The Fractured Archive

The world shattered around Orion.

Colors twisted into impossible shapes. Sounds folded in on themselves. Reality bent, then snapped—and Orion fell through.

Pain surged through his body, but he had no form, no shape—only sensation. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the descent stopped.

He was standing in an endless void.

Above, a sky made of swirling constellations pulsed in rhythmic patterns. Below, an infinite abyss stretched beyond reason. The obelisk was gone.

Orion's breath came in ragged gasps. "Where—"

A voice, vast and layered, echoed through the space.

"You should not be here."

The air around him rippled. A figure stepped forward—no, not a figure. A presence. A shifting entity of light and shadow, flickering between forms too fast for his mind to grasp.

Orion's instincts screamed, but he held his ground. "Who are you?"

The entity's shape stabilized—a robed figure with eyes like collapsing stars.

"I am the Keeper of the Forgotten. The one who remembers what should not be known."

Orion swallowed. "Then why do I remember?"

The Keeper's form flickered. "Because you have been chosen. And that is… a mistake."

The word sent a shiver through Orion's very being.

"Chosen for what?"

The stars in the entity's eyes flared. "To walk a path that was never meant to exist."

The void around Orion shifted. The constellations above unraveled, forming patterns that should not have been possible.

Images flashed through his mind—visions of ruined worlds, screaming stars, and an unseen force consuming the fabric of existence.

His knees nearly buckled.

"I don't understand," he whispered.

The Keeper reached toward him. "You will."

Orion felt the force of it before it even touched him.

A burning, electric surge coursed through his body—not pain, but revelation. A flood of knowledge, of history, of truths that should have been lost.

The Celestial Archive was not just a repository.

It was a warning.

A shudder ran through the void. A sound—deep, guttural, hungry—echoed from the abyss below.

The Keeper stepped back. "You must leave. Now."

Orion barely had time to process the words before the void shattered again.

---

A crack split through Orion's mind as he was yanked back into reality.

He gasped, staggering as the chamber of the Vault snapped back into focus.

Lyra caught his arm. "Orion!"

His body burned, his mind throbbed with the weight of what he had seen. The obelisk of light flickered violently before collapsing into itself, vanishing.

The Keeper of the Vault's eyes were wide. "You were gone."

Orion's voice came hoarse. "I think… I just spoke to the real Keeper."

Silence fell over them. Lyra's grip on his arm tightened. "What did it say?"

Orion exhaled shakily. "That I wasn't supposed to exist."

The words felt heavier than he expected. The weight of something immense pressing down on his soul.

The Keeper of the Vault exchanged a glance with Lyra before looking back at him. His expression had changed—something unreadable in his gaze.

Orion clenched his fists.

He wasn't supposed to exist?

Then he would prove them wrong.