Aarav tried to stand again.
His legs betrayed him.
The stone beneath his hands felt… wrong. Not cold. Not warm. It pulsed faintly, like something alive and waiting.
The man in white watched him without blinking.
"You're injured because your body still believes in limits," the stranger said.
Aarav wiped the blood from his face. It vanished before it touched the ground.
"Where is this?" Aarav demanded.
The man gestured upward.
The fractured ceiling shimmered. Through the crack, Aarav could see fragments of his world—clouds frozen mid-movement, a bird suspended in flight, lightning hanging like a glass sculpture.
Time wasn't stopped.
It was slow.
"In your world," the stranger said, "you are fast. Here… you are ordinary."
Aarav clenched his jaw. "Answer me."
The man finally stepped closer.
"This place is called the Interstice. The space between motion. The corridor where broken velocity collects."
Aarav's eyes narrowed. "You talk like I was supposed to know this."
"You weren't," the man replied calmly. "That's why you nearly tore your body apart."
Silence stretched between them.
Then—
More footsteps.
Figures emerged from the shadows.
A woman with silver streaks running through her hair, sparks flickering across her skin.
A tall boy whose feet never fully touched the ground.
An older man with eyes that moved faster than his body, scanning everything in microseconds.
They weren't normal.
They were like him.
The silver-haired woman tilted her head. "So this is the one who cracked the First Layer?"
The boy smirked. "He's bleeding. Not impressive."
Aarav forced himself upright despite the pain. Wind coiled around his ankles instinctively.
"I didn't come here for approval," he said.
The older man chuckled. "They never do."
The stranger in white raised his hand, and the room quieted.
"You crossed the Sky Limit," he told Aarav. "Only three things allow that."
Aarav waited.
"Desperation. Rage. Or purpose."
Aarav's fists tightened.
"They took my mother."
The silver-haired woman's expression shifted—barely.
"Ah," she murmured. "Leverage."
The boy scoffed. "The governments are learning faster than we expected."
Aarav's eyes snapped to them. "You know who took her?"
The man in white didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he walked toward the fracture in the ceiling. With a small motion of his fingers, the crack widened.
The image sharpened.
Aarav saw his city.
Military drones hovered over Lower Crest. Armored vehicles blocked the streets. His building was surrounded.
And then—
A facility. Underground. Steel corridors. His mother sitting alone in a bright interrogation room.
Alive.
Aarav's breath shook.
"They want you to run again," the stranger said quietly. "Faster. Harder. They want to measure you."
"Measure?" Aarav growled.
The older man's voice cut in.
"They don't understand what you are. So they will push until something breaks."
The silver-haired woman looked at Aarav carefully.
"Either them," she said softly.
"Or you."
Wind began to spiral around Aarav's body.
The stone floor cracked.
"I don't need training," he said.
The boy laughed. "Everyone says that."
The man in white stepped directly in front of him.
"If you return now," he said evenly, "you will lose."
Aarav's eyes burned.
"And if I stay?"
The stranger's glowing gaze sharpened.
"You will learn why the sky had limits in the first place."
Silence.
Then the fracture above pulsed violently.
Back in the real world—
The clouds over the city began to rotate.
Storm systems formed unnaturally fast. Lightning crawled sideways across the horizon.
The government facility alarms started blaring.
Inside the interrogation room, Aarav's mother slowly lifted her head.
The lights flickered.
The air pressure changed.
Somewhere between worlds—
Aarav made his choice.
The wind stopped.
"Teach me," he said.
The stranger smiled for the first time.
"Good."
The fracture sealed shut.
And in the city below—
The storm did not leave.
It waited.