure darkness opening like a blade.
Nox was still coming.
And he was no longer alone.