CRIMSON SEAMS

Death smelled like burning metal and tasted like ash.

Asha pressed herself against the remnants of a stone wall, struggling to catch her breath as chaos erupted around her. The northern perimeter of Confluence had devolved into a nightmare tableau of fire and shadow. Defenders shouted orders that were swallowed by inhuman shrieks and the sizzle of silver rain on exposed skin.

She risked a glance around the edge of her shelter. Through the haze of smoke and strange precipitation, she saw them—the harbingers.

They moved with unnatural fluidity, as though their joints bent in directions that anatomy should forbid. Their forms seemed to flicker between states of matter, sometimes solid enough to tear through flesh with clawed appendages, sometimes vaporous enough that weapons passed through them without effect. What remained consistent was their appearance: like pieces of different realms stitched together by an insane creator. Fur and scales and bark and crystal and cloud, all writhing together in bodies that should not exist.

A defender—Asha recognized him as Lenn, a fisherman from Tidehaven—raised his hands to cast a water-binding spell. The harbinger he faced seemed to ripple, then split apart like oil on water, reforming on either side of him. Before Lenn could react, both aspects of the creature plunged elongated limbs through his chest. His scream cut off abruptly as his body collapsed, already dissolving into motes of pale light that drifted upward toward the tear in the sky.

Not just killing. *Consuming*.

The pressure in Asha's chest intensified, becoming a sharp, burning pain. The crimson lines at the edge of her vision spread inward, revealing more of the world's broken seams. She could see them now—fault lines in reality itself, places where the different realms had been imperfectly joined. And along those seams, the silver rain was beginning to pool and shimmer with malevolent purpose.

A hand closed around her arm, yanking her backward just as a harbinger rounded the corner of her shelter. Asha stumbled, nearly falling, before strong arms steadied her.

"Don't just stand there gawking," growled a familiar voice. "Unless you're looking to be unmade."

Kell's face was streaked with blood—his own or someone else's, Asha couldn't tell. His leather armor bore several smoking holes where the silver rain had eaten through. In his right hand, he gripped a curved blade that glowed with faint blue runes. Unlike most weapons she'd seen, this one seemed to be effective against the harbingers.

"What are they?" she gasped, allowing him to pull her into the shadow of a more substantial building.

"Wrong," he answered grimly. "They're things that should never have existed. Abominations born in the spaces between realms."

A tremendous crash shook the ground beneath them as something massive moved through the settlement's outer buildings. Screams rose in its wake.

"We need to fall back to the hall," Kell said, checking around the corner before gesturing for her to follow. "Reyna's ordered an evacuation of the northern quarter. The Breach is expanding—we can't hold this position."

The words struck Asha like physical blows. Confluence had been the most stable settlement in the merged world, its boundaries unchanging since the Cataclysm. If the Breach was reaching even here...

"My things," she began, thinking of the small collection of items she'd salvaged from her former life. A silver pendant. A book of botanical illustrations. Her mother's scarf, still smelling faintly of home.

"No time," Kell cut her off. "It's either run or die." His expression softened fractionally at her stricken look. "I'm sorry, Asha. This is happening everywhere now. The world is coming apart faster than we can adapt."

A piercing wail cut through the chaos—a sound no human throat could produce. Kell tensed, pushing Asha behind him as he raised his blade. Around the corner of the building emerged a harbinger unlike the others. Where they had been chaotic assemblages of mixed realms, this one possessed a terrible symmetry. Its form was almost human, with limbs of proportional length and a head that sat properly atop its shoulders. But its skin shifted constantly between textures—scales giving way to fur giving way to bark giving way to crystalline facets. Its face was blank except for a mouth that opened far too wide, revealing teeth arranged in concentric circles like a lamprey.

"Run," Kell whispered, his voice tight with fear. "Now. Don't look back."

"Not without you," Asha hissed.

The creature's head swiveled toward them with mechanical precision. Though it had no eyes, Asha felt its attention fix upon her like a physical weight. The pressure in her chest became excruciating.

