She came crashing through the underbrush like a stray bolt of chaos—hair wild, limbs flailing, dirt-streaked and leaf-covered. For a heartbeat, it was impossible to tell if it was a person or something worse. But then she hit the ground with a graceless thud, rolled twice, and blinked up at them like she'd simply tripped on a stair.
Nora.
Of course it was her.
Without hesitation, she threw her arms around Asli. He stiffened, a hand hovering uncertainly in the air before resting lightly on her back—more out of obligation than comfort. Ezra watched, silent, already exhausted by the storm she dragged behind her like a second shadow.
Once her breath steadied and her grin returned, the three of them pressed on.
"Thank the stars," she muttered, still clinging to Asli. "I thought I was gonna have to befriend a tree."
Asli blinked at her. "You look like you already tried."
They pressed forward shortly after, Ezra grumbling under his breath. The trees grew thicker, the path narrow. Conversation faded into soft crunches of damp loam beneath their boots and the occasional muttered curse as thorns snagged skin.
Nora talked—sporadically, like someone trying to pretend things were fine. "There were others where I dropped. But… they didn't last. One of them burst into flames. Another kept screaming about something crawling in his skull."
"Sounds lovely," Ezra muttered.
She didn't laugh.
The forest pressed in close. Ancient trees arched overhead, blotting out the sun in streaks of sickly light. Moss clung to their roots like rot. The damp air grew heavier the deeper they went, silence stretching long between them, punctuated only by the occasional crunch of twigs beneath their boots.
Their destination came into view like something waiting. A clearing ringed by leaning trees and silence that felt too curated—too still. And at its center, half-buried in the dirt like a shrine, sat the crate. Steel-gray. Marked with faded glyphs. Pulsing faintly with energy that felt older than anything they'd touched in this world.
The crate stood untouched at its center—steel-gray, glyph-lined, quiet. Ezra squinted. "Still sealed."
"No scorch marks. No drag lines," Nora murmured. "No footprints."
Asli's shadow peeled off him, slinking toward the crate like smoke spilling across ston. His shadow slithered forward, looped the crate like a lazy serpent it circled once. Twice. Then slipped back to his heels—nervous. It coiled tighter around his legs than usual.
He frowned. "It's wrong."
Ezra approached slowly. "What, the box?"
Asli didn't answer.
Ezra stepped forward.
The latch clicked.
The glyphs dimmed.
Before anyone could move, the crate cracked open with a hiss of compressed air. There was no fanfare. No alarm. Just silence—broken by the dull, wet sound of something hitting the earth.
Not gear.
A body.
Thin. Trembling. Wrists bound in glowing restraints. Their face was half-covered in something jagged and crystalline, veined with blue light that pulsed like an artificial heartbeat. They weren't moving. Not fully. Just twitching—like a puppet waiting for its strings.
Then their eyes opened.
Blank. White. Glowing like aether left too long in the sun.
Ezra flinched. "That's not food."
Nora crouched immediately. "They're alive. I think."
The figure's chest rose and fell.
Then the scream began.
Not human.
Not anything.
The sound that followed wasn't a scream. It was something broken. Digital. Glitched. Like a memory being torn apart mid-replay. It ruptured the clearing like a shriek of glass. Trees shivered. The ground cracked.
Then the sky split.
Asli's head snapped up. "Step back."
Ezra stumbled. "What the hell is happening?!"
A rift tore itself open in the air above them—jagged, seething. The clouds churned into spirals as lightning carved the sky in streaks of blood-red light. From the heart of the tear spilled tendrils of shadow—thick, writhing, hungry.
Beyond it: another world.
Floating debris. Shattered terrain. Crimson storms. A realm where gravity bent sideways and light pulsed like a dying heart.
Nora backed away slowly. "That's not normal, right? Please tell me that's not normal."
"No," Asli said flatly, already bracing himself. "It's not."
The figure on the ground began to levitate—limbs twitching, body contorting unnaturally. Their veins glowed brighter now, feeding off the aether spilling from the rift. Chains of twisted light slithered across their arms, binding and animating them in equal measure.
Ezra's voice broke.
"This isn't a supply drop."
Asli's eyes narrowed.
The rift widened. Shadows poured out, crawling over stone and tree. The world tipped sideways as the clearing twisted in on itself. Air turned thin. Sharp. Everything around them bled wrongness.
And far above, beyond the tear in the sky, something stirred.
Something ancient.
Something watching.