The sky was wrong.
Kairo stood just behind his sister, Selena, on the crumbling ridge of a ruined port. Beyond the Veilgate shimmer, the old shipyard stretched out like a battlefield — rusted metal, jagged coral formations, and the faint glow of a downed Veilspawn corpse flickering in the haze. Her Guild team moved through the wreckage like shadows. Kairo knew he was supposed to follow the crew and stay close to his sister, but something about the Veilspawn's core drew him. He stepped forward. Just a few feet. Close enough to see the fractured luminous shell where its life once pulsed. It looked dead. It WAS dead.
Then everything stopped.
The light changed.
The sound disappeared.
The wind no longer moved.
And the world shifted.
Everything blurred — the fog, the shipyard, the voices — until silence swallowed all sound. The sky cracked, overhead split open like tearing fabric, revealing a shape beneath the ocean, deeper than depth itself. vast, inverted pyramid of alien stone and luminous symbols and relics, metal and light, rings upon rings folding into each other, orbiting a black monolith suspended in space. Endless. Timeless. A massive structure, vast as a city, sat beneath a chasm of the sea… or maybe time. A voice whispered in his bones. deeper than any sound he'd ever heard. mathematical, distorted, ancient.
"Anchor recognized…"
He froze. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't move.
"Fractured…"
"Thread…Null Detected."
"You are… anomaly."
A crack split the air like lightning frozen in time.
The Engine's shape expanded, collapsing in on itself, folding into stars, into memory, into something reaching for him— GASP
The dream shattered like glass, and his body lurched upward from the bed, drenched in cold sweat. His ceiling fan spun overhead like nothing had ever happened. The scent of old books and dust filled his room, the window cracked open just enough for the ocean breeze to sneak in — early morning.
"Dream," he muttered, rubbing his face. exhaling slowly. "Just a dream."
He rubbed his temples. The details were fading but the feeling wasn't. That weight. That presence. He had seen his sister in the dream. Riven. That broken veilspawn. It had all been so real. But none of it had happened. Maybe…Not yet.
By sunrise, Kairo was dressed and barely awake. His oversized jacket hung lopsided over one shoulder, and his boots weren't even tied. Barely spoke at breakfast, poking at eggs while his mother Aveline hummed and his sister tightened the straps of her field gear.
"You look like you lost a fight with gravity" Selena said, brushing past him in full combat gear. "Weird dream," Kairo muttered.
"Want to stay home, then?" , "No," he said quickly. "I'll come."
"You sure? You won't be doing anything except watching. Veilruns aren't a joyride".
"Yeah," Kairo said, slipping the token into his pocket. "I just want to see it. I want to understand what you guys do." She paused, eyes softening.
"Alright. But you follow orders like a shadow. Step where I step, speak when I say. Got it?"
"Got it."
"And if Riven starts talking about his stupid drones, pretend to care. He's sensitive." Selena added. "Hahaha…Noted."
They moved out as the sun broke over the hilltops, heading to the southern coast.
The Veilzone site was located along a fog-drenched stretch of the southern coast. What used to be a shipyard had long since been overrun by Veilspawn corruption, turned into jagged terrain covered in black coral growths and bioluminescent residue. The shipyard was exactly like the dream. Same half-sunken cargo freighters, same jagged coral blooms where Etheron scarred the ground. Same fog hanging over everything like smoke from a dying fire. Kairo hesitated as they passed through the Veilgate. He could feel the low vibration in his bones. Etheron in the atmosphere, thick as static. The air was heavier now, more tangible. The way reality slightly bent at the edges inside the Veilzone — that was real. And so was the dead Veilspawn lying in the sand. Similar to the one from his dream.
Selena's team was already prepping. Riven, the tech-nerd, adjusted the harmonic dampeners mounted along his belt. He saw Kairo and gave him a half-nod, biting into a nutrition bar like he hadn't slept in weeks.
