The city of Almagh hadn't slept since the breach.
From above, its streets looked like veins pulsing with fractured light — white, gray, violet — all bleeding into one another, unable to decide what they wanted to be. The barrier that once protected the central district was gone. In its place, a shimmer hung in the air: a thin layer of residual energy, humming softly, whispering with traces of human emotion.
The Guardians of Light had set up a perimeter. Their silver sigils burned on walls and rooftops, but the power that once made them holy now flickered weakly, reacting to the strange frequency that lingered in the air.
Lian moved through the outer district, hood drawn, eyes fixed ahead. Her footsteps echoed over the broken stone. Every few meters, she could feel it — the faint tug of the Void's resonance beneath the ground. It wasn't spreading anymore, but it was alive. Breathing. Waiting.
She whispered under her breath, "You're quieter today."
A faint voice answered inside her mind, smooth and familiar.
> "You asked me to listen. So I am."
She ignored it.
There were eyes on her — she could feel them even before she turned the corner. Two Guardians stood ahead, dressed in white, faces covered by mirrored masks that reflected her own distorted silhouette.
"State your name," one of them ordered. His voice was sharp, trained to command.
Lian stopped. "Lira," she lied easily. "From the eastern quarter."
The Guardian tilted his head. The mirror-mask shimmered, detecting traces of spiritual resonance. "You carry a mark. The violet frequency."
Lian didn't move. Her voice stayed calm.
"Then you already know I'm not from your quarter."
He hesitated — just long enough. Lian's pupils dilated; her irises shifted from silver to deep violet. For a brief second, the Guardian froze, his mind caught in a loop of thought that wasn't his own. His partner stepped forward, confused.
"What—?"
Lian exhaled softly, pressing her fingers together. A faint ripple spread through the air — invisible, but dense. The second Guardian's body stiffened, his aura faltering. Within seconds, both were on their knees, consciousness blurring.
She stepped past them, murmuring, "Sleep."
---
Further inside the city, she found the traces she'd been looking for.
The ground still bore the scars of the energy burst from the night before — spiraling patterns etched into the stone, like veins of glass melted by heat. But when she knelt and touched one, it wasn't cold. It pulsed faintly under her fingertips.
> "You're connected to it," the Void's voice murmured again.
"These patterns are echoes of your resonance. You shaped the release."
"I didn't mean to," Lian said quietly.
> "You never do. That's why it works."
She stood up, wiping the dust from her gloves. Somewhere beyond the square, she heard the hum of machines — Soul Resonance Scanners. The Guardians had started scanning for corruption. She didn't have much time.
Her plan was simple: find where the resonance was strongest, trace it back, and identify the origin pulse of the Void's awakening. If she could locate that point, maybe she could learn what triggered it — and, if she was lucky, how to suppress it.
But something about that thought didn't sit right. Suppress. The word felt like denial, not balance.
---
By nightfall, the streets emptied.
A cold mist crept along the edges of the district.
From the rooftops, the city looked almost peaceful again.
Lian stood on a high ledge overlooking the square where the first breach had opened. Her cloak moved gently with the wind. Beneath her, a faint violet glow pulsed through the cracks in the ground.
> "You're afraid of what you might find," the Void whispered.
"Not of me — but of yourself."
She closed her eyes. "Maybe. But fear keeps me human."
> "You're not human anymore."
Lian turned her gaze toward the horizon. The mist rolled like a tide, and somewhere far beyond the city, she could see the faint flicker of another resonance point — smaller, distant, but growing.
"Then I'll find out what I am before you do," she said.
---
Far below, in the catacombs beneath Almagh, something stirred.
The energy from the breach had awakened more than echoes.
In the dark, forgotten chambers, the Voidsworn — half-corrupted souls that once served the Guardians — began to move. Their eyes, pale and empty, opened one by one.
And somewhere deep beneath the ruins, a new voice whispered back to Lian.
Not from inside her — but from below.
> "We remember you, violet one."