The Fall of the Everfall
( Kael's awakening in ruins)
The first thing Kael forgot was his own name.
He woke choking on ashes, the taste of burnt honey thick on his tongue. Above him, the sky bled through cracks in a shattered dome—a cathedral of dead stars. His fingers dug into black sand that whispered as it shifted, words half-formed. Seer. Run. Hollow.
- The Everfall, a floating city of seers, lies in ruins around him.
- Echoes flicker at the edges of his vision: ghostly afterimages of the massacre.
- A cracked hourglass embedded in his palm pulses with his heartbeat (the source of his power).
A shadow moved in the ruins. Not an Echo—something alive.
Kael tried to stand, but his body screamed in protest. His ribs were a cage of broken glass, his left eye sealed shut with dried blood. The shadow resolved into a figure in a tattered gray cloak, their face hidden beneath a hood.
"Don't move." A girl's voice, sharp as a knife's edge. "You're bleeding time."
Kael's vision fractured—
—a dagger in the girl's hand, plunging toward his throat—
—the sky cracking open like an egg—
—his own hands, older, covered in scars he didn't recognize—
The vision vanished. His nose gushed blood. The girl hadn't moved.
She knelt beside him, pushing back her hood. Silver eyes. A scar like a crescent moon on her cheek. "You're lucky I found you first. The Hollow's Chosen would've peeled your mind like fruit."
Kael tried to speak. His tongue was a stranger in his mouth.
"They call me Lira," she said, and pressed a canteen to his lips. The water tasted of salt and something darker. "And you… you don't remember anything, do you?"
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Scene 2: The Whispering Ruins
(1,800 words – Escape through the Everfall)
[Action Sequence]
Lira dragged Kael through the corpse of the city, past:
- Floating obelisks that hummed with trapped voices.
- The Clocktower, its gears still turning backward.
- A library where books rewrote themselves in real-time.
Kael's hand brushed a broken mirror. His reflection showed a stranger—a gaunt boy with hollow cheeks and eyes too old for his face. _Seventeen? Eighteen?_ He couldn't remember.
Lira yanked him away. "Don't. Mirrors remember too much here."
A sound like tearing parchment. The air unfolded, and a man stepped through—tall, wrapped in smoke, his face shifting like a poorly remembered dream.
Dain the Hollow.
His voice was the absence of sound: _"You were always my favorite, Kael. The first to see the end."_
[Escape Beat]
Lira slammed her scythe into the ground. Black flames erupted—not fire, but burning memories. Dain flickered like a guttering candle.
"Run!" she snarled.
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The Bloodsteel Wastes
Beyond the Everfall, the Bloodsteel Wastes stretched—a desert where metal grew like coral. Lira explained:
- Echoes are born from loss. The stronger the emotion, the deadlier the power.
- Duskbane , her scythe, was forged from her mother's bones. It hungered for magic.
Kael's vision flickered again—Lira, pressing him into the sand, her mouth hot against his. The taste of salt and iron.
**Gone.** His head throbbed.
Lira studied him. "What did you see?"
"Nothing." He wiped his nose. The blood was black.
A child stood on the dunes ahead, no more than ten, their skin peeling like old parchment.
"The Hollow's youngest Chosen," Lira breathed. "The Child of Rot."
The child smiled. Their teeth were filed to points. _"He wants your eyes, Kael. But I'll settle for your tongue."_
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The First Betrayal
The battle was brutal:
- Lira's scythe drank the Child's corrosive magic, but its weight shattered her collarbone.
- Kael's Flicker Glimpse showed him three deaths in advance—all by Lira's hand.
As the Child fell, it gasped: _"Ask her about the Oblivion Order. Ask her what she did to you."_
Lira drove Duskbane through its heart. The Child's last memory—a black door in Dain's throne room—flashed in Kael's mind.
That night, as Lira slept, Kael pressed his hourglass to her temple.
His vision exploded—
—a cell. A needle. Lira's voice, cold as winter: _"Erase him."_
He woke screaming. Lira's knife was at his throat.
Her eyes were full of tears. "You weren't supposed to remember that."
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