Chapter 113
Sang Sang dreamed of doors.
They stretched endlessly in both directions, each one slightly different—some carved from stone, others made of light, a few nothing more than outlines waiting to be filled. Every door pulsed with a moment that had not yet happened.
And every one of them was locked.
She walked barefoot along the corridor, her steps soundless. The air vibrated with restrained pressure, like a scream held just behind clenched teeth. She knew, without being told, that if even one of those doors opened the wrong way, something catastrophic would follow.
A shadow detached itself from the wall ahead.
Not Kael.
This one had edges too sharp, movements too precise.
"You are exceeding permitted divergence," it said, its voice layered with correction tones. "Compliance will reduce suffering."
Sang Sang stopped walking.
"I'm tired of being corrected," she said.
The shadow advanced. "You misunderstand. You are not being corrected. You are being preserved."
She laughed softly, the sound brittle. "Then why does it feel like you're trying to erase me?"
The shadow reached out.
Sang Sang stepped backward—and felt a door press into her spine.
It began to open.
She screamed—
And woke gasping.
Kael's hand was already on her shoulder, solid, real. The faint distortions rippling through the air snapped back into place as her awareness anchored to the present.
"You were slipping," he said quietly.
Her throat burned. "I saw them again. Not anchors this time. Something higher."
Lirien, seated cross-legged near the edge of the watchtower ruins, looked up sharply. "Observers?"
Sang Sang nodded. "They're not trying to stop me directly anymore. They're… adjusting around me. Tightening the margins."
Darius snorted from where he sharpened his blade. "So the universe is cornering us."
"That's one way to put it," Kael said.
Morning light filtered through the broken stone above them. The watchtower had once been a military outpost, but time had reduced it to a hollow shell. Still, the ancient wards etched into its foundation provided some resistance to temporal intrusion—enough to buy them hours, not days.
"We need a place where causality is already damaged," Lirien said. "Somewhere the rules don't hold cleanly."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "There's one."
Darius looked up. "I don't like that tone."
"The Shatterreach," Kael continued. "It's where three failed timelines collapsed into one another. Even anchors avoid it."
"And why," Darius asked slowly, "would anything avoid it?"
"Because nothing there stays singular," Lirien answered. "Existence overlaps."
Sang Sang pushed herself upright despite the lingering ache behind her eyes. "Then that's where we go."
Kael studied her carefully. "You're not ready."
She met his gaze without flinching. "Neither is the future. That hasn't stopped it from coming for me."
Silence settled between them, heavy but resolved.
They left before noon.
The land changed as they traveled east. Forests thinned into warped groves where trees grew in impossible spirals, their shadows falling in the wrong directions. Birds flew backward midair before correcting themselves with startled cries.
Sang Sang felt the strain constantly now—a low, persistent pull at the center of her chest. The more unstable the world became, the louder it seemed to recognize her.
By dusk, the sky fractured.
It did not break, exactly, but layers became visible—bands of color sliding over one another, revealing different versions of the same clouds drifting at mismatched speeds.
Darius slowed. "Tell me that's normal."
"It's close," Lirien said. "We're near the perimeter."
Kael raised a fist, halting them.
Someone was waiting.
A woman stood at the edge of the fractured horizon, her silhouette duplicated faintly behind her like delayed reflections. She wore no armor, no cloak, only simple dark clothing. Her eyes glowed faintly silver.
"Kael," she said. "Still running."
His expression hardened. "Nythis."
Darius shifted his grip. "Friend?"
"No," Kael said. "Warden."
Nythis smiled thinly. "Former warden. You broke the oath, remember?"
Her gaze slid to Sang Sang, sharpening. "So this is the fracture."
Sang Sang felt exposed in a way that had nothing to do with vision. "You're not an anchor."
"No," Nythis agreed. "I'm worse."
Lirien tensed. "If you're here, the Observers aren't far behind."
Nythis's smile faded. "They already know where you're going. The Shatterreach is their containment point now."
Kael swore under his breath.
"You led them," Darius accused.
"I warned them," Nythis corrected. "There's a difference."
Sang Sang stepped forward before Kael could stop her. "Why?"
Nythis looked at her for a long moment. "Because you're destabilizing more than timelines. You're unraveling intent. If you keep pushing, everything loses meaning. Cause without effect. Choice without consequence."
"That's a lie," Sang Sang said. "They're afraid because I choose anyway."
Nythis's eyes flickered. "You really don't see it yet."
She raised her hand.
The air thickened—not freezing time, but overlapping it. Multiple moments pressed together, forcing reality to reconcile contradictions all at once.
Kael moved instantly, shadow flaring as he cut between Nythis and Sang Sang. The impact hurled him backward, skidding across fractured ground.
Darius charged, blade singing as it struck—but the strike passed through three overlapping versions of Nythis, each one half a second out of sync.
Lirien began chanting, weaving stabilizing runes to prevent the world from tearing itself apart.
Sang Sang felt the doors again.
Hundreds of them.
All rattling.
Nythis's voice echoed from every direction. "You can't fight this. You're not meant to stand at the center."
"Then stop putting me there!" Sang Sang shouted.
She reached—not to the future, not to the past—but to the divergence itself. She grabbed hold of the overlapping moments and pulled them apart, forcing them to choose a single state.
The strain was immense.
Blood trickled from her nose.
Nythis staggered, her duplicates snapping back into one. "You're tearing probability by hand," she hissed. "Do you know what that costs?"
"Yes," Sang Sang said hoarsely. "Me."
She pushed one final time.
The distortion collapsed inward, throwing Nythis backward. She caught herself, skidding to a halt near the fractured edge of the horizon.
For a heartbeat, she looked almost… impressed.
"Run," Nythis said. "Because next time, I won't hesitate."
She stepped backward—and dissolved into overlapping moments that scattered into nothing.
The world steadied.
Kael was at Sang Sang's side instantly, catching her as her legs buckled. "That was reckless."
She leaned into him, exhausted but conscious. "So is letting them decide who I'm allowed to be."
Darius exhaled slowly. "I hate Wardens."
Lirien wiped sweat from her brow. "She's right about one thing. The cost is increasing."
Sang Sang closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again, resolve burning through the fatigue. "Then we reach the Shatterreach before it becomes impossible."
Above them, the fractured sky rippled.
Far beyond sight, something ancient adjusted its focus.
The fracture was no longer an error.
It was a threat.
And it was learning fast.