Beyond Ember Choir, the land blazed with an alien glow. With each step, Ren and Yumi were farther hacked from the warp of the new horizon, where the very sky seemed to be broken by lines of light and shadow drifting above floating islands of stone against a silver plain.
They walked in silence, the aftersong of the Choir thrumming through their bones. The map given them was etched not in paper but in memory, each landmark blotted in Yumi's dreams as if the Choir had sung it into her.
The Skyshatter Spine was a jagged ridge, the third day into their travels. The climb was hellish, wind cutting like razors and the forces of gravity behaving oddly with their feet. When they finally reached the heavenly ridge, they were standing on the very brink of a vast floating platform called the Broken Sky Altar.
It was a sight to behold. Towers of varicolored translucent stone reached skyward, incised with runes that pulsed with the rhythm of their hearts. Pieces of heaven languorously drifted above, as if an invisible seam was stitching them into the fabric of this world.
[LOCATION REACHED: The Broken-Sky Altar] Objective: Activate Altar Status: Dormant
Ren took a step forward, but something like a wave of pressure from the altar brought him to his knees.
"It's as if the air is... grieving," he murmured.
Yumi felt the same sensation. The entire altar was weeping, not for the water, but for energy. Regret, sorrow, and anguish poured out from every stone.
In the very center of the platform stood a tall monolith made from glassy black crystal. Floating around it were six crystalline shards, each singing a different note, each representing a different voice lost to the Veil.
"This is the site of the sealing attempts," Yumi murmured. "And the site of their failure."
She stretched forth her hand in an attempt to grip one of the shards, and a frantic vision grabbed her consciousness:
Above in the battlefield of skies, fire and shadow warriors struggled in pain. The Veil began cracking, revealing a raging emptiness consuming all feelings. The Ember Choir sang-not as a song of defiance, but one of lament.
She gasped, staggering backward. Ren caught her.
"We need to stabilize it," she said. "Before the Veil pulls this place apart."
[QUEST OBJECTIVE: Realign the Shards of Emotion] Progress: 0/6
They began the ceremony, invoking each of the shards to respond to a memory, and each must give a piece of itself to bind the crystal in place.
For the first shard, Yumi shared her memory of the first day of training as a Guardian, her anxiety, and reflex panic at her first confrontation with danger, when she consciously chose not to give up. The shard settled into place, glowing softly with determination.
The second shard was Ren's: a moment of failure when he could not save someone he loved, and how he lived with that. The shard throbbed with bitter resolve.
The third shard had a memory shared; that moment when they first kissed, under the starlit sky above the remnants of Vaen, when words were inadequate. The warmth flowed gently, like the shard's adhesion to him.
The very fourth shard shook the altar.
"Voices echoing everywhere, now," it said, "You open wounds that should remain undisturbed."
A figure emerged from at the far reach of the altar, clad, the face hidden, a voice made from broken thoughts.
"I am the Sundered one," it spoke. "The veil is not your enemy. It is the cure. Feeling is the plague."
[ENEMY ENCOUNTER: The Sundered One – Harbinger of the Veil]
"You've mistaken healing for erasure," Ren said as he readied his sword.
"I'm with you, facing it," said Yumi. "We're not afraid of pain. That's what makes us whole."
With a wave of null light, the Sundered One unleashed a torrent of power that rippled through the air. Ren intercepted the attack with an explosive pulse of Heartlink, while Yumi unleashed her newest ability: Empath's Radiance. The brilliance temporarily dimmed the Sundered One's senses.
The battle raged around the altar, dodging rays of unmaking with attacks fueled by some lost memory. At the last moment, the sinking click of the last shard set a discharge of energy through the altar.
The Sundered One cried out as the sky cracked open again, but not with shadow; with clarity.
The altar burst forth in flame and light, a signal into the world.
[QUEST COMPLETE: Activate the Broken Sky Altar] Reward: Veil Key – Gateway to the Final Veil
Yumi stumbled into Ren's arms. "Almost there," she said under her breath.
Ren nodded with tears down his cheeks: "Let's finish this. Together."
Above, the Veil glimmered as though being pulled back like an opening curtain.
The last of their trials awaited them.