Kael awoke to the hum of the city—or what should have been the city.
The streets outside his window were still, impossibly still, like a photograph pressed over reality. The hum of traffic, the chatter of pedestrians, the distant sirens—all gone. He blinked. The air felt thick, heavy, as if it resisted his movement.
And then he saw her.
Liora.
She leaned against the corner of the fractured alley, arms crossed, hood shadowing her face. Her eyes—sharp, amber, like molten gold—locked onto him immediately. She did not step forward. She did not speak. She simply watched, as if she had been expecting him all along.
Kael's heart thumped painfully. "Who… are you?"
"I could ask the same," she said, voice smooth but firm. "But you've already answered, haven't you? By stepping onto the line, you've chosen to see."
"See what?" he asked, though the warped world around him offered a partial answer. Shadows slithered along walls, stretching unnaturally, pooling into impossible shapes. Buildings leaned inward like they were listening. The crackline pulsed faintly beneath his feet.
Liora pushed off the wall and approached, light-footed, confident, utterly unafraid of the city that defied physics. "You're in the fracture now," she said. "The world you knew… isn't gone. It's layered. The city hides secrets, Kael. Hidden between walls, beneath streets, behind the veil. Most humans never notice. Most die if they do."
Kael's stomach twisted. "I—I don't understand. What is this place?"
"The cracklines," she said simply. "Lines of weakness in reality itself. Threads connecting our world to something older… something hungry. Most people are blind. You're not."
He shook his head. "I don't get it. I just… touched a crack, and everything changed."
Liora's eyes softened, but only slightly. "It's never just a crack. That fracture you touched—it reacts to perception, to attention. It's alive. The world bends to the eyes that notice it. And now… it knows you exist."
Kael swallowed. The words were heavy, too large for him. He looked down at his hands. "Knows me? Like… like it can hurt me?"
"Or feed on you. Or use you." Her gaze sharpened. "Or all three. You're a Linewalker now, Kael. That's not a gift—it's a responsibility. And a curse."
He flinched at the word. Curse. It felt right.
Liora motioned for him to follow. The alley stretched ahead, but with every step, the world seemed to bend. Walls leaned closer, shadows flickered over surfaces that shouldn't exist, whispers rose like smoke around them. Kael could feel the pulse of the city under his feet—he never realized the streets had a rhythm until now.
"Why are you showing me this?" he asked.
"Because I've been watching you," Liora said. "You notice patterns. You see cracks where others see walls. You don't turn away from the edges, even when it scares you. That makes you dangerous—and valuable."
Kael's chest tightened. "Dangerous to… who?"
"Not who," she corrected. "What. The cracks are older than humans. Older than the city. They are hungry, Kael, and they are patient. Most people never survive long enough to tempt them. But those who walk the lines…" She tilted her head, letting her amber eyes glint. "…they change. Sometimes into hunters. Sometimes into prey."
Kael swallowed hard. He felt a pull at the back of his mind, a tugging, whispering voice he hadn't noticed before. The crackline pulsed beneath his feet, like a heartbeat, faint but insistent. Follow. Learn. Step further.
"You feel that?" Liora asked. "That pull? It's the line. The fracture responds to attention. It tests you, calls to you, learns your mind. Ignore it and it fades. Step toward it… and it teaches you things you can never unsee."
Kael wanted to step back, but curiosity pushed him forward. He could feel a thin thrill running through his veins. Everything he'd ever ignored—the weird shadows in alleys, the strange reflections in windows, the whispers that seemed like someone calling his name—made sense now. The city had always been… different. He had just never seen it.
Liora stopped in front of a thin crack that stretched across the wall, barely noticeable, like a hairline fracture in concrete. "Your first lesson," she said. "Do not fear the line. Feel it. Understand it. Learn from it. It is not just a pathway. It's a teacher… and a test."
Kael leaned closer, hesitating. The crack shimmered faintly, almost imperceptibly, like light passing through water. He reached out a finger. The world shivered again, the wall bending, stretching, the shadows coiling toward him.
"Good," Liora said. "You felt it. That is the beginning. But every time you cross, every time you notice… you change. The line remembers you. And whatever else watches the cracks… it remembers too."
Kael stepped back, mind racing. "Watches? What do you mean?"
Liora's lips curled faintly. "Not everything that moves along the lines wants to be seen. Some will lure you, some will test you, and some… some will claim you. You are a novice now. But there are… more experienced predators. You will meet them. You will learn which are dangerous, and which are fatal."
The crack pulsed beneath him, warm, alive, almost breathing. Kael could feel something tugging at the edges of his mind, a thought that was not his own. Something patient. Something curious.
"I don't know if I'm ready for this," he admitted.
"You never are," Liora said softly, though there was a sharp edge to her tone. "But you already are. That's how it works."
For a moment, Kael wished he could leave, wished the world could reset, wished the cracked, pulsing city would vanish and leave him with the normal, predictable streets he had always known. But the crackline beneath his feet throbbed, humming with a strange warmth. And he knew: the moment he touched it, the moment he crossed the edge, there was no going back.
Liora stepped closer. "Tonight, you learned the cracks exist. Tomorrow, you will learn how to walk them safely. And the day after that… you will learn why the lines want you."
Kael swallowed hard. The alley stretched and warped before him, the shadows dancing like living things. He shivered, but not with fear—something else, something like anticipation, like the thrill of standing on the edge of a world no one else knew existed.
The crack pulsed beneath his feet, insistent. And in the hum of the fractured city, Kael could hear it clearly: a promise, a warning, a call.
Step further. See more. Survive.
And Kael knew, with a certainty that made his chest ache, that he would.
Because curiosity had already claimed him.
Because the cracks had chosen him.
Because there was no going back.