"So, Little K, first time at a live Veilrun?" Riven asked. "Don't worry, no one's lost a limb in months" , "That's not funny." Kairo replied.
"haha You'll be fine. Just don't breathe too deep. Etheron density's thick enough to bend radio waves in there".
They started walking slowly and carefully into the fog..when-
"He's not even licensed," a voice cuts in. "You're dragging a kid into a live-field zone?".
From behind one of the carrier hulls stepped Nox. He wore the black-trimmed variant of the C.E.L.E.N. combat suit — sleeker, designed for speed. dark hair, sharp jawline, and a stare like a blade pulled halfway from its sheath. His eyes glowed faintly violet — a symptom of his Assassin-Type Etherborn mutation.
"Didn't think you'd be the type to babysit," he added to Selena, ignoring Kairo.
"Didn't think you'd still be bitter," Selena replied, voice flat. Nox's eyes flicked to Kairo. "Hmm so that's the infamous lil brother" , Kairo nodded faintly. "Looks fragile," Nox said. "Breakable" . "You're late, asshole. Quit pressing the kid and get to work" Selena replied. "Uh guys…Movement here, here we go" Riven added. "Two signatures. Medium-tier."
"Positions," Selena shouted
Kairo looked back after hearing a metallic sleek sound, found Nox, noticing a smile on his face with his fingers circling around his daggers. Then suddenly — He vanished mid-step — literally — a blur as he dashed forward faster than Kairo's eyes could track. Wind cracked around him. A few meters away, a broken crate exploded with a screeching pulse as a Scout-class Veilspawn (medium-tier creature) leapt out.
Screeee-kkkt—
Before it could lunge, Nox reappeared, arm drawn back in a perfect line. He sliced his hand downward. A thin vibrational arc of Etheron—hardly visible but deafening—cut through the creature midair like it was paper. A clean diagonal split.
"One scout down," Nox said, brushing past the collapsing carcass.
"Showoff," Riven muttered.
"Efficient," Nox corrected.
Kairo just stared. That… wasn't regular speed. That wasn't just a fast guy. That was Etheron—and Nox used it with surgical brutality. The rest of the squad spread out. Selena gestured for kairo to stay back with Riven as they approached the denser fog pockets near the old fuel silos. More movement.
"Two signatures," Seala confirmed. "And something large… maybe alpha-tier."
Then the fog detonated with motion. Three Veilspawn emerged. The front two were smaller — low-slung, reptilian shapes with transparent skin over glowing veins. The third was massive — a Cragmaw-Class (higher tier creature), over 15 feet tall, built like a bipedal crustacean with obsidian armor. The squad sprang into motion. Selena burst forward first, Etheron flaring red-hot around her fists. Her boots scorched twin streaks in the ground as she rocketed forward. Her Elemental Type power glowed around her in concentric fire-rings. With a spinning leap, she cast a chain-whip of flame, searing one of the smaller creatures mid-lunge. It squealed as fire spiraled into its crystalline core. "Got one! Nerin finish it" she yelled. Then, Nerin, a Longshot-Type, deployed a shoulder-mounted railbow. He knelt, aligned his scope with the exposed flank of the Veilspawn, and fired a compressed Etheron bolt.
Crack—whistle—BOOM!
The bolt hit the monster's joint — and detonated, splintering it backward. Meanwhile, Saela the Tank-Type, slammed her hands together and erected a shimmering shield of force. The larger Cragmaw charged — and collided with her Etheron barrier, sending a shockwave through the sand. She held her ground, boots digging into the shipyard debris. Nox in the other hand blinked into motion, vibrating blade already forming in one hand. With cold efficiency, he zipped beneath the Cragmaw's belly and sliced open a weak point, retreating before it even realized it was wounded. "It's yours, Selena," he said, not even out of breath. Selena clenched her fists again — and ignited her body in flame. Etheron crackled off her in arcs of superheated air. She jumped — then dropped like a meteor — and punched directly into its core. The Cragmaw shuddered… then collapsed into steaming crystal fragments.
