The stars over the Veiled Expanse did not move.They hung in the night like shards of glass suspended in water, reflecting the faint shimmer of an unseen current. Beneath that still sky, Aria and her companions descended from the last ridge, their silhouettes outlined against a horizon that looked neither dawn nor dusk. The world here seemed… paused. Not dead, not alive — merely waiting.The Veiled Expanse stretched before them: a landscape of floating stones, shifting mirages, and faintly glowing fissures that pulsed in rhythm with no heartbeat they could name. Each step forward sent ripples across the ground, distorting light like disturbed water.“This place is wrong,” Zephyr muttered. His usual humour was gone. “It’s like reality forgot how to breathe.”Lirien crouched, running her fingers across the luminous cracks beneath them. “The Fifth Harmonic lies beneath this distortion. It’s the core of the Song — the balance between creation and dissolution. This whole expanse is a refle

The world trembled as they neared the Crown of Glass.The mountains loomed like frozen lightning, vast and translucent, each peak catching the fractured light of the rift above. It was beautiful — and terrifying. Every crystal sang faintly with dissonant notes, a chorus of resonance that had lost its harmony. The Song was nearing its end, and the world could feel it.Aria walked ahead of the others, her steps careful on the mirrored path. Beneath her boots, the surface shimmered like frozen water, showing fleeting reflections that weren’t her own. For an instant, she saw Eryndor’s face — not as memory, but as presence — his eyes full of quiet sorrow. Then it vanished, leaving only her reflection behind.Zephyr’s voice broke the stillness. “The air’s getting thinner. We’re close to the Harmonic field. I can feel it pulling at my bones.”Lirien adjusted the focus ring on her compass. “It’s not gravity. It’s resonance pressure. The rift is bending the laws that bind sound and substance.”

The light of the Rift faded slowly, leaving the Crown of Glass bathed in a soft, silver luminescence. The shards of crystal glimmered like a field of stars, reflecting every flicker of the newly restored harmonics. The air itself hummed with the subtle pulse of the Song, steady now, balanced.Aria stepped out of the Rift’s heart, her boots touching solid ground again. Around her, the companions watched in awe, each taking in the miraculous calm that had descended over the fractured mountains.“Is it… really over?” Lyra whispered, her voice trembling with relief.Aria nodded slowly. “For now. The Fifth Harmonic holds. And… he’s back.” She glanced at Eryndor, who walked beside her, his hand brushing lightly against hers. Though part of him remained tethered to the Rift, the essence that had been lost for so long now pulsed in step with hers. Whole, yet different.Eryndor’s eyes, calm but thoughtful, swept across the landscape. “The world…” he murmured. “It’s still here.”Zephyr let out

The air vibrated with a tension that pressed against their bones. The harmonic compass in Lirien’s hands pulsed rapidly, its light trembling like a heartbeat about to burst. The Rift’s edge shimmered above the Crown of Glass, a coiling spiral of sound and light that stretched impossibly into the sky. Aria stepped forward, hand extended, as the golden threads of the Song reached for her. Each pulse resonated through her chest, mingling with Eryndor’s essence tethered somewhere beyond. She could feel him — faint, fractured, but unmistakably there. “Aria,” he whispered, carried not through sound but through the Song itself. You’re close. Hold steady. She inhaled, centring herself in the chaos. Around her, the others formed a protective circle, each contributing to the resonance field. Lyra’s blades reflected shards of the Rift’s light, Lirien’s compass sang with delicate precision, Thorne grounded himself against the floating crystal shards, and Zephyr’s staff bent pulses of resonanc

Chapter 99 – “Echoes Beneath the Light”The night over Elyria was not dark — it glowed faintly, as though the stars themselves had sunk into the soil.Eryndor walked ahead of the others, the wind whispering through the newly grown plains. The land stretched endlessly — green where it had once been shattered crystal, alive where silence had reigned. But in that life, something pulsed — an undertone that didn’t belong. The Song was still playing, just quieter. Waiting.Aria caught up beside him, her hair brushed by the wind. “You haven’t said anything since the Well.”“I’m listening,” he murmured.“To what?”“To the world,” Eryndor said. “It’s speaking again… but not in words I recognise.”Behind them, Zephyr kicked a loose stone that dissolved into motes of light before hitting the ground. “Creepy. Even rocks don’t want to stay solid anymore.”Lyra laughed softly — a short, tired sound. “Elyria’s trying to remember how to be alive.”Lirien frowned, glancing at the readings on her harmo