Chapter 44 The Fracture
Young Sera was twelve when she started lying.
Small lies at first. Telling Selene she had practised her meditation when she had not. Telling Marcus and Elena she felt fine when nightmares left her exhausted. Telling me in dreams that she was handling her loneliness when it was actually consuming her.
“She is building walls,” I told the First Wolf during one of our strategy sessions. “Not just against the Void Lords. Against us.”
“Adolescence,” the ancient being said with something like sympathy. “The age when children begin separating from their guardians. Establishing independence. It is normal.”
“Nothing about this situation is normal.”
Through the veil, I watched young Sera more carefully. The lies were not random. They all served the same purpose: creating space between herself and the people who loved her. The distance made her feel even more alone.
Which was exactly what the Void Lords wanted.
“They are encouraging it,” I realised with horror. “They are whispering to her in ways we cannot detect. Subtle suggestions. Gentle nudges. Making her think that isolation is strength. That needing others is a weakness.”
“We need to intervene,” my mother said. “Before she pushes everyone away completely.”
But how did you intervene with a child who was actively hiding from you? Who had learned to mask her true feelings behind carefully constructed facades?
That night, I appeared in young Sera’s dream, but she was expecting me. The dreamscape was already fortified. Walls were built around her consciousness that I could not easily penetrate.
“I need space tonight, Grandma,” she said through the barriers. “I am tired. I just want to sleep without lessons or questions or concerns.”
“Sera, talk to me. What is happening? Why are you shutting us out?”
“I am not shutting you out. I am just… I need to figure some things out on my own. Is that so wrong?”
“It depends on what you are trying to figure out. If you are problem-solving, then independence is healthy. If you are spiralling into darkness and calling it strength, then you are in danger.”
“How do I know the difference?”
“By being honest with yourself about what you are actually feeling. By not hiding from the people who can help you.”
“But you are all trying to help me with things I do not want help with!” Her frustration bled through the walls. “You want to fix my loneliness. Make me feel less alone. But what if I do not want to be fixed? What if I want to feel what I feel without everyone trying to manage it?”
The words hit like a physical blow. Because she was right. We had spent so much energy trying to solve her loneliness that we had never validated it. Never acknowledged that feeling alone was acceptable. That she did not need to be fixed.
“You are right,” I said quietly. “I am sorry. I have been so focused on protecting you from the Void Lords that I forgot to just… be with you in what you are feeling.”
The walls lowered slightly. “Really? You are not going to tell me I should not feel lonely?”
“No. You should feel whatever you feel. Loneliness is real and valid and painful. You are allowed to experience it without judgment or pressure to make it go away.” I pressed my hand against the remaining barrier. “But Sera, there is a difference between feeling loneliness and feeding it. Between experiencing pain and choosing to drown in it. Which one are you doing?”
Long silence.
Then, very quietly: “Both. Sometimes I just feel it. Sometimes I make it worse on purpose. Because at least then I am in control of the pain. At least then I am choosing it.”
Ice flooded through my ethereal veins. That was exactly the mindset that made someone vulnerable to the Void Lords. Choosing pain as a way to maintain control. Embracing suffering as a form of agency.
“That is a trap,” I said carefully. “Making yourself hurt on purpose is not control. It is self-destruction disguised as choice.”
“But it is MY choice. MY pain. The Void Lords cannot give me something I am already giving myself.”
“They can offer to take it away. And when they do, when they promise to fill that loneliness you have been cultivating, you will be so desperate for relief that you will accept anything.”
The walls slammed back up, harder than before. “You do not understand. You had Grandfather. You had a love that transcended death. You were never truly alone. You do not know what this feels like.”
“You are right. I do not know exactly what you feel. But I know what it is like to be so desperate for love that you accept cruelty instead. I know what it is like to mistake possession for affection. And I am terrified you are heading down that same path.”
“Maybe I am. Maybe that is my choice to make.”
“It is your choice. But choices have consequences. And if you choose to open yourself to the Void Lords because you are too proud or too hurt or too lonely to accept the imperfect love that is already offered, then you will lose more than your autonomy. You will lose yourself.”
“Then maybe myself is not worth keeping.”
The words shattered something in me. Because I had thought the same thing at her age. Had believed that Sera the person was so fundamentally broken that erasure would be mercy.
“Stop,” I said, my voice sharp. “Stop right now. You are spiralling. You are letting the darkness tell you stories about your worth. And those stories are lies.”
“How do you know? Maybe the darkness is honest and everyone else is lying. Maybe I am fundamentally unlovable and you are all just too kind to admit it.”
“If you were fundamentally unlovable, we would not be fighting so hard to save you. We would not have spent twelve years preparing. We would not be here, right now, having this conversation.” I poured everything through our connection. “You are loved, Sera. Imperfectly. Incompletely. But genuinely. And if that is not enough, if you need more than we can give, then you wait for it. You do not accept a counterfeit just because the real thing has not arrived yet.”
The barriers trembled but held. “I am tired of waiting. Tired of being told someday I will find what I need. I am twelve years old and I have never been anyone’s first choice. Never been the person someone loves most in the world. When does that change? When do I get to matter most?”
“I do not know. I wish I could promise you a timeline. Promise that at sixteen or twenty or thirty, you will find what you are looking for. But I cannot. No one can. Love does not operate on schedules.”
“Then what good is it? What good is waiting for something that might never come?”