Kairo exhaled, blinking away the sensory overload. Riven patted his shoulder. "You alright?" . "They're like superheroes," Kairo said, "That's one way to see it" . "And Nox…?" Kai added. "Don't worry about Nox," Riven replied. "He's got a superiority complex. But he's not a bad guy. Just sharp edges."
Kairo glanced once more at the monster corpses, the fire trails his sister Selena left in the sand, and the blurred cuts Nox had made that still hummed with aftershock.
The realization was overwhelming, Etherborn weren't just powerful. They were terrifying.
And he still didn't feel like one of them.
Not yet.
The battlefield, if you could even call it that, had quieted into an eerie stillness.
Steam hissed up from the slashed bodies of the fallen Veilspawn, their crystalline cores flickering dimly in their broken shells. Selena straightened, wiping a thin streak of black ichor off her gauntlet. She rolled her shoulders, flames still simmering faintly along her arms before she reabsorbed the Etheron energy back into her core. "Clear," she called out.
One by one, the others dropped out of combat mode. Nerin lowered his railbow, slinging it casually over one shoulder. Saela flexed her armored fists, grunting in satisfaction. Even Nox, casual as ever, cleaned the edge of his blade on a fallen veilspawn's translucent hide before sheathing it with a clean, fluid motion.
Kairo stepped forward from behind the shipping container, breathless. Everything still hummed with residual power — a charge in the air like the moment after lightning strikes.
"Alright," Riven said, clapping his hands once. "Extraction time. Get those cores before the C.E.L.E.N sweeps show up and steal the credit". Selena tossed Kairo a sharp look. "Stay back. This part's messy". He obeyed, falling into step with Nerin as the others moved toward the fallen monsters.
Riven crouched by the Cragmaw corpse, pulling out a specialized extraction tool — a compact drill-like device humming with a faint blue light. He jabbed it into the creature's exposed core seam, twisting until a soft crack echoed out, and the core popped free.
The moment it was exposed, the core gleamed — a radiant heart of fractured, swirling light — about the size of a Golf ball. Energy swirled inside it like a living storm. "Beautiful," Riven said, cradling it carefully. "Sell it or forge it?" Saela asked, wiping sweat from her brow.
"Depends. This one's pure-grade. Could be reforged into a kinetic hammer easy," Nerin said. "Or fetch five figures on the market".
"Five figures," Saela whistled. "Dinner's on you, then". Kairo watched, wide-eyed. "You guys just… take those?" he asked. Riven chuckled. "Finder's keepers, kid. C.E.L.E.N rules. You kill it, you claim it. If you're licensed."
"And if you're not licensed?" Kairo asked, knowing he wasn't yet.
Riven shrugged. "Technically illegal. You can hold it, but you can't sell it. Licensing's everything out here. Money, weapons, influence — all starts with that little stamp from C.E.L.E.N."
"And," Saela added with a grin, "you get cool jackets". Kairo laughed despite himself.
then hesitated. "What does C.E.L.E.N stand for again?", Saela cocked a brow. "You really are fresh."
Nerin snorted. "Continental Etherborn Licensing and Enforcement Network," he recited lazily.
"They handle everything related to Etherborn activity," Selena added more seriously. "Licensing, Training, Awakening trials, rankings, raids, law enforcement, even disputes". Kairo frowned slightly. "So… they're like… the government?"
"Sort of," Riven said. "But they don't rule anything. Only in charge of this part of superhero life. They just regulate us. Make sure people who can bend the laws of physics don't blow up cities for fun."
"And clean up after messes like this," Saela said, jerking her thumb toward the shattered Veilspawn corpses. It made sense, in a way. Too much power, too little control — you needed something in between.
