It started small. A tremor in her hands. A shake in her knees. But the spiral was fast. Ruthless. Mae's breath hitched, then broke. Her lungs wouldn't pull enough air. Her chest constricted so tightly it hurt. Her vision tunneled, and her pulse roared so loudly in her ears she barely heard Lucien's voice trying to say something.
No. No no no no no. Her fingers clawed at her sleeves, digging into her own skin as if anchoring herself could undo the last hour of her existence. This isn't real. This isn't possible. It was supposed to be bad luck. Broken tech. Small things. Her hands shot up to grip her hair, pulling tight.
"No no no, this, this doesn't happen, this can't be me." She staggered backward, eyes wide, frenzied, scanning the others like cornered prey. "Stay back. Don't, don't come near me. I mean it." Kaine actually lifted both hands, palms out. Lucien froze mid-step, tension carved into every line of his face. Sethis stood, hands half-lifted as if debating whether to help or let her crash through it.
None of them moved. None of them pushed. Mae backed toward the far edge of the room, pressing herself against the warped wall, breathing ragged. Her skin felt too tight, her blood like static under her skin. She could feel herself losing it, she did not know what was going on, what was wrong with her, why she kept messing everything up. "I don't know what's wrong with me." Her voice shattered mid-word. "I don't, I don't even know who I am anymore. I can't, I can't."
The heavy footsteps caught her ears too late. She spun just in time to see them. Ashar. Riven. Returning. Ashar's gaze snapped immediately to her, the glow in his crystalline eyes sharpening, narrowing. His expression unreadable, blanker than ever but carved from stone. Riven's brows lifted the moment he saw her shaking, hearing her ragged breaths. "Ash..." His voice dropped. "Yeah. She's breaking."
Ashar stepped forward, just one step. Calm. Controlled. Mae shrieked. "Don-don't come near me!" She flung her hands out as if that alone would hold back a man who could phase through reality itself. "Y-you saw what happened! I can't, I don't know how, I'll break it again. I'll break everything!" Her chest heaved. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think past the wild, suffocating panic clawing at every nerve.
Lucien took a step forward, only for Sethis to grab his sleeve and shake his head once. The message was clear: not yet. Not like this. Her gaze darted to Riven. To Kaine. To anyone not currently shaped like the center of a collapsing universe. Riven sighed. Deep. Slow. Ran a hand through his hair like this was exactly what he expected. "Alright." His hands dropped to his hips. "Okay. Alright, little chaos bomb, here's what we're going to do."
Ashar didn't move. Didn't protest. Didn't even flinch. Riven's head tilted toward him. "She won't listen to you right now, Ash. You know that." Ashar didn't argue. Didn't deny it. Just stared. A flicker of something unreadable behind those bright crystal eyes. Riven turned back to Mae. "We're going outside."
"Wha-what?" Mae blinked. "Out." He jerked his thumb toward the exit. "Open air. Neutral ground. No weird castle walls breathing down your neck."
He took a few slow steps closer, hands loose at his sides, posture as non-threatening as a man like him could manage. "You freaked out about breaking it when Ash touched you, right?" A quick gesture toward the half-shifted room. "Okay. Then let's find out if it was him, or you." Mae's stomach dropped. Her blood went ice cold.
"No. No, I can't, I can't do that-"
"Not here. Not near anyone else." Riven's voice softened a bit. "But out there... where it's just us?" His brow arched. "We test it. You try. And if nothing happens, you've got one less thing to spiral about."
"And if something does happen?" she whispered. "I can not handle something else happening, or hurting more people, that's what got me here to begin with." Riven's grin flashed, sharp, not cruel. "Then we learn what the hell you are. Together. Oh, and that is not what got you here, what got you here was being born different and that scared them" There was a long pause. Mae's throat worked around a lump the size of a fist. Her gaze flicked toward Ashar, half-expecting, half-dreading him to say no. To shut it down.
But Ashar just stared. Silent. Watching. No permission. No objection. His silence said everything and nothing. Mae's hands shook. Her knees wobbled. But her head nodded. Once. Small. Fragile. But real. "Okay." Riven's grin sharpened. His eyes glinted with something dangerous but weirdly supportive.
"Good girl." Then something shifted. Ashar stepped forward, not toward her, but to the wall behind him. He touched it lightly, and a corridor opened with a quiet groan.
"I'll take you both there," he said, voice low, the first words he'd spoken aloud in hours. "But if you're wrong, Riven-"
"I'll take the hit," Riven interrupted. Ashar turned to Mae. His eyes softened for a flicker of a moment. "Don't be afraid of yourself." And just like that, she followed them, out, toward the broken world, and toward the truth that waited for her in the wasteland.