Fractured Realms

Echoes of light

The light faded behind me until it became only a pulse in the distance. Ahead stretched a field of silver mist that rippled with every breath. Each step stirred faint motes of luminescence from the ground, as though the air itself remembered fire.

The silence was alive. I could hear it breathing, a low pulse that moved through the space around me like the heartbeat of something enormous and unseen. The horizon curved inward, pulling me closer with every step.

The storm was gone, but its memory clung to me. The scent of ozone still lingered. My clothes were torn, my hands scraped, yet none of it felt real. The warmth that had protected me in the storm now burned quietly beneath my skin, pulsing like an ember refusing to die.

Elara’s face would not leave my mind. The image of her reaching for me as the bridge tore apart replayed again and again, sharp enough to wound. I could still feel the weight of her fingers slipping from mine, the way the light swallowed her. It was the kind of moment that brands itself into the soul.

I stopped walking. The silence deepened until I could hear the rhythm of my own heartbeat. I whispered her name once more. “Elara.”

The mist shifted.

Something in the air responded to her name. I felt a faint vibration beneath my feet, then saw a pattern of light spread outward from where I stood. It formed intricate shapes, like constellations drawn on glass. They flickered for a moment, then vanished.

The pulse in my chest grew stronger.

I lifted my hands. Blue light seeped from beneath the skin, forming delicate lines that twisted around my fingers. I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. The light felt familiar, like an extension of breath or thought. It followed my emotion, rising when I focused, dimming when I hesitated.

When I moved my hand through the air, trails of faint luminescence lingered behind it, bending and swirling. The mist reacted, curling inward as if curious.

The realization hit slowly. Whatever this place was, it responded to me. It recognized me.

I took another step forward, then another. The ground beneath me hardened into something solid and translucent. The mist parted, revealing a vast expanse below. It was not sky or land but a sea of suspended fragments, glowing faintly in endless motion. Each fragment showed flickering scenes—cities, faces, storms, oceans, and burning worlds.

I was looking down at memories.

Not just mine. All of them.

The sight made my stomach twist. I wanted to look away, yet I couldn’t. My reflection stared back at me from the nearest shard. The eyes were hollow, the same shade of blue as the light crawling through my veins.

A faint voice whispered near my ear. “You see them too.”

I spun around.

A figure stood a few steps away, cloaked in grey light. The shape was human but faint, half there, half imagined. Its presence carried no sound of footsteps, only a hum that blended with the pulse of the realm.

“Who are you?” I asked.

The figure’s voice was soft, layered, almost like several tones speaking in harmony. “I am one of what remains. We are called echoes.”

“echoes of what?”

The figure’s head tilted slightly. “of life. Of loss. Of what the fracture remembers when it forgets itself.”

I felt my throat tighten. “Then you know what happened.”

“I know fragments,” the echo said. “Pieces of moments that no longer belong to time. You carry the brightest one.”

I took a step closer. “Do you mean Elara?”

At the mention of her name, the mist trembled again. A faint shimmer of gold passed through the air, dissolving almost immediately.

The echo nodded. “A bond strong enough to disturb the flow. It means she still exists, somewhere beyond the collapse. But to find her, you must understand what you have become.”

“What have I become?”

The echo’s shape flickered, revealing hollow spaces within its form. “The light inside you is not a gift. It is memory given shape. The fracture lives through you. Its rhythm answers to your heartbeat. When you move, it moves. When you hesitate, it falters.”

My hands trembled. “I don’t want this.”

The echo’s voice remained calm. “It does not matter what you want. It has already chosen you.”

For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The air between us shimmered faintly, the pulse of the world matching the rhythm of my chest.

Then the echo turned and began to walk away. I followed without thinking.

The mist thinned as we moved, revealing a landscape built from shifting fragments. Shards of land floated in patterns, linking and unlinking like a breathing organism. Rivers of light connected them, flowing through the air like threads of living energy.

