Beneath Black Glass

Dawn cracked over the basin like splintered bone.

The sky bled orange and grey, casting long, warped shadows across the glassy landscape. Reven stood at the edge of the descent, boots crunching softly on the crystallized ash, the wind stirring his cloak like smoke. His eyes were locked on the path below, not really a path, more a memory of one, melted into the basin's obsidian skeleton.

Behind him, Kaela tightened the strap on her blade. Lirien floated down the slope in silence, her steps too smooth for the unstable terrain.

No one spoke.

Words felt wrong here.

The Glass Basin wasn't natural. It reeked of something older than even the War of Sundering. Buildings warped into alien spirals. Streets twisted like veins. The city that had once lived here had been scoured, erased by fire not born of this world.

"Keep close," Reven said. "And stay sharp. No echo here is harmless."

Kaela dropped into step beside him, her voice low. "You think we'll find the entrance?"

"We'll find something," he muttered. "Question is whether it wants to be found."

They moved through a corridor of shattered towers, structures fused into one another like wax melted and pulled apart. Every surface glistened in the dawn, like the city had been frozen mid-scream.

Lirien pressed a palm to one of the blackened spires. Her eyes glazed with recognition. "This was part of the Skyborn outpost network. Long before the collapse."

"Why here?" Kaela asked.

"Because this place... bends," Lirien said softly. "It bends reality. Skyborn called it a Veil Scar. A wound in the fabric. A fracture."

"Let's hope it doesn't open wider," Reven muttered.

They moved deeper.

As the sun climbed higher, the reflections thickened, distorted versions of themselves flashing across broken glass and warped metal. Reven caught glimpses of his own face, flickering between moments. One reflection smiled when he didn't. Another looked wounded.

He looked away.

They descended into what had once been a civic plaza, now a bowl of sharp ridges and partially submerged towers. In the centre stood a spire unlike the others. Sleek. Intact. A deep violet shimmer ran up its spine.

The crystal in Reven's satchel pulsed harder now. Urgent. Angry.

"This is it," he said.

Kaela scanned the surroundings. "Doesn't look like anyone's home."

"They're watching," Lirien said. "They always watch the gates."

The three moved cautiously toward the spire.

As they approached, the air grew heavier, thick with static, the kind that hummed in your teeth. The ground beneath their feet began to shift, as if breathing. Reven's boots struck a section of floor that pulsed with light, lines of glowing glyphs activating one after another.

The spire responded.

A deep hum vibrated through the earth. The glyphs surged outward in a circular pattern, lighting the basin like a beacon. Kaela drew her weapon.

"Too loud."

Too late.

The basin screamed.

From beneath the glass, figures began to claw upward, withered, half-tech husks, bound in rusted armour. Not Gravebinders. Not quite. These were something else.

"Wraithforged," Reven said coldly.

"They're tethered to the Archive," Lirien whispered. "Guardians."

The Wraithforged rose in silence. No breath. No cries. Just the mechanical creak of limbs and the cold glow of their hollow eyes.

Reven didn't hesitate.

He drew his blade, black steel with a core of pulsing light, and met the first one head-on. Sparks flew as metal clashed with metal. Kaela followed suit, moving like a storm, cleaving through the first wave.

Lirien lifted her hands, channelling kinetic energy through her limbs, sending a shockwave that shattered a line of Wraithforged mid-charge.

Still they came.

"Too many!" Kaela shouted, blade locked with a brute twice her size.

Reven drove his sword into the chest of another, twisting hard before ripping it out.

"Fall back to the spire!"

They retreated under pressure, fighting step by step until they reached the base of the tower. Reven slammed his palm onto the glyph panel near the entrance. It scanned him, hesitated...

…and then opened.

The tower groaned as a seam split down its centre, revealing a descending platform bathed in pale blue light. Without a word, they leapt inside. As soon as their feet touched the surface, the door slammed shut.

Silence returned.

The lift began to drop, carrying them deep beneath the basin.

Kaela caught her breath, wiping blood from her brow. "So... that's what we're up against now?"

"They were just the outer guard," Lirien said, her voice barely a whisper.

Reven looked at the walls around them, clean, smooth, untouched by time. Ancient tech pulsed beneath the surface like veins.

"This place has waited for centuries," he said. "It's not going to give itself up without blood."

The platform stopped with a soft hiss.

A massive chamber stretched out before them, circular, lined with conduits and crystalline archives. In the centre, a pedestal. And hovering above it, the same symbol etched on Reven's crystal.

A triangle of light, spinning slowly. Waiting.

Kaela stepped forward but Reven held out a hand.

"No," he said. "Let me."

He approached the pedestal, each step echoing louder than it should.

As he reached out, the light shifted, rising to meet his hand. The crystal around his neck flared in response.

A voice filled the chamber.

Not spoken. Imprinted.

"Revenant. You have come."

Reven froze.

Kaela stepped closer. "What is it?"

"Not sure," he said. "But it knows my name."

"The Archive recognizes your blood. The line remains unbroken. Access granted."

The triangle expanded, reshaping into a sphere of radiant light. Dozens of glyphs spiralled around it. Holographic maps, timelines, blueprints, all ancient. All intact.

Lirien's breath caught. "This is... it. This is the First Archive."

Reven stared at the sphere.

"Then we better start learning fast," he said. "Because whatever's coming after us isn't going to wait."