Minutes later, a low rumble vibrated through the ground. Kairo turned and saw it —
A squad of C.E.L.E.N vehicles — heavy black crawlers with plated armor and shimmering Etheron insignias — rolled through the outer gates of the shipyard, leaving deep tracks in the sand. Atop each vehicle, rotating scanners blinked with violet light, sweeping the area for residual Etheron disturbances. The C.E.L.E.N agents stepped out — tall figures clad in gray-and-black combat suits marked with their division ranks. They moved in smooth, practiced lines, deploying containment drones that buzzed and zipped into place around the fallen Veilspawn remains.
One of them, a sharp-faced woman with cropped silver hair, approached Selena's team.
"Report," she barked, pulling up a holographic interface from her wrist. "Selena Virel, Squad 13," Selena said briskly. "Confirmed three veilspawn killed. Scout-class and Cragmaw-class. Cores extracted. No casualties."
The woman barely glanced at Kairo before scanning the battlefield herself.
"Good work. Cleanup will proceed. Stay clear of the containment zone". Selena nodded and led her team a few steps away toward the rusted remnants of an overturned freighter, out of the agents' path. As containment drones began their silent work, locking the corrupted terrain in crystalline stasis fields, the team finally had a moment to breathe.
Riven plopped down on a chunk of rubble, unwrapping another nutrition bar. Nerin leaned against the cargo hull, inspecting the core they'd salvaged, the light of it reflecting in his brown eyes. Saela pulled out a battered canteen and tossed it to Kairo. "Here. Drink."
Kai caught it awkwardly and took a sip — salty, mineral-heavy water that tasted like battery acid, but it helped ground him. "You did good, kid," Saela said, ruffling his hair roughly.
"I didn't even do anything," Kairo muttered.
"Exactly," she said with a grin. "Didn't panic. Didn't run. Stayed put. First rule of surviving a Veilzone: don't be an idiot". "Second rule," Nerin chimed in, "don't trust the weather inside the Veilzone. It'll lie to you". "Third rule," Riven added between bites, "always bring snacks."
Kairo chuckled weakly. It was strange. He had watched them fight — move like living weapons — yet here they were, joking and teasing like normal people.
"I thought…Etherborn would be different," Kairo said. "Different how?" Saela asked. "I don't know. Less human". Saela smirked. "Etherborn are just people, kid. People that cracked their own minds open and survived."
"Or didn't," Nox said, appearing from behind the wreckage. What about Etheron?" he asked. "It's… it's dangerous, right?" Kairo replied. Nox looked over at him, eyes calm.
"Etheron's not good or bad," he said simply. "It's just power. Same as fire. Fire can burn down a house or light a home."
He walked a few steps closer, crouching to examine the cracked ground. "Some people," Nox continued, "have bodies and minds that can resonate with it. Shape it. That's awakening. Most people can't. Their cores stay dormant". "And if they do awaken?" Kairo pressed. Nox shrugged lightly. "If they're strong, they get stronger. If they're weak… sometimes the Etheron breaks them apart. But that's super rare. That's why C.E.L.E.N tests people before they awaken officially. To make sure they're ready to become Etherborn and save the world", Kairo nodded slowly, a little more at ease now.
Another C.E.L.E.N agent passed nearby, speaking into a comm unit. Kairo caught a few words — something about "distortions increasing," "stabilizers failing," and "containment breaches" — but before he could ask, Riven whistled sharply. "Truck's inbound," Riven said. "Time to pack up."
A matte-gray utility crawler pulled up near the squad. It wasn't flashy, but it was sturdy — built for rough terrain. Kairo climbed in last, wedging himself between Nox and Saela in the back seat. As the vehicle rumbled to life, dust kicking up around the wheels, Kairo stared out the window at the swirling fog of the Veilzone receding into the distance. The dream still clung to the edges of his mind.
The cracked sky.
The massive machine beneath the sea.
The whisper calling him an anomaly.
He shook his head. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just the stress of going on a Veilrun for the first time.
Saela leaned her head back against the seat, tossing a crumpled wrapper toward Nerin, who batted it away without looking. "Next time," she muttered, "we stop for burgers after. Non-negotiable". "You say that every run," Nerin said, stretching his legs out into the cramped aisle. "And every time we end up scraping burnt ration bars off our teeth".