We walked in silence until we reached a place where several fragments converged. At their center stood a structure of crystal and shadow, tall as a tower, its surface rippling as if underwater.

“This is where memories rest,” the echo said. “Every soul that touches the fracture leaves its mark here. If you listen, they will speak.”

The surface of the tower began to glow. Whispering voices filled the air, dozens at once, overlapping yet distinct. Words rose and faded like waves.

“Help me…”

“It burns…”

“She was right behind me…”

“Kael…”

I froze. My name. It came from within the tower, clear and unmistakable.

“Elara?”

The echo looked at me, its expression unreadable. “Be careful. The fracture does not only remember the truth. It remembers pain, longing, and regret. Sometimes it does not know the difference.”

I ignored the warning and stepped closer. The voices grew louder. I reached out and placed my palm against the surface.

Instantly, the light from my hand spread through the structure. The whispers merged into a single sound, a heartbeat that matched my own. The surface rippled again, and an image formed within it.

It was her.

Elara stood on a bridge of light, her eyes fixed on something distant. Her expression was calm, not afraid. Around her, the world shimmered and folded inward. She looked alive.

“Elara!” I pressed my hand harder against the surface. The image wavered.

The echo stepped forward. “You cannot reach her through memory. You will only lose yourself in the illusion.”

“I saw her die,” I said. “I felt her hand slip away.”

“Then what you see is a residue. The fracture holds echoes of what it cannot release.”

The image began to dissolve. I slammed my fist against the crystal. “Show me!”

The tower responded. Light exploded outward, throwing both of us backwards. The air turned electric. Fragments around us cracked and shifted. The whispers turned into screams.

I hit the ground hard. The echo flickered beside me, its form destabilising. “You have disturbed the balance,” it said. “The realm feels your grief.”

The light from my body flared without control. Energy erupted from my chest, spiraling upward into the air. The world around us trembled as the fractures widened. Shards of light broke loose, swirling in violent motion.

I tried to stop it, but the power moved on its own. It wasn’t anger that fueled it, but despair. Every memory of her, every unspoken word, every failure surged through me until the air burned.

The echo’s voice cut through the chaos. “Control it, Kael. You must remember who you are, or the realm will consume you.”

I clenched my fists and forced my breathing to slow. The light resisted, thrashing like something alive, but I focused on her face. I remembered her laugh, the warmth in her eyes, the way she believed in me when I no longer did.

Gradually, the energy began to settle. The glow dimmed until only a faint pulse remained. The fractures in the air sealed themselves, though the ground still trembled underfoot.

The echo’s voice softened. “Now you see. The light within you is tied to your memory. If you lose control, it will tear this realm apart.”

I stood slowly. My hands were still glowing, but weaker now, calmer. “Then I’ll learn to control it.”

The echo regarded me for a long moment. “That is what the fracture wants. Whether that saves you or destroys you will depend on what you seek.”

“What I seek hasn’t changed,” I said quietly. “I’m going to find her.”

The echo’s form shimmered faintly. “Then the path will open. But understand this, the deeper you go, the closer you come to what broke you.”

I nodded. The pulse beneath my skin was steady again, a quiet rhythm that guided my steps.

The echo began to fade. “Follow the light when it calls. It will show you where the next realm begins.”

The mist returned, curling around me until the world became only sound and faint color. The tower of memory dimmed in the distance, leaving a single line of brightness stretching forward.

I took one last look at where Elara’s image had been. Then I followed the path.

The silence around me changed. It no longer felt empty. It felt expectant, as if the realm itself was holding its breath.

I walked toward the faint light ahead, each step falling into rhythm with the pulse beneath my skin. The echoes whispered from the mist, but this time I did not look back.

The light grew brighter, folding the horizon into itself. The pulse inside me answered, stronger with every heartbeat.

Whatever waited beyond that glow would be the next test, and I would face it, not as a victim of the fracture, but as its witness.

The realm of light closed behind me. The next one waited in silence.

And the journey began again.