The wind howled across the Ashlands, swirling fine ash into the air and stinging my skin. The barren land stretched endlessly in every direction, the jagged peaks of the distant mountains casting long, ominous shadows on the cracked earth below. We had been walking for what felt like hours, the landscape growing more oppressive with each step, as if the ground beneath us resisted our presence.
My chest becomes unbearably heavy and I stop in my tracks, "We're here." I say softly. Eris paused, glancing over her shoulder.. It was clear she was as uneasy as I felt. "Are you sure this is the right place?" she asked, her voice barely carrying over the howl of the wind.
I didn't respond immediately. How could I? After all these years, after the countless journeys and whispers of the Nexus, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were chasing a ghost. The legends spoke of an artifact that could bind or unleash the power I carried within me, something that could change the course of the Veil. But here, in the Ashlands, I had seen nothing to suggest the Nexus was anything more than a faded memory. Still, the symbols etched into the rock, the ancient markings that could barely be made out against the soot-darkened stone, called to me. They felt right. They felt like the piece of the puzzle I had been missing.
"Keep moving," I said finally, my voice hoarse. "It's close. I can feel it."
Eris nodded, though I knew she was uncertain.
We pressed on, and the landscape began to shift. The air grew heavier. Jagged rocks jutted out of the ground, and the very earth seemed to rumble underfoot. The further we ventured into the Ashlands, the more oppressive it became. It wasn't just the land—it was me. The darkness inside me stirred restlessly, pulling at the edges of my thoughts. The Veil felt closer here, almost tangible, as though it were pressing against the thin membrane that separated it from this world.
It was then that we found it. Or rather, it found us.
At first, I thought my eyes were deceiving me. A faint glow shimmered in the distance, barely noticeable against the ashen sky. But as we drew closer, it became undeniable. A pulsating light, not bright, but insistent, like the flickering of a dying star.
"This… this is it," I whispered under my breath, more to myself than to Eris. My heart began to race, but it wasn't with excitement—it was the same hollow fear I'd felt whenever I came too close to my own power.
The entrance to the Nexus was a narrow slit between two towering rock faces. The light emanated from within, casting long, unsettling shadows over the ground. As we drew closer, I felt the temperature drop, the air growing cooler with each step. The sound of the wind, the distant rumblings of the volcano, faded into a strange, almost suffocating silence.
I reached out instinctively, my fingers grazing the jagged edges of the stone. It was warm to the touch, almost alive, like it was breathing beneath my fingertips.
"What is it?" Eris asked, her voice tight with apprehension.
"I don't know," I said, my voice betraying the uncertainty I felt in the pit of my stomach. "But we've come this far. We can't turn back now."
We stepped through the narrow opening and into a cavern that seemed to stretch far beyond the confines of the Ashlands. The walls, lined with glowing, pulsating veins of light, twisted and coiled like the inside of some massive creature. The air inside was thick, heavier than the air outside, and it pressed against my chest, as though the very atmosphere was trying to suffocate me.
I tried to steady my breath, but the hum of the cavern seemed to crawl under my skin, reverberating in my bones. My heart beat in time with the pulse of the light, faster and faster, until it felt like it might explode.
"This is… wrong," Eris murmured, her voice a tremor.
I couldn't disagree. The deeper we ventured, the more I felt the weight of the Nexus pressing down on me, like it was a wound, slowly and painfully reopening. The further we walked, the harder it became to ignore the familiar pull of the darkness inside me. It was an insidious thing, this power—it clawed at the edges of my mind, whispering things I didn't want to hear.
I could feel it, the Nexus, and I could feel it shifting—shifting in a way that made me feel small. Vulnerable.
"It's not what I thought," I muttered, my voice shaking as I reached out to steady myself against the wall. The glow from the walls was no longer comforting—it felt hungry, like it wanted to pull me in and consume me. I stepped back, my heart pounding in my chest.
Eris's eyes met mine, her brows furrowed in concern. "Kaia, what's happening? What is this place?"
"I—" I swallowed, trying to steady my breath, but the words wouldn't come. "It's not the Nexus," I said slowly, the realization settling in like a cold weight. "Not what I thought."
For a moment, I thought I saw something shift in the light ahead, a flicker in the distance. But when I looked again, it was gone.
I didn't know what we had found. But I could feel the pull of it. The power. It wasn't what I expected—it was darker. Older. Wrong.
The Ashlands breathed with a quiet sort of tension, the air thick with smoke and ember. The people of the Ashlands had learned to move like whispers in the night, their eyes sharp, their movements deliberate.
Eris and I had drifted into silence as we walked, our earlier discovery still settling into the spaces between our thoughts.
"What now?" Eris finally asked, her voice low.
I exhaled slowly, glancing up at the crumbling structures around us. The buildings, forged from stone and metal, bore the scars of time—soot-streaked walls, cracked facades, windows either shattered or too clouded to see through. The flickering lanterns overhead cast distorted shadows against the alleyways, making everything feel stretched and unreal.
