The veil is broken

The Abyss Bites Back

The world was wrong.

Yna recognized it as soon as she arrived.

The atmosphere was charged with something heavy, something ancient. The acrid scent of burnt ozone stung her nostrils. Her fists were clenched around damp soil that pulsed like a living entity under her.

Next to her, Marcus moved. His golden eyes flickered open, their sharp acuity piercing the haze of confusion that hung around them.

Yna stood up, swallowing nausea creeping up her throat. They were out of the pit.

But they weren’t there either.

"What is this?" she whispered.

Marcus brushed aside the shadows around them, his body tense for fighting. “I don’t know.”

There was a faint *thrum* along the ground, vibrating through their bones.

Yna stiffened. “That’s not good.”

The shadows moved before Marcus could say anything.

No, not *shadows*—something *inside* them. Looking. Waiting.

Marcus's claws sheathed themselves automatically. His tone was deep, edged with a growl. “We are not alone.”

Yna gasped. "I can feel it."

There was a stir within the blackness, huge and unseen, its presence stifling.

And then it *spoke*.

A voice that sounded like shattered glass and distant screams echoed in her mind.

"You do not belong.”

Yna's heart pounded. The pressure of his presence weighed down upon her, like tar, and filled her lungs with something stagnant and *wrong*.

Marcus took hold of her wrist, his warmth soothing her. "We have to go."

Yna nodded, forcing herself to breathe. They could not protect themselves against the unseen.

And at the time, flight was their only option.

A Fractured Reality

They ran.

Under titanic obsidian trees that pulsed with strange light. Over ground that shifted beneath the feet, as if something stirred just beneath.

Yna didn’t glance back.

She didn’t have to.

The *thing* behind them moved quietly, its presence tugging at the edges of being, distorting the air around them.

Marcus's hold on her wrist tightened. “Faster.”

She never complained.

The world around them dissolved, distorting as if the world itself was *shattering*.

Then—

A cliff.

Yna came to a stop, gasping. Before them, the ground simply *ended*, falling off into an endless nothing. Above was a sky, but not the sky she knew. It was a turbulent pit of stars and things that *appeared*.

And behind them—

The shadows moved.

Yna whirled round, her heart thudding in her head.

Something came out of the darkness.

Not a witch. Not a monster.

But a man.

Tall. He wore flowing dark robes that shone like liquid night. His face was concealed, glimmering like a mirage, never fixing on one form.

Yna's gut twisted. “Who—”

“You have rented the Veil,” breathed the man, his voice slicing as a blade and deep as the void. “You have shattered what cannot be shattered.”

Marcus growled, positioning himself between Yna and the stranger. “We don’t take orders from you.”

The man leaned in, amused. “No, you take orders from *her*.”

He raised a hand—

And the skies tore open.

Yna screamed, recoiling as a gigantic *tear* tore reality apart. On the opposite side, she beheld something foul—twisting shadows in the darkness, claws extending over the rim of the tear, *waiting*.

Her stomach dropped.

"What did you do?" she breathed.

The face of the figure changed, for an instant, to something *inhuman*. “I have shown you only what you have *brought about*.”

Marcus was wheezing. "Close it."

The man smiled. "I cannot."

Yna clenched her fists, her strength churning beneath her skin. “Then I will.”

The man's entertainment grew stronger. "Try, Chosen One."

The Price of Power

Yna didn’t hesitate.

She reached deep, calling up the fire that burned within her, the old power she barely understood. Her hands burst to flame, golden flame blazing brightly in defiance of the unnatural darkness.

She shoved.

The fissure trembled.

But it didn't close.

Rather, the animals on the other side *crept closer*, feeling her strength, attracted to it.

A whisper wrapped itself around her mind.

"You opened the door, you have to pay the price to close it."

Yna gasped as something intangible *encircled her soul*, something cold and unfathomable.

Marcus saw it.

And he snapped.

He leapt at the robed figure with a snarl of fury. Claws swiped at nothing, but the figure did not waver.

He laughed instead.

"I see why she chose you," he said, backing up in a slow-motion manner as if he had all day. "But your power is misplaced."

Marcus snarled, his body coiled with aggression. “You're not going to walk out of this.”

The figure's face shifted once more. "No. But you could."

And he raised up his hand subsequently.

A wave of nothingness hit them.

Yna screamed as the world began to turn—

And then she was falling.

The Chains of Fate

Yna dropped hard, the wind knocked out of her.

Her vision blurred.

She struggled to sit up, the weight of something *wrong* compressing her chest.

Marcus groaned next to her, his head trembling as he sat up. His golden eyes flared with fury. “Where—”

And then he stopped.

Yna trailed behind him.

Standing before them was a gate.

Gigantic. Elaborate. Old.

Marked with symbols she couldn’t read—symbols that changed when she looked at them for more than a second.

And beyond it,

A city.

Or what was once one.

Scarred spires pierce the ground like broken bones. The air pulsed with something old and wild, something hungry.

Yna gulped. "Where are we?"

There was a stir in the blackness.

"The tomb yard of gods."

Yna came around.

There was someone else at the bottom of the gate. Not the robed figure.

This one was different.

A woman, standing tall and draped in golden armor that glowed like stars in death. Her face was marred by odd runes, and her eyes blazed silver.

She looked at them, tilted her head. "You shouldn't be here."

Marcus bristled. "And yet, here we are."

The woman breathed out, her gaze moving towards the gate.

“You have no idea what you’ve done, do you?”

Yna's heart beat faster. "Then maybe you should tell us."

The woman smiled.

And it wasn't comforting.

"You have entered the path of the Forgotten."

Yna's stomach turned. "And what does that mean?"

The woman's eyes glowed silver.

"It means your fate is no longer in your hands." 

To Be Continued.