"Because you're cheap". "I'm frugal," Riven corrected smugly while driving, They laughed, the easy rhythm of a team that had survived too many close calls together. Kairo smiled faintly, starting to relax— when the world tilted sharply. The crawler hit a deep rut, sending everyone lurching sideways. Instinctively, Kairo grabbed the doorframe, his heart spiking. And
Before he could say anything, he caught Nox watching him from across the cab — one eyebrow raised, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "Relax," Nox said lazily, turning back to stare out the window. Then, without looking at anyone in particular, he added in a low, dry tone: "Told you he was fragile". The others cracked up immediately. "Poor kid nearly jumped out the window," Saela said, grinning. "I didn't jump," Kairo muttered, cheeks flushing. "You flinched," Nox said helpfully.
"Big difference," Riven added, deadpan. Even Selena, sitting in the front seat, allowed herself a slight smirk as she pulled up the next assignment details on her wrist console. The tension slipped away, replaced by a rough kind of camaraderie — the kind forged by battle, bruises, and bad jokes.
The house was warm when they returned. Not warm from heaters — warm from life. The old wood floors creaked as Kairo kicked off his boots, and the kitchen lights threw a soft golden glow across the narrow hallways. His mom, Aveline, peeked out from the kitchen, her expression tightening when she saw how tired he looked — but she said nothing yet. She just smiled and wiped her hands on a towel. Selena flopped onto the couch without ceremony, kicking her gear bag aside. "Survived your first run, little brother," she said, voice somewhere between a tease and a genuine compliment. He chuckled weakly. Mom pulled a tray from the oven, the smell of baked fish and spiced roots filling the house. "Dinner's ready. Sit, sit. You'll feel better after". Kairo barely made it to the table before his stomach growled loud enough to make Riven (who had followed them inside, uninvited as usual) snort laughter.
"I saw Kairo almost trip over his own feet trying to look cool," Riven said, dropping into his usual seat at the table. "I wasn't trying to look cool," Kairo grumbled. "Then congrats — mission accomplished," Selena smirked. Their mother laughed and ladled soup into bowls, her eyes soft but sharp like always. "I'm proud of you," she said to Kairo. "Going out there. Seeing the world your sister protects."
"It was different than I expected."
Selena raised an eyebrow. "Scary?", "Not exactly. Just…" He paused. "Felt like it already happened". No one said anything. The sound of soup being stirred filled the silence. Selena leaned back, arms crossed. "Etheron can mess with rookie senses. Your sense of time, memory. It plays tricks." "Right," Kai muttered. They were halfway through plates of food — Kairo slowly easing into the rhythm of normal life again — when the front door clicked. A heavy presence entered with it.
A figure stepped into the light; Tall, broad-shouldered, hair dark as wet stone, dressed in a long charcoal coat that smelled faintly of salt and ozone. Their father. Varric. The room's energy shifted immediately. Not hostile. Not quite. But careful. Tense.
Varric paused, seeing the table full, and offered a wry, almost amused smile. "What?" he said. "Can't invite myself to dinner in my own house?" Mom set her fork down quietly, a line of disapproval tightening at the corner of her mouth — but she didn't argue.
Not here. Not tonight. Selena said nothing at all, stabbing her food with unnecessary force. Kairo, uncertain but trying to be polite, scooted over and gestured clumsily. "There's food left. Varric chuckled — low and rumbling — and joined them at the table like it was the most natural thing in the world. The conversation stayed shallow — comments about the weather, about local Etheron flares spotted on the coastline, about some news of Veilruns (Raids) on black market Core dealers — nothing deep. Nothing sharp.
