The old rift scar lay east of the academy wall — a wound in the earth that had never healed.
It stretched almost a hundred meters wide — blackened stone cracked open like burned flesh, steam rising from fissures that glowed faintly red at night.
The air here tasted wrong — metallic, sour, like blood and lightning mixed together.
Trees around the edges grew twisted, branches curling inward as if trying to hide from the scar itself.
Miko stopped at the rim.
Kael stood beside her — silent, shadows already drifting from his fingers like smoke sensing danger.
"This is it," he said.
"Where the first major rift tore through.
Twenty-three years ago.
Lirien Veyne's class was training here when it happened.
She was the only one who walked out."
Miko stared down into the scar.
The seal on her collarbone pulsed — once, slow, almost curious.
She pressed her hand over it.
"What happened to the others?"
Kael's voice was flat.
"They didn't walk out.
They were… absorbed.
The rift pulled them in.
Lirien tried to close it.
She succeeded — but the seal took everything she had left."
Miko swallowed.
"And the academy just… left it?"
"They sealed most of it.
But they left fragments.
Bait.
To see what would happen when the next resonance appeared."
He stepped forward — careful, boots crunching on loose stone.
Miko followed.
The slope was steep — rock shifting underfoot.
The deeper they went, the colder it became — not winter cold, but something hollow, like the world had forgotten how to be warm here.
At the bottom, the scar widened into a rough circle maybe thirty meters across.
In the center — half-buried in cracked earth — lay a single object.
A large obsidian shard — bigger than the one in the vault, easily the size of a small table.
Crimson veins crawled across its surface like roots drinking blood.
Miko felt the seal flare — hot, eager, excited.
Kael crouched beside it.
"This is a core fragment.
The academy took the main piece.
But this one… they left behind.
On purpose."
Miko knelt next to him.
"Why?"
"Because it's still connected.
To the seal.
To whoever carries it."
He looked at her.
"If you touch it… it will show you things.
Memories.
Lirien's memories.
Maybe more."
Miko stared at the shard.
The crimson veins pulsed in time with her seal.
She reached out.
Kael grabbed her wrist — gentle but firm.
"Wait."
She looked at him.
His eyes were serious.
"If you do this… there's no going back.
The seal will wake up fully.
It will know exactly what it wants from you."
Miko met his gaze.
"I need to know."
Kael held her wrist a second longer.
Then let go.
Miko touched the obsidian.
The world disappeared.
Vision — not light, not sound — memory.
She saw Lirien.
Younger.
Seventeen.
Standing in this same scar.
Shadows poured from her hands — wild, uncontrolled, crimson veins thick and angry.
Classmates screamed behind her — pulled into the rift, bodies twisting, vanishing.
Lirien reached out — desperate.
The seal flared brighter.
She pushed.
The rift snapped shut.
But the seal didn't stop.
It turned inward.
Lirien screamed — silent, endless.
Her body dissolved — shadow eating shadow — until nothing remained.
Only the shard — cracked, glowing.
And a whisper — the same whisper Miko knew so well.
"More."
The vision ended.
Miko gasped, stumbling back.
Kael caught her — arms around her waist, steady.
"What did you see?" he asked — voice low, urgent.
Miko's voice shook.
"Her.
She closed the rift.
But the seal… it took her.
Everything.
She didn't die.
She was erased."
Kael's grip tightened.
Miko looked at the shard.
The veins pulsed brighter — almost excited.
She felt the seal in her chest answer — eager, hungry.
Kael pulled her away.
"We're leaving.
Now."
They climbed out — fast, scrambling over loose rock.
Behind them, the shard pulsed — once, twice — brighter each time.
When they reached the rim, the academy alarm bell rang — distant but clear.
Kael looked back at the scar.
"They know."
Miko pressed her hand over the seal.
It burned — not in pain.
In triumph.
To be continued…