Into the Rift

A blinding cascade of light and shadow swallowed Orion and Lyra as the Unwritten Realm collapsed around them. The sensation of falling stretched infinitely—weightless, formless, like slipping between the seams of reality itself.

Then—

Impact.

Orion hit solid ground with a force that sent pain lancing through his body. He gasped, the breath knocked from his lungs. The silver light coursing through his veins flickered erratically before settling into a slow, steady pulse.

The world around him had changed.

Gone was the endless expanse of the Unwritten Realm.

Instead, they stood at the precipice of a shattered city.

Colossal ruins stretched toward the sky—fractured towers of obsidian and glass, twisting in unnatural angles as if caught in a frozen explosion. Fragments of light hovered in the air like the remnants of a fractured sun, illuminating the world with an eerie, flickering glow.

The air hummed with unseen energy, thick with whispers.

A place untouched by time. A place that should not exist.

Orion pushed himself to his feet, his muscles aching. His eyes adjusted to the shifting landscape, struggling to grasp its impossible geometry.

Lyra stirred beside him, groaning as she clutched her side. "Where… are we?"

Orion exhaled, steadying himself. "I don't know."

But something deep inside him did.

A memory that was not his own. A distant echo from the power now entwined with his very being.

"The Ruined Threshold."

The thought sent a shiver down his spine.

A place between worlds.

A place where the fabric of existence had been torn apart.

Lyra rose unsteadily, scanning the ruins. "This doesn't feel right." Her voice was hushed, as if speaking too loudly would awaken something lurking beneath the silence.

Orion nodded. "That's because it isn't."

As if responding to his words, the air rippled.

A low, resonant thrum pulsed through the ground.

And then—

A presence.

Something vast and unseen stirred within the ruins, its awareness pressing against Orion's mind like a thousand unseen hands.

His pulse quickened.

The veil between realities was thin here.

Something was watching them.

Something waiting.

Lyra drew her weapon, the blade gleaming under the fractured light. "We need to move."

Orion agreed. But as he took a step forward—

The shadows shifted.

And the watchers began to wake.