Varric ate slowly, methodically. His eyes lingered on Kairo longer than necessary, as if measuring something invisible. At one point, he spoke up casually; "So," he said, swirling his cup of tea, "heard from a few friends in C.E.L.E.N. you're heading toward your Awakening trials soon". Kairo shifted in his seat, suddenly self-conscious. "Yeah. A few weeks from now". "You'll do well," Varric said. Not a compliment — more like a certainty spoken aloud. An awkward silence stretched — until Varric wiped his mouth, stood up, and adjusted his coat. "I'll let you finish your dinner," he said smoothly. Then he paused, glancing down at Kairo. "You free tomorrow?"
Kairo blinked. "Uh…maybe?"
"Come find me at the old pier if you're free ,there's something important we need to talk about" Varric said. "If not… we'll catch up some other time". He squeezed Kairo's shoulder briefly — a touch too firm to be casual — and left without another word. The door swung shut behind him. The air eased again, like a tightened rope slipping loose. Selena sighed loudly and started stacking plates. "You don't have to go if you don't want to," she muttered, mostly under her breath. Kairo didn't answer. Part of him didn't want to.
Another part — a smaller, quieter one — wondered if maybe, just maybe, seeing his father outside the walls of this house would make more sense than the endless half-smiles and ghostly silences they kept inside it. He filed the thought away, promising nothing.
Later that night, as the dishes dried and the house quieted, Kairo lay in bed staring up at the cracked ceiling.
The dream from that morning hovered in the edges of his mind again — the vast, impossible thing suspended beneath the sea. The voice.
The words. He closed his eyes.
And somewhere not that far from home — his father was moving with purpose.
The abandoned train station at the edge of the coast stood half-swallowed by the tide, salt-eaten and covered in old Veilzone residue. Varric approached it alone, boots crunching on shattered tile. The sea breeze tore at the edges of his coat, carrying the faint scent of corrosion. Three figures waited for him there.
Not quite human — or maybe too human.
They wore old-world clothes frayed at the cuffs, their faces hidden behind polished bone masks. Etheron flickered around them like thin mist — barely held in check. One of them stepped forward, voice dry and papery; "You're late.
A thin woman with long black hair and arms covered in twisting marks — stepped forward first without a word. Her face was calm, her movements smooth and careful. She lifted her hand, spreading her fingers wide apart.
Then, without even touching herself, thin red energy similar to Etheron- but heavier, red and darker, began glowing. It started slicing small cuts between her fingers — sharp and clean, almost like invisible blades had done it, until her hand was almost fully cut from between her fingers to her palm forming a disturbing see-through hole on her hand, filled with spilling blood.
Behind her, a broad man with rough skin, built like a wall, raised both his hands. Same heavy-Red Etheron Energy swirled around him and then he pushed it forward in a straight, fast line, like firing a bullet.
The red energy shot through the air, passed neatly through the cut hole in the woman's hand, and flew straight ahead toward the third figure — a younger man, quick-eyed and sharp, holding a small glowing alien looking box in his hands. The moment the red energy touched the box, it pulsed — the engraved lines across its surface lighting up one after another, shifting and dancing like something waking from sleep. The young man smiled slightly and tossed the box forward onto the wet floor. Instead of tumbling clumsily, it moved — sliding fast, almost alive, as if being pushed by an invisible force.
It raced across the broken station toward Varric, cutting a line through the shallow puddles, leaving a ripple behind it. Varric didn't move. The box stopped just before his boots. A low hum filled the air. Then —
The cube unfolded. It expanded outward in sharp, fluid movements, each side spinning and locking into place.
Lines of red Etheron stitched into the air, spinning faster and faster, forming a wide frame in front of them all. At the center of the frame, the air rippled and deepened, turning black-red, as if a hole had been torn straight through the world. A doorway.
The three figures stood still, their faces unreadable, as Varric stepped through the portal without a word. One by one, the others followed him, their bodies swallowed by the shifting red light. The (Teleportation?) portal shimmered one last time, the air around it bending inward — and with a soft rush, it collapsed in on itself, folding back into nothing. The station was empty again. Only the broken wind and the dying sunset remained.
Gone.