The Gate That Watches
---
The night swallowed them whole.
Five figures stood at the brink of the Door of Return, its colossal frame humming with breathless power. From a distance, it had looked like an archway carved from obsidian. Up close, it was far worse — a living construct of bone, mirrorstone, and memory.
Each step closer slowed time.
Kael could feel his heartbeat echoing in reverse. His breath left his body but didn't return. Myrrh, the cursed blade strapped to his back, shuddered with something close to fear.
"This Gate was built by gods who feared being forgotten," the sword murmured.
Theron placed a hand on Kael's shoulder. "We go in together. No matter what."
Kael nodded, his voice thick. "Together."
Then they stepped through.
---
The world unraveled.
Light shattered. Gravity became a question, not a law. Space folded inward, wrapping them in a cocoon of thoughts they didn't remember having. Kael felt his own soul split — not broken, but observed. As if the Gate was reading every moment of his existence, deciding what version of him to allow through.
He hit the ground hard.
And when he rose, everything was wrong.
---
They stood in a city of silence.
Ruins towered around them — great crystalline towers curved like blades, half-consumed by vines of shadow and veins of silver flame. The sky was both night and day, depending on where you looked. Ghosts of giants wandered in the distance, unaware of their presence.
Nyssra blinked, her eyes glowing faintly.
"This place... it's not a realm. It's a wound."
Theron looked around. "Where are we?"
Dain knelt and touched the glass-like floor. "This is a memory," he said. "Not ours. Not now. A memory of a world that existed before time. A world shattered by a war no one remembers."
Kael stood still, listening.
The Veil inside him pulsed.
And then a voice spoke, not aloud — but from within the air.
> "Welcome home, Shardbearer. You are late."
---
They turned.
A figure stood at the edge of the ruins.
Cloaked in a robe of starlight, its face was hidden behind a mask of polished bone. Its eyes burned with spiraling symbols that didn't stay still.
Kael gripped Myrrh's hilt. "Who are you?"
The figure stepped forward.
"I am the Warden of the Gate. The first Veilborne. The one who chose to stay behind."
Nyssra raised her hand, readying a spell. "Why?"
The Warden tilted its head. "Because the Gate was never meant to be a door. It was a prison for what came before. And now you have opened it."
Lightning cracked in the distance. The earth groaned.
And far above — the sky tore open.
A black sun began to rise.