The rain came without warning—sharp, cold, and thick like needles of glass. It soaked through Samuel’s coat as he stood at the edge of the cliff, staring at the narrow road winding through the basin below. The shard he had retrieved at the canyon still burned against his chest, its heat undiminished by water or wind.Behind him, Dareth lit a fire with a snap of his fingers, shielding it from the elements with a dome of flickering flame. Ilara sat cross-legged, her eyes closed, fingers twitching with the echoes of what they’d just experienced in the temporal knot. None of them had spoken much since the escape.Joey’s voice broke the silence through the comm-link. “We’re two hours from Mirror Valley. Kael spotted movement. Sentinels—four of them. No insignia, cloaked in shadows. They knew we were coming.”Samuel turned away from the ledge. “They’re reacting faster now. He’s watching more closely.”“He always was,” Ilara said softly, eyes still closed. “We’ve just started giving him reas

Dawn broke in slashes of gold and ash across the jagged skyline. Samuel stood at the edge of the plateau, watching the mist rise over the valley below, where faint lines marked old roads and long-buried cities. The shard pulsed weakly in his pocket now—ever since Reva’s collapse, its energy had dimmed, as if mourning her silence.“She’s waking,” Ilara said behind him.He turned. Reva lay bundled in a thermal cloak, eyes fluttering against the morning light. Her fingers twitched slightly as if reaching for something she could no longer grasp.“She’ll remember everything?” he asked.Ilara nodded. “But the backlash from severing the Mirrorwell... it might’ve fragmented her. She may not know who she is for a while.”Dareth stirred from his watch, cracking his neck. “She’s lucky she’s still breathing.”Samuel glanced at him. “She chose to stop the attack.”“And she still would’ve killed you if she had the strength,” Dareth muttered. “Don’t romanticize mercy.”Ilara sighed. “We need her, Da

After two days of windstorms and sky-cracking heat, the land gave way to the Expanse—an endless stretch of scorched earth and skeletal ruins that reached all the way to the southern horizon. The air shimmered with residual magic, old and hungry. Even without stepping into it, they could feel the static against their skin.Samuel halted at the crumbled border arch, hand resting on the pommel of his blade. "This was once a city.""More than a city," Ilara whispered. "It was one of the last Flame Havens before the Collapse. But when the Gatekeeper rose, this place vanished from all maps."Mavik walked past them, his eyes narrowing. “It didn’t vanish. It was devoured. Turned inside out. The echoes still linger.”Kieran stepped beside Samuel, gripping his staff tightly. "The Sentinel here isn't imprisoned. She's waiting."Samuel raised a brow. “You’re sure it’s a she?”Kieran nodded. “Her presence feels... melodic. But discordant too. Like a song split into two harmonies.”Reva, now recove

The echo of their arrival still rippled through the chamber as Samuel paced slowly before the Core Gate. The symbols on the locks flickered with a faint pulse, responding subtly to the presence of the Guardians. Each hue was unique, yet there was something off—a hesitance in their resonance, as though the locks sensed that something had changed.Reva knelt by the base of the gate, running her hand along one of the cracks. “These aren’t natural fractures. Someone tried to force it open.”Samuel frowned. “The Gatekeeper?”“No. If it were him, the energy residue would be corrupted. This feels... ancient. Like an echo of something unfinished.”Ilara approached the far wall, where patterns in the stone shifted beneath her gaze. “He was here, but so was something else. Another force tried to harness the gate before him. It failed.”Dareth stood motionless, his arms folded across his broad chest, fire flickering gently across his shoulders. “Then we’re not just fighting the Gatekeeper. We’re

The Trial of Endurance didn’t begin with fire. It began with nothing.Joey opened his eyes and found himself standing in a vast, gray expanse—flat as death, silent as sleep. There was no wind, no sky, no horizon, only fog that clung to the ground like ash.He took a step forward. The fog coiled around his boots like something sentient.“Great,” he muttered. “Hell’s waiting room.”His voice didn’t echo.He reached for his comm crystal out of habit, but it wasn’t there. No weapons. No armor. Just a worn gray shirt and dark pants—like he’d been stripped of everything but skin and spine.A whisper slid into the air behind him.“Joey…”He turned fast, but nothing was there.“Joey…”Again, louder. Familiar. He knew that voice.Another figure emerged from the fog. A woman—shorter than him, lean, wrapped in a soldier’s stance. She had Joey’s eyes.His sister.“Alana?”She didn’t smile. She looked straight through him.“You left me,” she said flatly.Joey’s breath hitched. “You died. I couldn’