The glyph didn't vanish. It sank into Kael's skin.
Not painfully — but deliberately. Like ink soaking into paper. Kael gasped. The air around him shimmered. The walls of his apartment bent — not physically, but perceptually. Angles shifted. Light fractured. And then, without warning, the room was gone.
He stood in a corridor of stone and silence.
---
The Academy of the Rift wasn't a building. It was a wound.
Carved into the side of a mountain that didn't exist on any map, it pulsed with ancient energy. The walls were etched with symbols Kael couldn't read but somehow understood. The air was thick with memory — not his own, but collective. Shared. Buried.
Kael stepped forward.
The corridor opened into a vast atrium. No ceiling. Just sky — black, starless, infinite. Students moved through the space like whispers. Some floated. Some flickered. Some didn't seem entirely human.
Kael felt small.
He felt seen.
A voice echoed through the atrium — not loud, but absolute.
"Welcome, Riftborn."
Kael turned.
A figure descended from the sky, cloaked in light and shadow. It wasn't Nyra. It wasn't anyone Kael recognized. But the presence was familiar — like the cave. Like the scream.
The figure landed softly.
"You are not here to learn," it said. "You are here to remember."
Kael opened his mouth, but no words came.
The figure gestured, and the atrium shifted. Walls folded. Floors rearranged. Students vanished.
Kael Stood alone. A door appeared. Wooden. Ancient. Breathing.
Kael stepped through.
He found himself in a forest — not outside, but inside. Trees grew from stone. Leaves falling from the trees. The air was thick and fogged.
A voice spoke.
"You are late."
Kael turned.
She stood beneath a tree, violet eyes glowing, hair like moonlight.
The girl from the observatory.
But this time, she didn't vanish.
Kael stepped forward, heart pounding.
"You're real," he said.
She tilted her head, studying him like a puzzle missing its final piece.
"You're still slow," she said.
Kael frowned. "Who are you?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she walked toward him, and with every step, the forest bent around her — leaves curling inward, fog retreating, the air itself tightening like a held breath.
"You don't remember me," she said.
Kael hesitated. "I've never met you."
She stopped inches from him, her gaze burning through him.
"You did," she whispered. "Before the Collapse. Before the cave. Before they gave you a name."
Kael's breath caught.
"That's not possible," Kael said.
She reached out and touched the pendant on his chest.
It pulsed violently.
"You were chosen," she said. "But you weren't the only one."
Kael stepped back. "What does that mean?"
She smiled — not kindly, not cruelly.
"It means you're not the answer."
Kael's mind spun.
Nyra had said he was the answer. The Riftborn. The one who survived.
But this girl — this impossible girl — was saying something else.
"You're part of the question," she said. "But the Rift doesn't ask kindly."
Kael clenched his fists. "Why are you here?"
"To remind you," she said. "That power doesn't make you right."
She turned to leave.
Kael reached out. "Wait—"
She vanished again.
Kael stumbled through the forest until it dissolved into stone. He was back in the Academy — but deeper now. Beneath the atrium. Beneath the surface.
A chamber opened before him.
Inside, memories hung like paintings. Not his own — but echoes of Riftborn past.
He saw the man who erased free will.
The woman who tore the veil between worlds.
The child who turned time into a weapon.
And then — he saw himself.
Standing in the cave.
Held by the cloaked figure.
Watched by the Rift.
A voice echoed.
"You are not the first."
Kael turned.
Nyra stood at the edge of the chamber.
"But you might be the last," Nyra said.
Kael stepped forward. "Why me?"
Nyra didn't answer.
Instead, she gestured to the memory of Elira — Kael's mother — running through fire, placing him in the cloaked figure's arms.
"She gave you to the Rift," Nyra said. "Not to save you. To test you."
Kael's throat tightened. "Test me how?"
Nyra's eyes glowed.
"To see if you would break."
Kael stood in silence. The pendant pulsed. The glyph burned beneath his skin. He didn't feel powerful. He felt haunted.
Kael stood in silence. The pendant pulsed. The glyph burned beneath his skin.
He didn't feel powerful. He felt haunted.
Nyra stepped closer. "Your first trial begins tomorrow," she said. "You won't be alone."
Kael looked up.
"Will she be there?" he asked.
Nyra paused.
"She's not a student," she said. "She's a memory — one that never forgot you."
Kael frowned. "Then why do I feel like I've never met her?"
Nyra turned to leave.
"Because you haven't remembered her yet."