Kael dreamed of fire.
Endless, raging fire that devoured everything. Cities of glass and steel reduced to ash. Fields soaked in blood. He stood in the center of the inferno, unable to move, his limbs heavy with guilt. All around him, shadows danced, whispering his name in a language older than time.
And then came the eye.
Vast. Burning. Watching.
He woke with a start.
Seris knelt nearby, sharpening her dagger with slow, methodical strokes. The sound of the whetstone was oddly comforting in the ruined silence of the canyon they had camped in. Toran stood by the cliffside, scanning the horizon. A red dawn spilled light over the scorched earth, casting long shadows across the jagged terrain.
Kael wiped the sweat from his brow. "That thing I saw at the Rift Keep... the Warden. It said I was a fragment. What does that mean?"
Seris paused. "Fragments are echoes. Pieces of something broken... or hidden. The Sovereign uses that term for beings tied directly to the origin of the Rifts."
Toran turned. "There are myths. Before the invasion, before the collapse of time, before the dimensions bled into one another, there was something ancient buried deep beneath the fabric of all realities. The Sovereign claims to be the last of them."
"And I'm part of that?" Kael asked.
"Possibly," Seris replied. "But myths and truth blur out here. What matters is what we do with the time we have."
Kael wasn't satisfied. But he knew answers wouldn't come easy.
---
Later that day, the trio descended from the canyon into a valley called Hollowmere.
Once a thriving settlement, it now lay in ruins. Blackened husks of buildings dotted the landscape like graves. The air shimmered with residual energy—a sign of recent Rift activity. Broken signs, rusted vehicles, and twisted metal told the story of people who had fought hard and lost even harder.
Toran led the way toward a crumbling structure that resembled an old metro station. "There was a resistance cell here. If any survived, they might know more about Kael's... nature."
As they approached the station, Kael felt a pull.
A pulse.
It was faint, like a heartbeat beneath the earth. Familiar. Unsettling.
"Something's down there," he whispered.
Seris drew her bow. "Then let's find out."
They descended into the darkness, torches flickering against the damp walls. The metro tunnels were partially collapsed, with claw marks etched into the stone and bone fragments scattered like breadcrumbs.
They moved carefully, each step calculated.
Then Kael heard it.
A voice.
Not out loud—inside his mind.
> Kael.
> Remember us.
He froze.
"Did you hear that?" he asked.
Toran shook his head. "Hear what?"
Kael pressed forward. The tunnel opened into a large chamber lit by flickering blue crystals embedded in the walls. In the center lay a sphere of black glass, cracked and pulsing with Garmon radiation. Around it, the skeletal remains of resistance fighters.
Seris knelt beside the sphere, her eyes wide. "This is a Rift Seed. A dormant one."
"What does it do?" Kael asked.
"It grows," Toran answered grimly. "Left unchecked, it becomes a Rift Keep."
Kael stepped toward it. As he did, the pulse in his chest grew stronger.
He reached out, and the sphere responded. Light surged from his hand into the core. Visions flashed before his eyes—battlefields, monsters, a broken starfall, and thirteen thrones of darkness.
Then—a face.
Not human.
Not alien.
Something between.
> "You were meant to fall. But the Rift had other plans. Come to us, Fragment. Complete what was started."
Kael staggered back, gasping.
"Are you alright?" Seris asked, steadying him.
"I saw... something. Someone. They know me. They want me to come to them."
Toran stepped forward. "Then we destroy the Seed. Now."
Kael shook his head. "No. We track it. It leads somewhere. It means something."
Seris looked between the two. "If we let it live, we risk a new Rift opening."
"Then we don't let it open here," Kael said. "We make it open where we choose. On our terms."
Toran grimaced. "Dangerous. Reckless."
"So was bringing me back," Kael snapped. "This is our chance. I don't just want to fight monsters anymore. I want to end this. I want to find the Sovereign."
Seris was quiet for a long time.
Then she nodded. "We track the Seed. But the moment it begins to grow beyond our control, we destroy it. No hesitation."
Kael agreed.
And deep in the shadows, the Rift pulsed with dark anticipation.
---
Over the next few days, they followed the Seed's resonance across the broken plains.
Kael trained harder than ever. Toran pushed him to exhaustion. Seris sharpened his instincts. He still didn't know what his power was, but he began to notice subtle changes. His senses were sharper. He could hear things others couldn't. He began to feel the energy in the air—where it gathered, where it thinned.
And then, something new.
One night, as he meditated, a blue glow rose from his palms. His breath synced with it. When he focused, the air shimmered. Reality bent for a second.
Then it snapped back.
But it was a start.
Seris watched from a distance. "You're not just channeling Garmon," she said. "You're becoming part of it."
Kael looked up. "Is that a good thing?"
"It means you're changing. Whether that's good... remains to be seen."
---
Their path led to the Deadspire.
A towering ruin of twisted architecture fused with bone and metal, it once served as a Riftwatch post—a bastion meant to contain the spreading energy.
Now, it was overrun.
Riftspawn nested in the walls. Dozens. Maybe hundreds.
Kael, Seris, and Toran watched from a nearby ridge.
"Too many to fight," Toran said.
"But the Seed draws us here," Kael replied. "There must be something inside."
"We sneak in," Seris suggested. "Nightfall. Quiet. Quick."
Kael nodded. "And if things go wrong?"
"Then we find out what you're really capable of."
---
Under moonlight, they infiltrated the Deadspire.
Kael moved like a shadow. His senses guided him. He felt the energy lines in the walls—the thrum of Garmon veins pulsing through stone and flesh. It led them deep underground, to a chamber lined with mirrors.
In the center: another Seed.
But this one was alive.
Pulsing. Growing.
And standing before it—a woman.
Pale. Tall. Her eyes glowed with Riftlight.
She turned as they entered.
"So. The Fragment arrives."
Kael raised his blade. "Who are you?"
"I am Lyssa. Warden of the Second Gate. Keeper of the Mirror Seed."
Seris drew her bow. "Step aside."
Lyssa smiled. "You can't stop this. The Sovereign remembers the day he fell. He sent Kael here for a reason. A final attempt to complete what was started eons ago."
Kael stepped forward. "I don't serve your Sovereign."
"You don't know who you serve," Lyssa replied.
Then the Seed pulsed—and the chamber cracked.
From the mirrors, creatures poured out. Twisted reflections. Monsters with Kael's face.
He didn't hesitate.
The light returned.
Brighter. Controlled.
He struck.
And the war within the mirror began.