Part 1: The sky had never looked this unnatural.
Kael ran.
Boots scraping against jagged stone, breath tearing through his chest, eyes wild with the clarity only fear could give. Lireen was beside him, fast despite her injuries, her cloak billowing like a crimson flame in the wind. Behind them, the ruins of Arcanhelm trembled. Not from collapse, but from awakening.
The Architect's presence lingered unseen, but everywhere.
"Faster!" Kael shouted as a wave of unnatural pressure rolled down from the shattered tower above.
Lireen didn't reply. She only clenched her teeth and pushed forward. Her blade was unsheathed, crackling faintly with light magic, ready to cut shadows if needed.
And they came.
Shadows without form. Not beasts. Not spirits. Something in between. They slithered across the walls, flickering like candlelight caught in stormwind, moving in impossible ways.
Kael looked over his shoulder.
Wrong move.
A scream tore into his mind not from his ears, but from inside.
"He does not belong!"
He stumbled, nearly falling, but Lireen caught his arm. "Don't look back!" she hissed, yanking him upright.
"Where do we go?!"
"North! There's a passage through the river gorge if it hasn't collapsed!"
Another roar split the sky. Not sound space. The very air bent like fabric.
Something enormous, shapeless, and cruel descended through the clouds.
They ran harder.
---
Ten minutes felt like eternity.
Their lungs burned. Muscles screamed. But they couldn't stop. The further they got from Arcanhelm, the less stable the world felt. Trees shimmered. Rocks pulsed with breath. Time seemed to bend Kael swore the sun shifted twice in under a minute.
Lireen suddenly pointed. "There! The Gorge of Whispering Ash!"
They scrambled down a steep decline into a ravine where white mist curled along the ground like sleeping snakes.
Kael jumped, slid, rolled, and landed hard muddying his robes. Lireen followed, slower but more precise.
The gorge offered shelter… and something else.
Silence.
Kael leaned against a moss-covered boulder, panting. Lireen crouched beside him, clutching her ribs.
"They stopped following," he murmured.
"For now." She scanned the mist. "Or they're waiting."
---
They moved slower now.
Kael noticed it first: the mist wasn't normal.
It whispered.
Not audibly but in feeling. Memories long buried flickered to the surface. Kael saw his mother's eyes. His sister's final words before she vanished. Lireen winced beside him, as if bitten by air.
She looked at him. "This gorge is cursed."
Kael nodded. "We're being tested."
Then, they heard it.
Footsteps.
Not from behind.
From ahead.
Kael signaled silence. Lireen raised her blade. They ducked behind a stone spire.
Out from the mist came a figure tall, armored, silver cloak. His eyes glowed faintly.
And he was... floating.
Lireen whispered, "That's not human."
Kael gripped the crown beneath his cloak tightly. It pulsed once, warm.
The figure spoke:
"Bearer of the Third Feather… you are seen."
Kael stepped out. "Who are you?"
The figure bowed slightly. "A Messenger of the Threshold. My master awaits in Salvaria. But you must reach it alive. That is… uncertain."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Uncertain why?"
The man's face broke into a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Because the Architect is awake. And he's already rewritten your death."
The figure vanished into mist.
---
The air twisted.
Suddenly the mist screamed.
Thousands of voices Kael and Lireen dropped to their knees, hands over ears, but it wasn't enough.
"Cover your mind!" Lireen yelled.
Kael focused. He closed his thoughts, imagined a wall. A barrier.
The noise dimmed.
But behind that barrier, a whisper remained:
"You should not exist, Kael."
He looked at Lireen.
"I don't think we're alone in our heads anymore."
She nodded, trembling. "We need to get to Salvaria. Now."
They stood.
And ran again.
---
By the time they climbed out of the gorge, the sun had shifted again. It now hovered lower in the west than it should.
The sky was... fractured. Thin cracks of golden light split across the clouds like a spider's web.
Kael felt it. A heartbeat.
Not his.
Not Lireen's.
The world's.
It was changing.
He turned to Lireen. "Time is breaking."
She didn't argue.
Ahead lay the remains of an old gate half-buried in vines, its arch broken, but glowing with faint glyphs.
"Salvaria's threshold," she whispered.
Kael nodded. "We're close. But we're being watched."
Lireen looked back.
A single figure stood atop the cliff.
A girl. Wearing a red mask. And holding a feather.
She raised her hand.
And the earth quaked.
---
📣 Chapter 15 – Part 2 Teaser:
Kael & Lireen must pass the Lake of Ghosts, where illusion and truth collide
Kael sees someone from his past he could never forget
Lireen's silence begins to crack… revealing something she swore to hide
And beneath the lake… a voice rises again
📢 Don't forget to tap ♥, comment your thoughts, and stay with us, feathered dreamers! Every chapter unlocks more truth! 🌌✨
---