After the Fall

Chapter 26: After the Fall

The light faded.

Noah hit the ground—not hard this time, but with the slow, drifting weight of someone being set down gently by a power beyond understanding.

He gasped, blinking against the morning sun.

Sun.

Actual sun.

Birds chirped. Trees rustled. A breeze carried the scent of grass and something sweet—flowers, real ones. He sat up slowly, heart pounding, trying to remember where he was.

It looked like Earth.

But not the Earth he knew.

The forest was too clean, the colors too sharp. The sky was blue, but veined with faint silver lines—like distant, fading cracks that were almost gone. It was like reality had been… rewritten.

Lyra sat nearby, staff across her lap, eyes closed. Her coat was torn, her face smudged with ash, but she was breathing steadily.

Riven stood on a rock above them, silent, arms crossed, blades still sheathed. Watching.

Guarding.

"You're awake," Riven said. "Took long enough."

"What happened?" Noah asked, rubbing his head. "Where are we?"

"We're back in the waking world. But not the same one," Lyra answered without opening her eyes. "The Veil's boundaries shifted. Collapsing the Hollow Realm forced everything to reshape."

"So… we won?" Noah said.

A long silence followed.

"We sealed the Hollow King," Lyra said. "But we didn't destroy him."

"He'll come back?" Noah asked.

"Eventually," she said. "Unless we figure out how to finish what the first Veilwalkers started."

Noah slumped against a tree, staring up through the silver-threaded sky.

He had powers now. Real ones. The seven shards were no longer just items—they were part of him. In his blood, in his thoughts. They hummed quietly, like sleeping stars.

"You feel it, don't you?" Lyra asked.

Noah nodded. "Like... the world's watching me."

"It is," she said. "You're the new anchor now. The Veil recognizes you as its guardian."

"Cool," Noah muttered. "I always wanted a job that came with ancient prophecies and frequent near-death experiences."

Riven snorted. "You'll get used to it."

But Noah wasn't so sure.

Because something felt… off.

He looked down at the coin in his hand—the first artifact Mortimer ever gave him. It was still cold. Still etched with the same rune. But now, it glowed faintly from within, like something had woken up inside it.

And then—just for a second—he heard a whisper.

Not the Hollow King. Not the shards.

Something older.

"You opened the gate. Now you must guard it."

He looked at Lyra. "There's more, isn't there?"

"There's always more," she said.

Riven jumped down from the rock, landing in front of them. "We need to move. The Realm shift may have broken the Hollow King's domain, but it also unsealed a lot of doors that were never supposed to open. We're already picking up echoes."

"Echoes?" Noah asked.

"Other things that slipped through. Things worse than Mirrorborn," Lyra said quietly. "Creatures that feed on broken realities."

"Of course," Noah muttered. "I can't even get a nap."

Riven smirked. "You're one of us now. Veilwalkers don't sleep much."

As they started walking through the forest, the sunlight shifted. Far in the distance, a city rose—glass towers and shimmering bridges, familiar yet different.

Earth.

But not his Earth.

A third voice joined them. Mechanical. Calm.

The floating orb that had followed Lyra since the beginning hovered above Noah's shoulder now. Its glowing iris blinked once.

"Analysis: You are currently the most dangerous anomaly in existence. Congratulations."

"Thanks," Noah replied. "That's very comforting."

They kept walking.

Noah didn't know what came next.

But for the first time… he wasn't afraid of it.

Not entirely.

He had allies.

He had power.

And he had purpose.

Somewhere out there, other Gates had opened. Other worlds had noticed.

And something worse than the Hollow King might already be watching.