I didn't fall asleep expecting anything strange.
If anything, I thought falling asleep between the two of them—warm, calm, safe—might finally keep the entity away. I thought the bond would protect me even in rest.
For a while, it did.
Until it didn't.
[The dream did not start with darkness this time.]
It started with a heartbeat.
Not mine.
Not theirs.
Deep. Slow. Wrong.
And the academy hall didn't warp or distort this time—it dissolved, like it was being unmade and remade around me.
The walls melted into ribbons of light, flickering into star-patterns I didn't recognize. Doors and arches twisted inward, bending like metal caught in fire.
The fracture pulsed inside my chest.
Warm. Calling.
"Arin Vale."
The voice wasn't cold anymore.
It was quiet.
Intimate.
Too close.
I turned—but there was no figure this time. No silhouette. No entity shape lurking at the end of the hall.
Only threads—
thousands of glowing threads floating in air, stretching downward from a sky that wasn't a sky at all.
Each thread pulsed like a vein of light, some warm, some dark, some broken. And at the center of them, I felt something—
a pull.
A recognition.
Come.
Not a command.
Not a demand.
A request.
---
My fingers twitched toward the threads.
But then—
a snap of warmth flared across the bond.
Lira's voice, faint, frightened:
Arin?—Arin, wake up—
Seris's voice overlapped hers, sharp and fierce:
You're not going anywhere without us.
Their voices echoed in the dream like ripples colliding across water.
The threads shuddered.
Not recoiling. Reacting.
"Anchor."
The voice breathed the word, almost tender.
"Triad."
The threads drew closer—wrapping around my vision, weaving patterns I almost understood, like memories half-formed—
Arin… I remember…
My chest tightened painfully. Pictures flashed—too fast, too bright—
A hand reaching. A voice calling. Someone crying a name I didn't recognize.
Sed…?
Seth…?
Something broken, something torn—
Lira's voice broke through like sunlight: Arin please—listen to us—
My breath hitched.
Seris snarled into the bond: LET. GO. OF. HIM.
The threads trembled.
The echo snapped.
And I was thrown backward—
waking with a gasp like drowning.
---
I sat upright in bed, shaking.
Lira was gripping my shoulders, panic filling her eyes. Seris was half-out of the bed, ready to fight something she couldn't see.
"Arin!" Lira cried. "Say something! Anything."
I could barely form sound. "It—pulled—"
Seris grabbed my hand. "We felt it. Through the bond. It tried taking you deeper."
Lira held my face between her palms, voice trembling. "What did you see?"
I swallowed hard.
Breath shuddering, heartbeat a storm against my ribs.
"I think…" I managed, voice breaking—
"…it remembered me."
Silence.
Sharp and heavy.
Seris stared. "Arin—"
But I shook my head, staring down at my trembling hands.
"No," I whispered. "That's not the dangerous part."
Lira pressed closer, voice barely a breath. "Then what is?"
My voice shook.
"I think I remembered it."
The Word That Wasn't Mine
Lira kept one hand braced against my cheek, grounding me. Seris paced like she might break the door down if she couldn't punch the dream itself.
"What did you remember?" Seris demanded.
I shook my head. "Not clearly. Just– flashes. A voice. A name maybe."
Lira's breath trembled. "Whose name?"
I swallowed, throat tight. "I don't know if it was calling me… or someone I used to be."
Seris stopped pacing.
"Someone you used to be?"
Her voice was dangerously quiet.
I tried to explain, but the words fought each other.
"It felt… familiar. But wrong. Like remembering someone else's memory through your own eyes."
Lira took my trembling hands in hers. "You're still you. Right here."
Seris stepped closer, eyes burning. "And if something else tries to claim you—we'll tear it out of you."
Normally, those words would have sounded violent. Now, they sounded like a promise. A vow.
My breath slowed. Just a little.
Lira brushed a thumb across my palm, calming. "What else happened?"