Through the veil, I felt the Void Lords pressing closer. They were feeding off this conversation. Off young Sera’s despair. Making it deeper. Darker. More absolute.
“The good is that waiting leaves you intact,” I said. “Waiting means you remain yourself. Remain whole. Remain capable of recognising real love when it arrives. If you accept the Void Lords’ counterfeit, you will never know the difference. You will spend eternity thinking their possession is love. Is that what you want?”
“I want to not hurt anymore. I want to matter. I want…” Her voice broke. “I just want someone to choose me. Why is that so hard? Why can’t anyone just love me first?”
“Because you are twelve years old,” I said gently. “Because at twelve, most people are still figuring out how to love themselves, let alone love someone else with the intensity you are craving. You are asking for adult love while still being a child. That is not wrong, but it is premature.”
“So I am supposed to just suffer until I am old enough?”
“You are supposed to live. To experience your twelve-year-old life. To make friends. To learn. To grow. The loneliness will be there, yes. But so will other things. Joy. Discovery. Growth. You are letting one painful emotion eclipse everything else.”
“Because it is the biggest emotion. The one that never goes away.”
Through the barriers, I felt her exhaustion. Her despair. Her growing belief that nothing would ever change.
And I knew we were losing her.
Not to the Void Lords yet. She was still resisting their direct influence. But to the isolation and despair that made their offer appealing. She was doing their work for them, carving out a space in her heart that nothing but their counterfeit love could fill.
“I need you to promise me something,” I said urgently. “Promise that you will tell Selene about this. About the loneliness getting worse. About the thoughts of not being worth keeping. She can help. She understands loneliness in ways I never could.”
“Aunt Selene has her mission. Her purpose. She does not need to hear about my pathetic feelings.”
“Your feelings are not pathetic. They are human. And Selene would want to know. Please. Promise me you will talk to her.”
“Fine. I promise. Can I sleep now?”
She was lying. I could feel it through our connection. She had no intention of talking to Selene. No intention of letting anyone see how deep the darkness had grown.
“Sera…”
“Goodnight, Grandma.”
The barriers solidified completely. I was locked out of her dreamscape for the first time in six years.
I stood on the other side of the walls, pressing my hands against them, feeling her suffering on the other side.
And knowing I could not reach her.
“She is falling,” the First Wolf said, appearing beside me. “Faster than we anticipated. The Void Lords have accelerated their timeline.”
“What do we do?”
“We tell Selene. Make her intervene. Force young Sera to confront what she is hiding.”
“That could push her further away. Make her defensive. Drive her deeper into isolation.”
“Or it could save her life.” The First Wolf’s eyes blazed with urgency. “We are out of time for gentle approaches. She is twelve years old and already contemplating self-erasure. In four years, when the Void Lords offer her their solution, she will be so primed to accept that resistance will be impossible.”
Through the veil, I reached for Selene, sending a pulse through our bond that screamed danger.
She woke immediately, sitting bolt upright in her bed, feeling my urgency.
“Mother? What is wrong?”
Through our connection, I sent everything. The conversation. The barriers. The depth of young Sera’s despair. The lies she had been telling. The isolation she was choosing.
Selene’s face went pale. “Why did I not see this? Why did I not notice?”
“Because she is good at hiding. Because we wanted to believe her lies. Because noticing would mean confronting something we are not equipped to fix.”
“I have to talk to her. Right now.”
“Wait until morning. Let her sleep. But yes. Tomorrow. You need to break through those walls. Need to force her to stop hiding. Before the isolation becomes terminal.”
Selene nodded, determination settling over her features. “I will. I promise.”
But through the veil, I felt something that made my blood run cold.
Young Sera was not sleeping. She was awake. Aware. Listening through the thin walls of the pack house.
She had heard Selene’s promise to force a conversation. Heard the urgency in her aunt’s voice. Heard the fear.
And she was planning.
Not to talk. Not to open up. But to run.
To disappear before anyone could force her to confront what she was hiding.
“No,” I breathed. “No, Sera, do not do this.”
But I could not reach her. Could not stop her. Could only watch through the veil as she began gathering supplies. Making preparations.
Planning to leave the Northern Kingdom entirely.
To find a place where no one knew her. Where no one would try to fix her. Where she could be alone without anyone questioning why.
Where the Void Lords could reach her without interference.
“She is running,” I told the First Wolf, panic flooding through me. “She is going to run. And once she is away from the protections of the kingdom, away from Selene’s guidance, the Void Lords will have her.”
“Can you stop her?”
“Not from this side of the veil. And if Selene tries to physically prevent her from leaving, it will only confirm young Sera’s belief that no one trusts her. That everyone sees her as a problem to be managed.”
“Then what do we do?”
I had no answer.
Because every option led to disaster.
Force her to stay and she would resent us. Internalise that she was a prisoner. Make her even more vulnerable when the Void Lords offered freedom.
Let her go and she would be alone, unprotected, exposed to forces she was not ready to face.
Through the veil, I watched young Sera finish packing a small bag. Watched her look around her room one last time.
Watched her write a note explaining that she needed space. Time. Freedom to figure things out without everyone hovering.
She was going to leave at dawn.
And we had hours to figure out how to stop her without making everything worse.
The countdown had accelerated.
Four years until her sixteenth birthday.
But she might not survive the night.
Because the Void Lords were waiting. Watching. Ready to make their move the moment she stepped beyond the kingdom’s protections.
And I was powerless to stop her.