Of Chains and Echoes

The sun never truly rose again.

It hovered behind veils of cloud and smoke, a sickly blur like a dying ember. As the trio emerged from the collapsed vault, the Drowned City was gone — or changed. Its streets had twisted, stone arches bent inward like broken ribs, and the very sky above seemed deeper, darker, endless.

"We're not in Veyrith anymore," Konrad muttered, his boots scraping on black glass where mud had once been.

Maela said nothing. Her eyes were fixed skyward, on the stars that now shone even in day. Stars that moved.

Alric sheathed his sword slowly. "We're in the Between."

"A fold," Maela whispered. "A seam in the world, opened by the Circle's reawakening."

The shard-ring pulsed faintly from her satchel. It wasn't just a key anymore. It was a beacon.

They moved through what had once been streets, but now felt like corridors in a giant's memory. Whispers clung to the air. Some in old tongue. Some in their own.

Konrad...

He turned sharply.

Nothing. Just the shadows of a ruined chapel, its spire twisted into a spiral.

"You heard it too," Alric said beside him. Not a question.

Konrad only nodded.

Maela led them toward the place the map didn't name: Vael's Gate.

"It was sealed after the first shattering," she explained. "But now it's open. And we aren't the only ones who can walk this seam."

A gust of wind revealed tracks.

Boots.

Dozens.

Konrad swore under his breath.

"Vael sent the Bound," Alric said. "They're ahead of us."

"Not just ahead," Maela murmured. "Everywhere. This fold touches all places. All times."

She looked at Alric.

"They could be behind us. They could be inside us."

He flinched.

The first attack came without warning.

A chain whipped from the shadows and caught Konrad's arm, yanking him off his feet. The impact cracked the obsidian path.

Alric lunged, blade flashing. Sparks flew as steel met steel.

The Bound emerged from the ruins — masked figures clad in armor that shimmered like oil, their movements too smooth, too silent. Each carried a mirror on their chest, pulsing with internal light.

"Don't look into it!" Maela shouted.

Too late. One of them caught Alric's gaze.

He staggered, disoriented, seeing himself not as he was — but as he could have been. Crowned. Bloody. Alone.

Maela hurled a sigilstone, shattering the mirror.

Alric gasped as the spell broke.

Konrad tore his blade free and cut down the nearest Bound in a savage arc, sparks dancing on the obsidian.

The rest scattered into mist.

"That was a scout team," Maela breathed. "The next won't miss."

They didn't rest.

The path ahead grew stranger. The buildings faded. Now they walked across nothing — a bridge of stars, suspended in what looked like sky but felt like water. Every step brought flickers of old memories:

A child's laughter.

A scream in the dark.

A blade buried in someone they once loved.

No one spoke.

Until Maela stopped.

A figure stood ahead.

Tall. Robed in gray. Face hidden by a hood of woven light.

She bowed slightly.

"You remember me," she said.

Alric stepped forward slowly. "You were in the vault."

"In all vaults. In all gates. I am what remains when memory rots. I am the Echo."

Konrad raised his blade. "Step aside."

The Echo shook her head.

"One of you must stay. The fold does not permit three."

"Why?" Maela asked.

"Because three broke it. And three cannot mend it."

A long silence.

Alric looked at the others.

"We don't split. Not again."

But Konrad... smiled.

"This place never liked me anyway."

He stepped toward the Echo.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"No."

She nodded. "That is the right answer."

With a gesture, she touched his forehead.

And Konrad vanished.

Maela was shaking.

Alric gripped her shoulder. "We'll get him back."

She looked up. "That wasn't just a goodbye. That was a seal."

Alric nodded.

And together, they crossed the rest of the bridge.

Toward Vael's Gate.

Toward war.

Toward memory.

TO BE CONTINUED...