"…threads," I said quietly. "Like strings of light. They felt… connected. As if each one was part of something bigger."
Seris frowned. "Bigger how?"
I hesitated, then whispered:
"Like every thread was a memory."
Both girls went still.
Lira leaned closer. "Yours?"
I shook my head.
"No. Someone else's. Or… everyone's."
Seris swore under her breath. "What is this thing?"
I closed my eyes.
And the whisper echoed again—
Anchor.
My heart lurched painfully.
Seris grabbed my shoulders. "What did you just hear?"
I forced the word out. "Anchor."
Lira's eyes widened. "Like you're… its anchor?"
"No," I said slowly, realizing the truth as I spoke it. "We are."
Seris froze. "…all three of us?"
I nodded. "The dream didn't pull me alone. It pulled the bond. That's why you both felt it."
Lira's hands shook. "But we didn't fall into the dream."
Seris clenched her fists. "Because we dragged you back."
I swallowed hard. "Exactly."
The bond pulsed at that moment—soft, warm, protective.
And for a terrifying second…
the fracture pulsed back
as if answering the bond rather than calling it.
My voice broke. "It's beginning to learn us."
Lira whispered, horrified and amazed all at once:
"And we're learning it."
Seris touched my face gently—so gentle it nearly broke me—her voice low and fierce:
"Then we learn faster."
Lira nodded, tears in her voice. "And we don't let go. Ever."
I finally exhaled, leaning into their arms, feeling their warmth steady my pulse.
The entity had reached for me.
But they reached harder.
And for the first time
the fracture didn't feel like something inside me—
It felt like something trying to be part of us.
Due to the bond , lira and seris could feel some fragments of the dream.
I have stay a lot to learn about the bond and recovering from the fracture and train hard so I can protect lira and seris .
For me now lira and seris is more than anything else in the world.
They are 2 slides of mine heart.
I will train harder to keep getting stronger.
We didn't lie back down.
None of us even tried.
Lira kept both hands wrapped around mine, grounding me like she could keep me here by touch alone. Seris half-sat on the edge of the bed, posture sharp and restless, eyes scanning shadows like she expected something to crawl out of them.
For a long time there was only breathing.
Not calm.
Not steady.
Just breathing.
Lira finally whispered, "You're here. With us. Right now."
I nodded, but the dream still clung to my skin like cold water.
Seris studied me closely. "That name—whatever you heard—do you think it was yours?"
I swallowed. "I don't know."
She touched my chin gently, forcing me to meet her eyes. "Listen to me. Whatever that thing remembers, whatever it wants you to remember—your life starts now. Here. With us."
Lira's voice shook. "You don't have to belong to anything that hurt you."
That hit deeper than the dream ever did.
I let out a shaky breath. "I just… I don't know what part of me belongs to it."
Seris didn't hesitate. "None. Absolutely none."
Lira leaned closer, forehead brushing my cheek. "Even if it had pieces of your past… it doesn't own your future."
Something in my chest pulled tight—painful, relieved, terrified all at once.
"But what if I did belong to it?" I whispered.
Seris grabbed my face in both hands, holding me still. "Then you don't anymore. End of story."
Lira's voice was soft but fierce. "Love rewrites things. So even if something was there before—let this replace it."
My breath stopped.
Not because of fear.
Because of that word.
Love.
Seris blinked, stunned by Lira's own wording, but didn't argue. Instead—shockingly—she nodded.
"Yeah," Seris whispered. "Exactly that."
Lira squeezed my hands. "We aren't just your present. We're going to be every memory you choose to keep."
Something inside me cracked wide open—quiet, aching, full of something I'd never let myself feel before.
I closed my eyes, letting their voices sink through every trembling part of me.
Seris pressed her forehead to mine.
Lira pressed her cheek against my shoulder.
And slowly… my breathing steadied.
The dream didn't vanish.
But it softened.
Like the fracture inside me realized it wasn't the only thing shaping who I was anymore.