Kael's breathing was shallow. His body still lay on the cold stone floor of Sector Delta, unmoving. His eyes were wide open, pupils dilated but he did not see the cell.
He was somewhere else.
The Realm Between
The sky was black and writhing.
Kael stood in a vast, lifeless field littered with the bones of the forgotten. Ash rained from above, and twisted shadows crawled across the cracked ground like worms searching for warmth. There was no warmth here. No stars. No moon. Just the sound a low, endless hum that felt like a heartbeat turned inside out.
The air tasted of regret.
He didn't know how long he had been here. Time moved like a crippled thing.
Then the trial began.
From the darkness, they came.
Figures.
People he had failed.
A girl with a scorched dress and eyes hollow with betrayal his sister? A motherly figure with burnt hands reaching for him, whispering accusations. A faceless man screaming his name, over and over, until the sound split the air like thunder.
Kael backed away.
But there was no escape.
The ash beneath his feet turned to blood.
Chains rose from the ground, latching to his arms, his ribs, his throat. They didn't bind him in place they dragged him under. Into a pit of fire. Into screams. Into the moment the sky had torn open and everything he loved died.
And he lived.
He relived it. Again. Again. Again.
The village burning.
The soldiers marching.
His hands soaked in blood his own? Someone else's? He didn't know anymore.
The collar.
The whip.
The endless silence.
Then a voice:
"You are nothing but the result of failure."
It was his own.
He screamed.
The sky split.
Somewhere Deeper
Kael was crawling now. His nails torn, teeth shattered from the fall. He didn't remember when the shadows had become beasts, or when the beasts began to eat the memories from his bones. But he had nothing left to give.
His mind cracked.
He wanted to die.
And then, he saw it.
A mirror. Shimmering in the dark. Not silverbut void. Reflecting nothing, yet everything.
Kael approached.
Inside the mirror, he saw himself but not broken. Not chained. Not weak.
This Kael burned with something ancient. Eyes like collapsed stars. Blood made of silence.
He touched the surface.
And the mirror shattered.
The field screamed.
The beasts fled.
And Kael fell, again.
Meanwhile,the guards never saw it coming.
A surge of force erupted from the lowest cell. No light. No sound. Just a wave of absence that collapsed steel and bone alike.
Every collar failed. Every lock turned to dust. Slaves fell to their knees in confusion.
The walls cracked.
The guards those who hadn't been erased instantly bled from their eyes before dropping like puppets with severed strings.
Silence.
And then Kael awoke completing his first whispered event.
He was still on the floor. But the chains were gone. The collar, broken. His body, unmarked.
He sat up slowly.
Around him, the cell doors hung open. Prisoners stared from the shadows, afraid to move.
The facility was dead.
Kael blinked, breathing hard.
He didn't know what had happened.
He didn't know what he was.
But he knew this wasn't over.
Something had started.
Something vast.
And somewhere far above, beyond understanding, Xha'veth... simply watched.