Kazi's lungs burned as she ran, the rough stone beneath her boots crumbling with every frantic step. The narrow bridge stretched ahead, winding like a broken thread across the misty void. Every instinct screamed at her to slow down, to look back, but she didn't.
The mist behind them boiled and twisted as the shapes pursued them, gaining speed with every passing heartbeat.
Dakarai sprinted just ahead of her, lightning gathering along his arms in bright, crackling veins. Sparks leapt from his skin to the stone bridge, leaving faint scorch marks in his wake. Rhazir ran behind them, silent and swift, his coat flaring with each stride. His shadow seemed almost to blur at the edges, blending unnaturally into the mist around them.
"They're getting closer!" Dakarai shouted over the roar of their footsteps and the howling air.
"I know!" Kazi gasped, feeling her mark pulse harder with every surge of adrenaline. Her skin tingled, the familiar ember-like heat rushing up her spine. The resonance pocket responded to her presence like a living thing, pulling at her, whispering through the mist.
The bridge narrowed ahead.
"Jump!" Rhazir barked.
Without hesitation, Dakarai leapt, clearing a wide gap where the stone had collapsed into the void. Kazi didn't think, she pushed herself off the crumbling edge, her mark flaring bright under her sleeve.
For a breathless moment, she soared over empty space.
She hit the ground hard, rolling across the uneven surface, the impact jarring her bones. Dakarai caught her arm and pulled her upright without a word.
Behind them, Rhazir landed almost soundlessly, not even glancing at the gap they'd crossed. His focus was fixed on the creatures that now surged forward with terrible grace.
They were clearer now.
Their forms were tall, distorted, almost skeletal, their skin translucent like smoke wrapped around bone. Where faces should have been, there were only smooth, featureless masks that shimmered faintly in the fractured light. Long, spindly limbs ended in clawed fingers that scraped the stone with soft, unbearable screeches.
"What are they?" Kazi shouted.
"Manifestations," Rhazir answered. "Born from the resonance. Guardians meant to protect the fracture."
"They don't look like they want to protect anything," Dakarai muttered, raising his hands as arcs of lightning spun into shape between his palms.
"They protect it from us," Rhazir said grimly. "From anything that could disrupt the balance here."
Kazi's mark burned hotter as the first of the creatures lunged.
A whip of mist coiled through the air, slashing toward her with blinding speed. She barely dodged, rolling under the strike and coming up with her palm extended. A burst of searing flame erupted from her hand, a wild arc of ember and light that lit up the mist like a sunrise.
The creature shrieked, the sound high and metallic, but it didn't burn away.
It reared back, its form rippling, before lunging again.
Dakarai stepped in, a spear of lightning ripping through the air. It struck the creature dead center, forcing it backward with a crack of energy. The mist recoiled, the other shapes hesitating for a fraction of a second.
"They're resistant!" Dakarai growled.
"They're part of the pocket!" Rhazir called out. "You can't destroy them; you can only drive them back!"
"Good to know!" Kazi snapped, channeling another blast of flame from her mark, this time sweeping it wide to form a barrier between them and the advancing creatures.
The mist hissed and recoiled from the fire, curling back like a wounded animal.
"For now!" Rhazir shouted, moving forward. "We move while they're slowed!"
They sprinted again, weaving across broken paths and shattered bridges suspended over nothingness. Every few steps, Kazi would glance over her shoulder, watching the creatures gather and shift like a storm cloud ready to strike again.
Ahead, through the swirling mist, a faint structure began to emerge, a floating island of rock, larger than the others. At its center stood a jagged pillar of stone, cracked open at the top like a split tree trunk. A light, pale blue in color, poured from the crack.
The pull of the Mark intensified.
"She's there!" Kazi shouted.
The mist grew thicker the closer they came to the pillar. It wrapped around their ankles, tugged at their legs like living hands, trying to slow their steps.
Dakarai gritted his teeth and pushed forward, lightning wreathing his body in crackling waves. Kazi summoned everything the Ember Line gave her, her mark burning so hot now that it sent ripples of heat off her skin, carving a small tunnel through the choking mist.
They reached the base of the pillar just as the mist creatures struck again.
Three of them lunged in unison.
Rhazir spun, his shadow stretching outward unnaturally, forming a barrier of dark tendrils that intercepted the attack. The mist creatures slammed into the wall of darkness, shrieking, their forms struggling against it like moths against glass.
"Climb!" Rhazir barked.
Kazi didn't hesitate.
She grabbed a jutting stone handhold and pulled herself upward, Dakarai right behind her. The stone was slick and cold under her hands, the crack in the pillar pulsing with eerie, rhythmic light.
Halfway up, Kazi felt something, it was different than before. It wasn't fracture's hunger or the mist. It was familiar, she felt Luma's presence.
The connection was apparent through the fracture, revealing a memory and a presence. It was conveyed by the Mark itself.
"You came too late."
The words weren't spoken aloud.
They pulsed through her veins, cold and bitter.
Kazi reached the split in the pillar and pulled herself up onto a narrow ledge, staring down into the heart of the fracture.
And what she saw made her blood run cold.