The path to the tower was carved from memories.
Kade stepped forward, boots crunching against fractured reflections—mirror-like shards embedded in the ground, each one showing flickers of a life he didn't recognize. A boy with a different face. A woman laughing under a crescent moon. A blade soaked in flame.
He tore his eyes away.
Beside him, the hooded woman walked silently, her cloak rippling in an unseen wind. Kade's weapon had dimmed, now just a cold hilt strapped to his back, but he could still feel the faint heartbeat of it thrumming in sync with his own.
Every step closer to the tower made the world quieter. No wind. No echoes. Not even the sound of his own breathing.
"Why does it feel like I'm walking into a graveyard?" he asked.
"Because you are," the woman said. "This is the Aether Path. A corridor between the present and the Forgotten Past."
Kade frowned. "So what, we're walking through time now?"
"In a way," she said. "Here, time folds. The tower you see isn't truly there—not yet. It's a wound. And wounds fester."
She stopped.
Before them, a figure stood—motionless, cloaked in ash, his face hidden behind a porcelain mask etched with golden tears.
Kade reached for his weapon. "Another Remnant?"
"No," the woman whispered. "Worse. A Warden."
The masked figure raised its hand, and the ground rippled. Dozens of skeletal hands burst from beneath the earth, dragging up half-formed bodies—twisted mockeries of people.
The woman stepped forward. "Stay back. You're not ready."
Kade's jaw tightened. "You keep saying that."
"Because it's true."
Before he could argue, the Warden snapped its fingers—and the things rushed forward.
The woman's cloak disintegrated into tendrils of shadow, forming wings of ink and light behind her. With a single motion, she swept her arm—and reality bent. The wave of enemies was vaporized, reduced to dust in a breath.
But the Warden didn't move. Didn't flinch.
It watched.
"That thing's not attacking," Kade muttered.
"It's testing," she replied. "Seeing if you're worth fearing yet."
He hated how that made his chest burn.
"Then let me fight it."
"No. The moment you touch it, it marks you. And if it marks you before you're ready, you'll unravel."
Kade clenched his fists. "What even is this place? These... things? I'm not even sure if I'm awake or dead!"
"You're not dead," she said. "But the life you knew? It's gone. Burned away the moment you crossed the Veil."
Kade stepped back. "Then take me back."
"I can't," she said. "And even if I could, there'd be nothing left. You were marked long ago, Kade. By blood. By fate. By Her."
Kade's heart skipped. "Her?"
The woman hesitated.
Then, quietly: "The Pale Queen. One of the Seven. She's stirring again."
The Warden turned and began walking toward the tower, vanishing into the mist.
"She knows you're awake now," the woman continued. "And she'll come. Not yet. But soon."
They reached the base of the tower.
It was unlike anything Kade had ever seen—built from bone and glass, humming with energies that warped the light around it. There were no doors, only a spiraling staircase that extended into the clouds above.
Kade glanced up. "How high does it go?"
"High enough to break you."
"You said I'm not ready," Kade replied. "But we're here anyway."
She turned to face him, eyes glowing faintly. "Because you need to see it. What lies above is your truth."
He stepped forward, placing a hand on the first step.
A wave of cold shot through his spine. His vision blurred—
—And he was somewhere else.
In a burning city. Screams. Crimson skies. Buildings crumbling under something vast. Unseen. Unnamed.
In the center stood a boy—himself, older. Eyes hollow. Hands soaked in fire.
A figure approached the older Kade. A woman in white.
She whispered something in his ear.
And Kade watched himself kneel.
---
He snapped back.
The woman caught him before he collapsed.
"What... what was that?"
"A vision," she said. "One of your futures."
"Why would I kneel to her?"
"That's the question, isn't it?"
Kade sat down, chest heaving. "So what now?"
The woman stood, cloak reforming around her. "Now, we train. You've tasted what's coming. If you don't grow, if you don't fight... that vision becomes truth."
Kade looked up the endless stairwell of the tower, the memory of his older self still echoing in his mind.
"I won't kneel," he said, voice raw.
The woman's lips curved into something like a smile.
"Then rise, Kade. Because from here on... the war truly begins."
---