The ember stays with Kael.
It doesn't speak. It doesn't move on its own. But it pulses gently, like a heartbeat, like a promise. When he sleeps, he dreams—not of memories, but of voices. Lyra's voice, scattered in fragments.
> "Kael. The gate is closing. I'm losing the light."
He wakes with a start, heart racing. The ember sits quietly on his bedside table, glowing faintly, waiting.
The next day, he seeks out Arin, the last surviving scholar of the old order. Arin lives in a forgotten temple-turned-library at the city's edge, buried beneath layers of rubble and roots. The man's eyes widen when Kael places the ember on the table.
"That's not just a shard," Arin whispers. "It's a tether."
Kael frowns. "To what?"
Arin runs his hand over the ember, drawing out thin lines of energy. "To the in-between. The place the stone sends those it consumes. A realm of echoes and fragments." He looks up, dread in his voice. "A soul wouldn't survive long there. Not unless…"
"Unless what?" Kael presses.
Arin stares at him. "Unless they refused to be forgotten."
---
The days blur after that.
Kael trains again—not with weapons, but with mind and spirit. Arin teaches him how to anchor himself, how to project into the in-between using the ember as a guide. It's dangerous. Fatal, even. But Kael doesn't care.
Each night, he gets closer.
Each time, the dream becomes more solid. He sees her standing in a field of floating glass, a thousand versions of her drifting in and out of form.
She always turns, as if she senses him. But before she can speak, the world collapses again.
Then comes the storm.
One night, as Kael prepares for another attempt, the sky over Silver City fractures. Not metaphorically—literally. A thunderous crack tears the sky open, revealing a jagged wound pulsing with violet light.
From it fall shadows—not Revenants, but something worse. Creatures made of lost time and broken fates.
Arin gasps. "She's not just calling to you. She's holding them back."
Kael watches the skies burn.
He knows now. This isn't just about bringing her back.
It's about saving her before the echoes consume her completely—and unleash what's left into the world.
---
Kael walks to the cliff once more. Ember in hand. Wind at his back.
He takes a deep breath.
And steps forward—not to fall, but to vanish.
The world blinks.
And Kael is gone.
---
He awakens in a world of floating ruins, moonlight that bends like water, and stairways leading nowhere. The space between life and death. The boundary of all things.
She's here.
Somewhere.
But he's not alone.
From the shadows, a figure approaches—wearing Lyra's face, but twisted, wrong.
"You're too late," it whispers. "She's already fading."
Kael raises the ember, and for the first time, it flares with real fire.
"No," he says. "I'm just in time."
---