The moment Lior stepped forward, the world shattered.
Light swallowed everything—brighter than the stars, hotter than fire, yet strangely cold. The ground vanished beneath their feet, and for one terrifying instant, Lior felt like they were falling without end. Wind roared in their ears, but it didn't feel like air. It felt like memory—voices, echoes, and fragments of places that didn't belong to any single time.
Then, just as suddenly, the fall stopped.
Lior landed hard on stone, breath knocked from their chest. They rolled once, instinctively clutching the daggers at their belt, and pushed themselves upright. The first thing they noticed was the sky.
There were stars—countless stars—but they were wrong. They moved too slowly, drifting like embers in water. Some burned blue, others bled crimson light, and between them stretched vast shadows that twisted and curled like living things.
"This isn't…" Lior swallowed. "This isn't home."
The ground beneath their feet was black glass veined with soft, glowing lines, like cracks filled with starlight. In the distance, towering shapes rose into the sky—ruins, or perhaps cities long since abandoned. The air hummed with power, a low vibration that made Lior's skin prickle.
"You crossed," said the familiar voice.
The orb reappeared, hovering a few steps away. It looked dimmer now, less stable, its edges fraying into threads of light.
"Where am I?" Lior asked.
"Between," the orb replied. "Between worlds. Between moments. Between stars."
Lior let out a shaky laugh. "That's not exactly comforting."
"It was never meant to be," the voice said gently. "This place exists because something was broken."
A shadow moved.
Lior's head snapped up. At the edge of the nearest ruin, something tall and thin unfolded itself from the darkness. No—several somethings. Their shapes were wrong, stretched and jagged, like silhouettes pulled too thin. Where faces should have been, there was only emptiness.
The hum in the air deepened.
"What are those?" Lior whispered.
The orb drifted closer to them, pulsing urgently. "They are what slips through when boundaries weaken. Hunters. If they sense you fully… they will not stop."
Lior didn't wait for more explanation.
They ran.
The ground blurred beneath their feet as Lior sprinted toward the ruins, boots slipping slightly on the glassy surface. Behind them, the shadows glided rather than ran, tearing across the ground in silence. The air grew colder, darker, as if the stars themselves were dimming.
"Left!" the orb cried.
Lior veered sharply, barely avoiding a裂 in the ground that pulsed with unstable light. One of the shadow creatures struck it, dissolving into smoke with a shriek that stabbed straight into Lior's mind.
"That can kill them?" Lior shouted.
"Yes—but it can kill you faster."
They darted into the ruins, stone arches towering overhead. Symbols carved into the walls glowed faintly as Lior passed, reacting to their presence. The shadows slowed, hesitating at the entrance.
Lior pressed their back against the wall, heart pounding. "Why me?" they demanded under their breath. "Why can I even be here?"
The orb hovered in front of them, its light steadying. "Because you were never bound to one path. You exist at the edge—able to touch what others cannot."
The wall beneath Lior's hand warmed suddenly.
They yanked their hand away, staring in shock as faint lines of light spread outward where they had touched, mirroring the patterns in the stone.
"What did I just do?" Lior whispered.
The orb was silent for a moment. Then: "You opened the ruin."
The shadows outside screamed.
The entire structure groaned, ancient stone shifting as the glowing lines flared brighter. A doorway formed where there had been solid wall moments before, revealing a narrow passage flooded with blue-white light.
"You don't have time to doubt," the orb said urgently. "Go!"
Lior plunged through the doorway just as the shadows surged forward. The light snapped shut behind them, sealing the creatures outside.
For a long moment, Lior could do nothing but sit on the cold stone floor, gasping for breath.
Then they laughed—a shaky, breathless sound. "I think," they said, "I just proved this isn't a dream."
"No," the orb replied softly. "You proved you are exactly what this place feared."
Lior stood slowly, eyes adjusting to the light-filled corridor ahead. If this was between worlds—then whatever waited here was only the beginning.
They tightened their grip on their daggers and took their first true step into the shadows between stars.