Location: Earth – Outer District, 2099
Smoke lingered in the morning sky. Syra stood on the edge of the ruined city block where Vault IX had exploded from within. The civilians had fled. What remained were blackened streets, sirens in the distance, and silence.
Too much silence.
Riven stood behind her, quiet, one hand on the hilt of his warped blade.
Riven: "The mirror showed him. Not just his image… his will. That wasn't a vision, Syra."
Syra: "I know."
She opened her jacket and pulled out the slip of paper again. The ink hadn't faded:
"The first draft is never the final one."
Syra (thinking):Why does it feel like a warning?
She crushed it in her hand—but it vanished like mist.
A whisper rang in her ear:
Voice (faint):The next scene belongs to you.
She spun. No one was there.
Scene Change: Realm Between Realms – The Bleeding Pages
Author sat within a circle of broken time—literal clocks, bent at impossible angles, hovered in a crimson void. Each one ticked differently. None matched. None obeyed.
Before him, a golden flame burned atop a single, unwritten page.
Author (quietly): "Someone else is writing."
He extended his pen, etched in celestial symbols, and touched the flame.
The fire exploded—but didn't consume. Instead, it rewrote the room.
Now he stood in a library of endless halls. Every book bore no title.
Author (reading one): "All the lives that never happened."
Author (thinking):And someone's trying to publish one.
He opened one tome—saw Syra falling into darkness.
But the words shifted.
Syra refused the fall.
She climbed back.
Author (narrowing his eyes): "She's not reading the script anymore."
Scene Change: Syra – Midnight, Outer Ruins
That night, Syra found herself standing in front of a bonfire. Riven had left to scout. She needed space. Answers.
But what she got was a visitor.
A woman stepped out of the shadows—cloaked in ink-black armor, red tattoos burning down her face.
Unknown Woman: "You saw him. The Editor."
Syra (tense): "Who are you?"
Unknown Woman: "Someone who burned her script a long time ago."
The woman drew a blade made of folded paper and iron.
Unknown Woman: "Do you know what happens when a story defies its Author?"
Syra: "Maybe it becomes real."
The woman struck—without warning.
Syra barely dodged, rolling into ash.
Syra: "You don't want to do this."
Unknown Woman: "I have to. Before he rewrites you too."
They clashed—steel and flame, ink and fury.
In the struggle, Syra shouted:
Syra: "I write my own story!"
The woman faltered. Syra struck back—hard. The blade shattered into ash.
The woman collapsed, laughing bitterly.
Unknown Woman: "Good. That's what he's afraid of."
Syra: "Who?"
Unknown Woman (fading): "The one above even the Author."
She vanished into mist.
Scene Shift: The Court of Higher Gods
Four gods watched. Silent. Bound by prophecy.
A fifth god, cloaked in blinding gold, stepped forward.
Fifth God (grim): "He's accelerating."
Third God: "Then end him."
Fifth God: "You can't end what you didn't begin."
A cosmic tome floated between them. Pages flipping—names glowing and fading.
Fifth God (reading): "Syra Kaelion... is not a character anymore."
The others gasped.
Second God: "Then what is she?"
Fifth God: "A pen. That writes… itself."
Scene Return: Author – Bleeding Pages Library
Author watched the ceiling crack.
The words on the page had changed again.
Now, the page read:
Syra Kaelion – Unknown Ending
He stood.
Author: "So it begins."
He closed the book and vanished into a burst of black-and-gold light.
Scene Close: Syra – Earth, Alone
Syra knelt by the bonfire, holding the broken blade the woman left behind.
On it were words, now clear:
"You are no longer just in the story."
Syra (quietly): "Then I'll write the ending myself."
End of Chapter 3