*Found you*, something whispered directly into her mind. A voice like broken glass scraping against bone. *Veil-touched. Bridge-maker. Key.*

The harbinger took a single, fluid step forward. Kell lunged to meet it, his runed blade carving an arc of blue light through the air. The creature moved with impossible speed, flowing around the attack like water. One elongated arm shot out, wrapping around Kell's throat and lifting him from the ground.

"Kell!" Asha screamed, reaching for her knife.

The creature ignored her outcry, its faceless head tilting as it examined the struggling man in its grasp. With its free hand, it reached toward Kell's face with delicate, almost gentle movements.

*Not you*, the voice came again, and Asha realized with horror that she alone could hear it. *Not bridge. Not key.*

The harbinger's fingers, now tipped with crystal shards that refracted light into painful spectra, pressed against Kell's forehead. His body went rigid, a silent scream frozen on his face as pale motes of light began to stream from his eyes, his mouth, his very pores—flowing upward toward the tear in the sky.

Asha's vision narrowed to a single, terrible focus. The crimson seams became blindingly bright, outlining everything in sharp relief. Without conscious thought, she found herself reaching toward one such seam—a jagged line that ran through the air itself between her and the harbinger.

Her fingers touched the crimson light. Reality tore.

A sound like the universe catching its breath filled her ears. The seam parted beneath her touch, revealing a space between spaces—a pocket of non-existence through which she could see other fragments of the broken world. Moving on instinct alone, Asha plunged her arm through the opening, reaching past the harbinger from an impossible angle.

Her hand closed around Kell's arm. She pulled.

Reality snapped back together with concussive force as Kell suddenly appeared beside her, torn from the harbinger's grasp through a fold in space that shouldn't have been possible. He collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath, his eyes wide with shock and confusion.

The harbinger turned toward her, its blank face somehow conveying surprise.

*Bridge-maker*, the voice whispered, now tinged with something that might have been awe. *You do not know what you are.*

"Run!" Asha screamed at Kell, hauling him to his feet with strength born of desperation. "RUN!"

This time, he didn't argue. Together they fled through the burning remnants of the northern quarter, the sounds of pursuit fading behind them. The silver rain had intensified, leaving smoking pockmarks on stone and wood. The sky above had fully split, revealing that vast crimson void where things moved with ominous purpose.

They weren't the only ones fleeing. A stream of survivors flowed toward the central hall, carrying whatever they could salvage. Parents clutched children to their chests, elders supported each other, the wounded limped or were carried. The faces of the refugees were blank with shock or twisted with grief—a parade of loss that had become all too familiar since the Cataclysm.

By the time they reached the hall, Asha's lungs burned and her legs trembled with exhaustion. The pain in her chest had subsided to a dull throb, and the crimson seams had receded to the periphery of her vision once more. She helped Kell to a bench along the wall, noting with concern the angry red marks on his throat where the harbinger had gripped him.

"How?" he rasped, his voice damaged but functional. "How did you do that?"

Asha shook her head, unable to explain what she barely understood herself. "I saw a seam. I... opened it."

Kell stared at her, recognition dawning in his eyes. "You're one of them. The ones Reyna mentioned. The Veil-touched."

Before she could respond, a commotion at the hall's entrance drew their attention. Reyna entered, supported by Vamir. Blood matted her silver hair to her skull, and her left arm hung limply at her side.

"Close the eastern gates!" she commanded, her voice carrying despite her injuries. "Nothing gets through—not survivors, not anything! The eastern quarter is lost!"

Panicked murmurs spread through the gathered refugees. The eastern quarter—lost? That was where the most stable part of Confluence had been established, where the merging of realms had been most harmonious.

Asha felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature. *The eastern well*, Marek had said. *When the second sky breaks.*

The second sky had broken. And Marek was nowhere to be seen.

"Kell," she said urgently, "I need to find someone. The astronomer, Marek. Have you seen him?"

Kell's expression darkened. "Last I saw, he was heading toward the eastern quarter. After the alarm sounded." He gripped her arm as she made to stand. "You can't go there, Asha. You heard Reyna—it's lost."

"I have to." She pulled free of his grasp. "He knows something about what's happening. About what I can do."

"What you did back there shouldn't be possible," Kell said, his voice low. "You reached through... through somewhere else. You bent space."

