❖ Chapter 14: A Realm Beyond Breath
"Don't blink."
That was all Havella said before her hand slapped across Jio's chest and—snap—something clicked in the fabric of existence.
Jio didn't blink.
But he did feel everything stop.
Movement.
Flow.
Time.
Thought.
Even reaction.
Like he had been thrown into a painting of the world, his body frozen, limbs locked, brain suspended mid-thought. But he remained aware. Watching, unmoving, unthinking—but aware.
And through the stillness…
Havella moved.
She didn't run—she rushed.
Like a streak of color across a monochrome void, she held Jio under her arm like a giant bag of potatoes, and everything around them blurred into dust. Every hallway, every corridor, every invisible ward twisted under her speed. Wind cracked. Floors bent.
The guards they passed?
Didn't even notice.
Their faces were frozen in expressions of half-turns and unfinished yawns.
Time was cheated. Again.
When it all snapped back—
—they were outside.
The threshold. The shimmer of light that defined the end of the last realm and the beginning of the new one stood before them, larger than before, glowing faintly with pressure and promise.
Jio landed on his feet, adjusting his scarf without a word.
"…I couldn't think," he said.
"That's the point," Havella muttered, panting slightly, her hand still glowing. "I told you not to blink."
"You stopped my brain."
"Only temporarily. Don't be dramatic."
He looked at her.
She avoided his gaze.
"…You carried me like a potato sack."
"Wha— You're heavy, alright?! And long. Like a coat rack with legs."
"I'm average weight."
"Maybe for a horse!"
A moment passed in silence. Then both looked forward.
Before them, the air folded in strange geometric pulses, a soft humming vibrating the grass beneath their feet. This was not simply a door. This was the border of two truths—the divide between existence and what existed next.
"…How do we enter?" Jio asked, monotone.
Havella didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she crouched beside the threshold, pulled out a flat metallic shard shaped like a sliver of a mirror, and whispered something into it.
Nothing happened.
She cursed under her breath and tried again, this time louder.
Still nothing.
Then—
"Alright," she grumbled, standing. "Looks like we need a natural jump point."
"What's that?"
"A location where the dimensional membranes are thin. You step into them, and if you're attuned, you pass through."
"And if you're not?"
"…You become very, very thin too."
Jio looked around, scanning the wide, open field beyond the threshold.
"So where is this jump point?"
She pointed north.
Then west.
Then sighed.
"…I have no idea."
Another pause.
Jio blinked slowly. "You said you knew."
"I said I heard about it. Never said I knew. Don't twist my words, stick-boy."
He turned, his eyes narrowing.
Then, almost instinctively, he lifted a hand. The Bright Call flickered in his palm like a soft whisper of power.
The light leaned. Bent. Tilted slightly—toward a distant hill.
"…It's calling something."
Havella stared.
"The hell…"
They shared a glance.
And together, without another word, they walked toward the hill. Unaware of the fact that, back in the fortress, a large section of time had gone missing. And the guards were only now waking up.
But the Fairie?
The Fairie had not blinked.
She knew.
She always did.
And now, she watched the hill too.
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End of Chapter 14
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