"We keep moving," I said. It was the only answer I had.
Eris scoffed, kicking a loose stone across the uneven ground. "That's not a plan. That's avoidance."
She wasn't wrong. But I didn't know how to explain what I had felt back in that cavern. The hunger that had curled around me, deep and consuming. It hadn't been the Nexus we were looking for, but it had been something. Something I hadn't been ready to face.
I was about to tell her we'd figure it out later when a strange pull tugged at my chest—subtle at first, like the echo of a voice I couldn't quite hear. It was the same sensation I'd felt in the cavern, but… different. Lighter. More like a thread being drawn taut than a force trying to consume me.
I stopped walking.
"Kaia?" Eris asked, her voice shifting to wary concern.
The air around me thickened, just slightly. A ripple, like the fabric of the world had been stirred. I turned my head, eyes narrowing at the space around us. Nothing had changed—but I could feel it.
Something was about to shift.
The Veil was thin here.
"Do you feel that?" I asked.
Eris frowned, scanning our surroundings. "Feel what?"
I opened my mouth to explain—but before I could, the world lurched.
The air ripped, sound vanishing in an instant. My stomach twisted as if I had stepped off solid ground into open air. I staggered, reaching for something to anchor myself, but my hand met nothing but emptiness.
And then—
Silence.
Eris was gone. The lanterns above flickered, but their glow was brighter, sharper. The air was charged, humming with something unspoken. The city was still the Ashlands, but it wasn't now.
I knew without knowing that I was standing inside an echo.
A sound—rushed footsteps against stone. Voices, hushed but urgent.
I turned.
Two figures moved through the street, their bodies tense with urgency.
The first was a boy with long, dark dreadlocks, his features tight with determination. He moved quickly, gripping the wrist of the girl beside him, pulling her forward as they ran.
And the girl—
For a moment, I forgot to breathe.
She was beautiful. But not in the way beauty was usually spoken of. There was nothing delicate about her. She was wild, untamed, like something that refused to be caged.
Her hair, thick and coiled, moved as she ran, shifting like the embers of a fire caught in the wind—dark, full of movement, refusing to be still. Her skin, rich and deep as volcanic stone, gleamed with sweat under the flickering light. But it was her eyes that struck me most—burning with something fierce, something I couldn't place. A heat that had nothing to do with the fire she wielded.
Because she was fire.
I knew it before she even raised her hand.
Bootsteps thundered behind them—royal guards, dressed in Solvurn's colors, their weapons drawn. Orders were shouted, sharp and cutting, but the girl didn't hesitate.
She twisted, her body moving like a flame caught in motion—fluid, powerful.
And then—
Fire.
It exploded from her palms, raw and untamed, engulfing the street in an inferno. The heat seared against my skin, even though I knew it wasn't real. The guards staggered back, their shouts swallowed by the blaze. In that moment, she wasn't just a person. She was unstoppable.
Then, through the blaze, I saw it.
Her hand.
The fire danced around it, licking at her skin without leaving a single mark. Her fingers curled like she was holding onto something unseen, something that pulsed in tandem with the flames.
I had seen that before. In the murals. In the records. In the stories of the Pyrosoul.
The mark of Solvurn's legacy. The undeniable sign of the one who bore its fire.
The royal family had always claimed that title belonged to Prince Kori. That he was the Pyrosoul. That the flames belonged to him.
But I was looking at her.
And the flames belonged to her.
A sharp breath caught in my throat.
They lied.
Every record, every declaration, every ceremony proclaiming Kori as the heir to the Pyrosoul's power—a lie.
The true Pyrosoul wasn't the prince. It was this girl. The one the guards were chasing. The one the kingdom wanted to erase.
I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms.
I should have felt disgust. The Pyrosoul was everything I had been raised to fear. It was destruction. Chaos. A force that burned through the world, leaving only ash behind. It was the fire that had devoured cities, the fire that had torn through history like an unrelenting storm.
And yet—
I didn't feel disgust.
I felt something I couldn't name.
She turned back to the boy, grabbing his wrist, and they ran, disappearing into the night, the fire still roaring behind them.
I exhaled sharply, my pulse erratic, my body still burning with the remnants of the moment.
And just as quickly as I had been pulled in—
The world snapped back.
The flames were gone. The street was as it had been. The lanterns flickered weakly, their glow dimmed by the weight of reality settling once more.
Eris was beside me, her brow furrowed. "Kaia?"
I barely heard her. My mind was still tangled in the fire.
In her.
In the truth.
I had seen echoes before. I had felt them twist through me, remnants of the past clawing their way into the present.
But this one—this one had left something behind. Something lingering in my chest, something burning at the edges of my thoughts.
I clenched my jaw, forcing my breath to steady.
Whatever it was, I couldn't let it distract me.
I had seen the aftermath of the Pyrosoul and its capabilities, and it was dangerous.
So why couldn't i stop thinking about her?