"I know." Asha looked down at her hands, half-expecting them to appear different somehow. They remained unchanged—callused from work, a small scar across the left palm from a cooking accident years ago. Human hands. "That's why I need to find Marek. He said there are others like me. People who can see the seams."

Kell was silent for a long moment, conflict evident in his expression. Finally, he sighed. "I can't stop you. But I'm coming with you."

"You're injured," she protested.

He offered a grim smile. "So is everyone. Doesn't mean we get to sit this out." With visible effort, he pushed himself to his feet. "If we're going to the eastern quarter, we need better weapons. These things—they don't die like natural creatures."

Asha nodded. "Your blade—it hurt them."

"Runic steel from the Stoneheart forges. The runes disrupt their... whatever holds them together." Kell gestured to a side chamber off the main hall. "The armory. Reyna's been collecting weapons that work against the harbingers. We should take what we can carry."

As they made their way across the crowded hall, Asha noticed how people drew back from their path, eyes wide with fear and confusion. Word had spread quickly about what she'd done.

The armory was a small, fortified room with walls of solid stone—a remnant of whatever building this had been before the Cataclysm. Inside, racks held an assortment of weapons: blades inscribed with glowing runes, bows strung with what looked like solidified light, staves topped with crystals that hummed with barely contained energy.

Kell selected a slender dagger to complement his curved blade, testing its balance before offering it to Asha. "This should serve you better than that kitchen knife."

She accepted it gingerly, feeling the weapon hum against her palm. Unlike ordinary metal, it seemed almost alive—responsive to her touch in ways that should have been impossible for inanimate matter.

"These aren't just weapons," she realized aloud. "They're... connected to the realms somehow."

"Artifacts," came a voice from the doorway. "Objects that retained their connection to a single, pure realm despite the merging."

They turned to find Reyna watching them, her wounded arm now bound in a makeshift sling. Despite her injuries, she stood tall, authority radiating from her like heat from a forge.

"Going somewhere?" she asked, though her tone suggested she already knew the answer.

Kell straightened, instinctively assuming a defensive posture. "The eastern quarter. We need to find Marek."

Reyna's gaze shifted to Asha, her expression unreadable. "I saw what you did. During the attack. Everyone's talking about it."

Asha felt heat rise to her cheeks. "I don't know how I did it. It just... happened."

"Things don't 'just happen' anymore," Reyna said. "Not in this broken world. Everything has a price. Everything has consequences." She stepped fully into the armory, closing the door behind her. "Marek has been watching you since you arrived in Confluence. Did you know that?"

The question caught Asha off guard. "No. Why would he?"

Reyna moved to a small chest in the corner of the room, unlocking it with a key she wore around her neck. "Because he's been looking for people like you. People who can perceive the Veil. People who might be able to repair what's been broken."

From the chest, she withdrew a small object wrapped in cloth. When she unwrapped it, Asha saw a crystal sphere about the size of an apple. Unlike normal crystal, it seemed to contain swirling mists that shifted between the colors of all five realms—the deep green of Sylvanwood, the earthy brown of Stoneheart, the azure blue of Tidehaven, the fiery red of Embersand, and the luminous white of Skyrift.

"This is a Nexus Fragment," Reyna explained. "A piece of the Spire that fell during the Cataclysm. Marek has been using it to identify those with Veil sensitivity." Her eyes locked with Asha's. "Touch it."

Hesitantly, Asha extended her hand. As her fingers neared the sphere, the swirling colors within began to churn more violently. The pressure in her chest returned, building to an almost unbearable level.

When her skin made contact with the crystal, the world around her vanished.

She stood in a vast, empty space filled with crimson light. Seams crisscrossed everywhere, forming a complex lattice that stretched in all directions. Along these seams, shadows moved—some small and darting, others massive and slow. Watching. Waiting.

In the center of this impossible space stood a tower of crystal that reached infinitely upward and downward. The Nexus Spire. Not as it appeared in the merged world, but as it truly was—a pillar of pure reality around which the five realms had once been anchored. Now those anchors were broken, the realms colliding around the Spire in chaotic patterns.

