The next morning should have been ordinary.
Old Mahabalipuram Road—OMR—was already alive with the usual chaos: honking buses, IT employees rushing with laptops, food carts steaming with idlis, and the humid Chennai heat settling like a warm blanket over the asphalt.
Yet Shandhru felt it the moment he stepped out of his hostel.
Something was wrong with the sky.
The sunrise was too bright, too sharp—like the sun had been cut and stitched back together. For a brief second, the clouds moved in a direction opposite to the wind.
He blinked, and everything returned to normal.
Was it just the Fracture messing with my senses again?Ever since last night's encounter with the mysterious crack in reality, his body hummed with a strange tension. His senses felt open—too open—like new doors had been forced wide inside him.
He could hear… everything.
The faraway humming of electric lines.The soft murmur of footsteps.Even the heartbeat of a stray dog sitting across the street.
Shandhru's chest tightened.
This isn't normal. This is the Fracture.
He shook his head and started walking toward the bus stop. His college was a few kilometres down OMR, and skipping class after yesterday's chaos would only make things worse.
But he hadn't gone far when he noticed the first anomaly.
A streetlight flickered violently, buzzing like an angry hornet. The bulb glowed white—too white—before bursting with a metallic shriek.
Pedestrians yelped and hurried past.
Only Shandhru froze.
Not because the bulb broke.
But because, for a split second, he saw it—
A silhouette standing inside the broken light.Not human. Not fully.Watching him.
A cold breath slipped down his spine.
He wasn't imagining that.
Before he could react, a crackle of electricity slithered across the road, creeping like a living serpent. It danced between the poles, across wires, and then—
BOOM.
A blast of lightning struck the middle of the road.
Cars screeched. People screamed. A few fell flat to the ground. Smoke curled upward as the pavement cracked, splitting under the pressure of the impact.
Shandhru staggered backward.
This isn't weather. This is something else.
The lightning didn't fade.
It gathered itself. Swirled. Coalesced.
Like a storm forming a human shape.
A figure stepped out.
A woman—no, something wearing a woman's appearance—her body made of pulsating arcs of blue lightning, hair whipping like glowing tendrils.
Her eyes opened, crackling with electricity.
Pedestrians stood frozen, terrified.
And the moment her gaze landed on Shandhru…
…she raised her hand.
The lightning around her quivered like a drawn bow.
Shandhru's blood chilled.
She can see me. She came for me.
Someone screamed behind him.
A bolt of lightning shot toward the crowd—and Shandhru moved without thinking.
His hand shot forward.
A force he didn't understand erupted from his chest, racing through his veins, igniting something primal and ancient inside him.
Time slowed.
He saw every spark.Every arc.Every atom of lightning twisting through the air.
And his body moved faster than thought.
He stepped in front of the bolt—
—raised his hand—
—and the lightning bent around him.
Not deflected. Not dodged.
It obeyed.
The bolt twisted mid-air like a serpent, coiling around Shandhru's arm, crackling harmlessly before dissolving into thin smoke.
Silence fell.
Dozens of people stared.Phones dropped.Mouths hung open.
Shandhru stared at his own hand, numb.
What… am I?
The lightning-woman tilted her head, intrigued.
Then she spoke, her voice echoing like thunder:
"So. The Keeper awakens early."
Shandhru stumbled back."Who are you?"
Her lips curved into a smile.
"I am Aadhira—the Storm-Warden of the Third Realm."Her body shifted, the lightning intensifying."And you… Shandhru… are not supposed to exist yet."
Shandhru's heartbeat spiked.
"How do you know my—"
A second bolt launched toward him.
He barely dodged. It exploded behind him, sending chunks of concrete flying.
Aadhira's form shimmered as she began to descend from the air, each step causing the street to burst with lightning.
The sky darkened in response.
A storm was forming over OMR.
As she approached, Shandhru's mind raced.
She's not human. She's from the Fracture.But why me? Why now?
Aadhira extended her hand, lightning gathering into a spear.
"Keeper of the Broken Realms," she said softly."You are found."
Before she could strike—
A surge of raw instinct rose through Shandhru's chest, and his vision flashed white.
His skin glowed.The ground trembled.The air vibrated like an unseen heartbeat.
The lightning spear crashed into him—
—and shattered like fragile glass.
Aadhira's eyes widened.
"You already have a core…? Impossible."
Shandhru's voice trembled.
"I don't know who you are.I don't know what you want.But if you try to hurt anyone—"
His irises flickered with silver light.
"—I won't let you."
Aadhira's smile returned.
"Good," she whispered."Then survive."
She vanished in a flash of blinding white.
Shandhru shielded his eyes—but the moment he looked again, she was gone.
No lightning.No storm.No presence.
Just silence.
People gathered around him cautiously.
"Thambi… are you okay?""What was that?""Did you… stop the lightning?""Someone call emergency services—!"
Shandhru didn't stay.
He walked away numbly, electricity still tingling under his skin.
He didn't know what was happening.
But one truth had become painfully clear:
He wasn't normal anymore.Something awakened inside him.And something far stronger… had come looking.
Far above him, hidden within the still-cloudy sky, a deep crack formed silently across the firmament.
The Fracture widened.
And the Realms began to stir.