Chapter 4 – Fragments of the Fallen Sky
Part 2 – Disturbance and Vision
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The next morning broke too bright. Sunlight refracted off the damaged pylons, scattering pale prisms through the fog until the streets shimmered like water. For the first time since the Seraphid's fall, Duskveil felt almost alive — but the peace carried an edge, as though the light itself were listening.
Aric crossed the causeway toward the southern gate. Work crews patched the barrier anchors while smiths hammered fresh runes into place. Eira trailed beside him, notebook open, eyes on the shard swinging from his belt.
"It's changing again," she said. "Frequency's higher, but still harmonic. Whatever the Seraphid bled into you, it's stabilizing."
Aric gave a small shrug. "So I'm still breathing."
"For now." She smiled without humor. "Don't touch anything glowing until I tell you."
Brann waited near the gate, arm in a sling, helm under his good arm. "Word from the council: they'll move you in two days. Recon to the Verdant Expanse."
"Two days," Aric echoed. His eyes drifted to the horizon. "We won't get two."
The fog shifted as if in answer.
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A low chime rippled through the pylons — one note, pure and wrong. The workers froze. Runes along the barrier flashed from blue to white, then back again. Something struck the outer field with a shriek like tearing glass.
Aric was already moving. "Clear the wall!"
The impact sent a cascade of light down the barrier. A shape clung to it — winged, skeletal, woven of crystal filaments that vibrated as it screamed. It thrashed once, twice, then shattered into a rain of shards. The fragments hissed as they hit the ground, forming a spiral of symbols that burned for a heartbeat before cooling to ash.
Eira crouched beside them. Her breath caught. "These markings … I saw them in the wound. It's writing."
Brann peered over her shoulder. "What's it say?"
She traced the largest glyph with a trembling finger. " 'The Core remembers.' "
The words hung in the air like a curse.
Aric felt the shard at his hip respond — a surge of heat, a pulse so strong it blurred his vision. He staggered; the world tilted. Light filled his eyes.
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He was no longer on the wall.
A city of glass stretched before him, towers rising into an endless dawn. Bridges of crystal spanned canyons of white mist. People moved below, clothed in armor that glowed with the same veins he'd seen in monsters. Above it all, a sun the color of gold fire burned through a fractured sky.
Then darkness fell — not night, but something vast descending. A shadow split the heavens; shards of light rained down like falling stars. The towers cracked, and from their ruins rose beasts made of what they had been — flesh and crystal fused, screaming the same resonance he'd heard in the cavern.
Voices — thousands of them — spoke through the roar.
We are the Hollow. We remember.
Aric gasped. The vision broke.
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He was on his knees, back on the wall, the taste of blood in his mouth. Eira gripped his shoulder, shouting his name. The world swam back into focus: fog, ash, frightened faces.
"What did you see?" she demanded.
He stared at the cooling glyphs. "The day the sky fell."
The shard still glowed in his hand, faint now, like an ember waiting for breath. Within it, he saw the same map as before — but new lines blazed to life across the continents. More veins, more awakenings.
He rose slowly. "It's spreading."
Eira swallowed. "Then the Verdant Expanse isn't a choice. It's the next wound."
Behind them, Warden Malken's voice carried over the wind. "Prepare the gates. We move at dawn."
Aric looked toward the southern horizon, where the light over the swamp pulsed in time with his own heartbeat. He could still feel the echo of the vision — the towering cities, the falling stars, the moment the world hollowed itself to survive.
The Core remembers.
He tightened his grip on the shard until it bit his palm and whispered, "Then so will we."
Above Duskveil, the fog rolled aside, revealing a streak of emerald light burning across the distant clouds — the Verdant Expanse calling.
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End of Chapter 4 – Fragments of the Fallen Sky