And at the base of the Spire, a darkness gathered. Something ancient and patient and hungry, slowly consuming the foundations of reality itself.

*Bridge-maker*, came that terrible voice again, simultaneously from everywhere and nowhere. *You have been prepared. All of your kind have been prepared. The breaking was necessary.*

Asha tried to speak, to ask what it meant, but she had no voice in this place.

*When you stand before the Hunger, remember: what was divided must be rejoined. What was hidden must be revealed. What was broken must be remade.*

The vision collapsed in on itself, reality rushing back with nauseating speed. Asha found herself on her knees in the armory, the Nexus Fragment rolling away across the floor, its colors now dull and muted. Kell knelt beside her, his expression taut with concern. Reyna stood watching, her face pale but unsurprised.

"You saw it," Reyna said softly. "The truth behind the Veil."

Asha struggled to her feet, fighting waves of dizziness. "I saw... something. The Spire. And something at its base, something dark and... hungry." She looked at Reyna with newfound suspicion. "You knew this would happen. You and Marek both."

"Not knew. Suspected." Reyna retrieved the now-dormant crystal, carefully rewrapping it. "Marek has been gathering those with Veil sensitivity. Five so far, including you. One from each realm."

"For what purpose?" Kell demanded, still supporting Asha with one arm.

Reyna's expression hardened. "To end this. To find a way to either restore the separation between realms or complete the merging process safely. To stop whatever is consuming reality at its foundations."

"And where is Marek now?" Asha asked, already knowing the answer.

"The eastern well," Reyna confirmed. "With the others. Waiting for you." She returned the wrapped crystal to the chest and locked it. "The eastern quarter isn't just lost to harbingers. It's where the newest Breach has opened—a direct passage to the Nexus Spire."

The implications struck Asha like a physical blow. The Spire had always been distant, reached only through dangerous expeditions across the unstable territories between settlements. Now a direct path had opened literally on their doorstep.

"It's not coincidence," she realized aloud. "None of this is coincidence."

"No," Reyna agreed grimly. "The pattern is accelerating, just as Marek predicted. The harbingers are searching for something—or someone." Her gaze fixed meaningfully on Asha. "And I think they've found what they're looking for."

A tremor ran through the building, sending dust cascading from the ceiling. The sounds of panic from the main hall intensified.

"You need to go," Reyna said urgently, moving to a hidden panel in the wall. She pressed a sequence of stones, causing a section of the floor to slide away, revealing a narrow passage. "This leads to the eastern well through the underground cisterns. It should still be clear."

"You're not coming?" Kell asked, surprise evident in his voice.

Reyna shook her head. "My place is here, with my people. Someone needs to coordinate the evacuation." She hesitated, then added softly, "And provide a distraction."

Understanding dawned on Asha. "The harbingers. They're looking for me—for people like me."

"Yes." Reyna's expression was solemn. "Which is why you need to find Marek and the others. Together, you might have a chance of understanding what's happening—and how to stop it."

Another tremor, stronger this time. Cries of alarm echoed from the main hall.

"Go," Reyna urged, pressing a small pack into Asha's hands. "Supplies for the journey. The path to the Spire won't be easy, even through a direct Breach."

Kell looked torn, his duty as a defender warring with this new mission. "The people here..."

"Will die if we don't find answers," Reyna finished for him. "I'm entrusting her to you, Kell. Keep her alive long enough to reach Marek."

After a moment's hesitation, he nodded sharply. "I will."

Asha gripped Reyna's good arm. "Thank you. For everything you've done here."

A sad smile crossed the older woman's face. "I built Confluence as a place of safety in a broken world. Now I see that safety was always an illusion. The only path forward is through understanding." She gently disengaged from Asha's grip. "Now go. Find Marek. Find your answers."

Asha and Kell descended into the dark passage, the sounds of chaos fading behind them as the trapdoor slid closed. Ahead lay only darkness and uncertainty, a path leading to the heart of the broken world—and perhaps, if they were fortunate, a way to mend what had been shattered.

Behind them, in the settlement they had called home, silver rain continued to fall from a sky that had never known clouds, washing away the remnants of a world that would never again be whole.