A terrible stillness hung in the air long after the hooded figure vanished. The courtyard, once alive with quiet night sounds, now felt like it was holding its breath—waiting for something to break.Aurora’s heartbeat thundered in her ears. She stared at Collins Lutherchris, unable to ignore the strange shimmer that now pulsed faintly beneath his skin, as though something ancient had awakened inside him.Collins saw her staring and swallowed hard.“Aurora… please say something.”She stepped closer, trying to steady her voice.“We need to check you. Not because I don’t trust you—but because we can’t afford unknowns anymore.”Collins nodded, though fear flickered behind his eyes. “Do it. Whatever you need.”Aurora placed her palms on both sides of his face. A soft silver glow radiated from her fingertips as she summoned the Veil Sight—a rare ability she barely understood, one that allowed her to see hidden magical truths.Light washed over Collins.And what Aurora saw made her gasp.A s

The air beneath the Sanctuary shifted as Rick followed Kai and Lira into the lower chambers—places he’d never seen, places even most Veilbreakers weren’t allowed to enter.The torches here burned blue.Not magical.Not natural.Alive.Rick watched as flames curled toward him, reacting to the glow in his palm. “These torches… why do they move like that?”Kai didn’t answer immediately. His voice came low, uneasy.“They only respond to one kind of power. Bridge energy.”Rick swallowed. Hard.Lira walked beside him, arms folded, eyes sharp. “Rick… what happened with your shadow proves your rune is waking up. We need to measure how far the awakening has gone.”Rick tried to joke, but his voice cracked. “What if it says I’m doomed?”Kai didn’t smile. “Then we deal with it.”They reached a heavy iron gate carved with circular patterns—like ripples spreading through water. Kai laid his palm on the metal, and the carvings lit up one by one.The gate shuddered open.Inside was a circular room w

The ash from the Echo still drifted in the air like dying snow when Rick lowered his hand. The glowing rune on his palm dimmed again—but not fully. It throbbed in slow, unsettling pulses.Alive. Watching. Listening.Kai steadied himself. “Rick… that was no minor Echo. That was a High-Form. Those things only appear when the Door is close to breaching.”Lira exhaled sharply. “Meaning something inside is pushing harder.”Rick clenched his fists. “And it’s using me to do it.”No one disagreed.Kai moved to the stone corridor that followed. His fingers traced the crystallized scorch marks left from Rick’s blast.“Rick… your father wasn’t wrong. Something out there wants the Bridge Rune awakened. And it wants you.”Rick looked down again at the mark on his hand, burning faintly under the skin. “What does this rune even do? Everyone keeps saying it’s powerful, dangerous… ‘world-shifting’… but no one tells me what it actually is.”Lira exchanged a long look with Kai—the kind that said they kn

The storm raged through the night, but inside Aether High’s ancient library, a different storm brewed—quieter, colder, and far more dangerous.Rick stood between towering shelves, his fingers running across dusty volumes his father once researched. Liora watched him quietly from the entrance, knowing he was searching for something… even if he didn’t yet know what.But someone else had been waiting.A soft echo of footsteps.A shadow moving at the far end.And then—his voice.“You came.”Rick stiffened instantly.Collins Lutherchris stepped into the lantern light, his presence sharp, controlled, unreadable. His coat fluttered with the wind leaking through the gray windows.Liora gasped quietly.Rick didn’t look away.1. The Confrontation“Why didn’t you tell me you knew my father?” Rick demanded.Collins stared at him, expression unreadable.“Because the day your father died,” Collins said, “I made a promise to protect you from everything he feared.”Rick’s voice dropped to a razor edg

The symbol on the floor pulsed—slow, cold, and rhythmic—like a heartbeat that didn’t belong in the human world.Rick stared at it, barely breathing.“That’s… the same mark from my father’s research,” he whispered.“The Hollow Eye.”Collins nodded, eyes locked on the burning sigil.“This is worse than I expected. If they’re sending markers, it means one thing…”Liora clutched Rick’s arm, voice trembling.“…they’re already inside the city.”Collins didn’t look up.“They’re not just in the city.”He swallowed.“They’ve been here… for years.”---1. THE MARK SPEAKSThe floor trembled.The sigil cracked.A faint whisper seeped from the burning eye—flat, distorted, and inhuman:“Bridge… we see you…”Rick’s heart slammed against his ribs.The voice bled through the room like icy smoke.“You cannot run from what you are…”Collins snapped, “Rick—don’t respond. Do NOT speak to it.”But the voice felt like it was drilling directly into Rick’s mind.“You are the doorway…The path…The blood our m