The fractured sky loomed overhead, glimmering like a cracked mirror. Jason stood at the edge of the dome in Kaelis, staring into the void beyond the floating horizon. Below, rivers of starlight pulsed like veins, glowing in sync with the mark on his hand. His breath steamed in the chilled air as the Gate's hum throbbed inside his chest.
They were going beyond.
Beyond the world.
Beyond the memory of the world.
"The Rift won't stay open long," Elias warned, tracing runes along a rusted compass glowing with ancient fire. "We cross it now, or we never will."
Jason looked to Nyra. Her silver eyes were calm, steady. "We need her—this Vaelra. If she's the last living Anchor, we have no choice."
Nyra nodded. "Then we go."
---
The Rift tore across the world like a wound, hanging in the sky. It shimmered with the weight of lost time, showing glimpses of timelines that had collapsed and reformed—realities where Jason had died, where the Watchers still ruled, or where the Bloodline Gate stood open and screaming.
Seren and Maelis joined them at the edge. Seren had forged a new weapon, a whip of living flame drawn from the heart of Kaelis. Maelis, the boy who could whisper to the dead, had gone eerily silent.
They stepped through.
---
On the Other Side – The Forgotten Shore
The sky beyond the Rift was black, but not empty. Stars floated like dust motes in water, and the land was twisted by time.
They found themselves in a glade of glass trees. Their reflections showed them as children—Jason saw himself as a boy in his father's arms.
Nyra saw herself alone.
Maelis screamed.
A thousand ghosts rose from the glass trees—fragments of Anchors, broken timelines, half-memories. Jason fell to his knees, gripping his head as a wave of memory surged through him.
He saw Vaelra.
She was not old. Not broken. She was fire and silver, a woman with wings of ink and a sword carved from a fallen star.
And she was watching them.
---
Vaelra's Haven
They followed the memory-path through a desert of frozen time until they reached a citadel standing on the edge of nothing.
Vaelra stood at the top of its spire, waiting.
"I wondered when you'd find me," she said. Her voice echoed twice—once in the present, once in a future that hadn't happened yet.
Jason stepped forward. "You're the last Anchor."
"No," she replied. "I'm the first."
She welcomed them into her haven, where time did not pass. There, she told them the truth.
---
The Secret of the Anchors
The Anchors were never meant to guard the Gate—they were fragments of it.
Vaelra had been the first human to be changed by the Gate's touch. Her soul was split between time's folds, and each Anchor carried a piece of her essence.
Jason's father had loved her once.
She had vanished in the last war, believed dead.
Now, she stood as the only being who had touched the full truth of the Gate and remained herself.
"You opened the Gate," she told Jason. "You cracked it just enough to awaken what sleeps beyond."
She turned to Elias. "And you still carry the betrayal."
Jason looked between them. "What betrayal?"
Vaelra raised a hand—and a vision flared.
---
Flashback: The Day Elias Chose Silence
Elias stood beside Jason's father, Vaelra bleeding on the steps of the original Gate.
"You must seal it!" Vaelra cried. "Use me—anchor me—before I fracture further!"
But Elias hesitated. He chose not to seal her soul. He let her vanish into the Rift.
Back in the present, Elias bowed his head in shame.
"I thought I was protecting her," he whispered. "But I was just afraid."
---
The Rise of the Hollowborn
Even as they absorbed Vaelra's truth, a tremor shook the Haven.
The Rift twisted—and the Hollowborn entered this realm.
Leading them: The Hollow Archivist—his form no longer mortal, but a shadow wearing flesh. He had been waiting for Jason to gather all the Anchors.
"You brought them to me," he hissed. "Now the Gate can sing."
A battle ignited under the glass stars.
Jason wielded the flame of Elias's compass.
Nyra unleashed silver shockwaves of Watcher blood.
Seren's whip shattered the Hollowborn ranks.
But they could not stop the Archivist. Not yet.
He tore a piece of Jason's soul and vanished, using it to crack open a deeper layer of the Gate.
---
The Chapter Ends…
Vaelra falls to her knees, weakened from holding the Rift stable.
Jason watches as the last wall of the Gate begins to bleed light—terrible, ancient light.
He realizes then:
The Gate is alive.
And it knows his name.