The lilac moon hung low in the night sky like a bleeding jewel, casting eerie violet hues over the crumbling ruins of the old observatory. Liora had never seen the sky look like this before—so alien, yet mesmerizing. The air was cooler here, sharper, tinged with something metallic that clung to her throat.
"This isn't just another realm," Orin whispered, stepping carefully over moss-covered stone, his hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of his blade. "It's a fragment. A forgotten shard of something much older."
They had arrived minutes ago through a rift barely stable, one that shimmered with static and crackled like a dying flame. The portal had dropped them into this haunting landscape without warning—without any sign of where or what this place was.
But Liora could feel it.
Something was watching.
"Did you see that?" she asked, spinning around. Her eyes scanned the dense bramble surrounding the observatory, where thick vines wrapped around broken pillars like serpents.
"No," Orin said, his voice tight, "but I feel it. We're not alone."
They crept forward. The observatory's domed roof had long since collapsed, exposing the star-mapping equipment beneath—most of it rusted beyond use. But in the center stood an intact structure, a stone platform etched with celestial markings that pulsed faintly with light.
Liora's hand hovered above one of the symbols. It responded to her proximity, glowing brighter, warmer. The markings curled around her fingertips like fireflies. "It's…calling to me," she murmured.
Orin stepped back. "Don't touch anything yet. We don't know what these runes do."
"But I've seen this symbol before," Liora insisted. "Back in the Keeper's Vault. It was on the scroll they tried to hide from me."
"You mean the forbidden map?"
She nodded. "The one they claimed never existed."
Orin's brows furrowed. "Then this place… it's not just a fragment. It's a sealed memory. A lost history they didn't want us to find."
Suddenly, the wind stilled. The air turned heavy, oppressive, like the moment before a storm.
Then came the voice.
"You do not belong here."
It echoed from nowhere and everywhere, deep and cold, like ancient stone cracking. Shadows spilled from the edges of the ruins, coalescing into a shape—tall, robed, with a face obscured by a veil of smoke.
Orin unsheathed his sword, its silver gleam dancing in the violet light. Liora held her ground, her heart thudding like war drums in her chest.
"We're not here to steal or defile," she said, lifting her chin. "We seek the truth."
The figure stepped forward. "Truth is not a gift. It is a burden. And some truths are cursed."
Liora's fingers curled. "Then let me carry that curse. I deserve to know why I was taken from my world. Why the portals only react to me."
A long pause followed. Then the entity raised its arm, and the runes on the platform surged with brilliance. The ground trembled. From the center of the platform, a holographic image burst to life—stars swirling into galaxies, galaxies collapsing into chaos.
Orin shielded his eyes. "What is this?"
"A memory," the entity said. "Of the first breach."
The illusion sharpened, revealing a scene: a war unlike anything Liora could comprehend. Beings of light clashed against creatures formed from void, their collisions tearing through dimensions. Amid the carnage stood a woman cloaked in twilight—her face eerily similar to Liora's.
Liora stumbled back. "Is that… me?"
"No," the entity replied. "That is the Herald of Collapse. The one who opened the first Gate. Your blood remembers what your mind has forgotten."
The illusion faded, plunging them back into moonlight and silence.
Orin's voice was barely a whisper. "So she's—?"
"A descendant," the entity confirmed. "You were never meant to awaken. But the fracture has begun again. The echoes are stirring."
Liora's head spun. Everything she thought she knew unraveled at once. Her strange connection to the portals. Her visions. The Keeper's cryptic warnings. They weren't dreams or coincidences.
They were echoes of a past life.
"But if I'm tied to her," she said slowly, "then can I stop it? Can I fix what she broke?"
The figure hesitated. "That is not for me to decide. But know this: power comes at a price. And if you choose to walk her path, you may never return to the world you knew."
Liora looked at Orin. His eyes held pain, uncertainty—and something else. Loyalty.
"I left my old world behind the day I stepped through the first portal," she said. "I might not know where this path leads, but I'm not turning back."
The entity nodded solemnly. "Then take this."
From the folds of its shadowed robe, it produced a crystal shard—glowing with the same light as the runes. It floated toward Liora and settled gently into her palm. The moment she touched it, a spark ran through her veins.
"Keep it close," the voice said. "It will guide you… or destroy you."
Before they could speak again, the shadows recoiled, folding back into the ruin's edges. The light faded. The presence vanished.
The moon returned to its soft glow, less menacing now, but still strange.
Orin finally spoke. "You okay?"
Liora exhaled slowly. "No. But I will be."
They stepped down from the platform. The crystal hummed in her grip. Somewhere beyond the horizon, another portal stirred—its song faint, but clear.
More truths awaited.
More lies to uncover.
But now, for the first time, Liora didn't feel lost.
She felt chosen.
And the lilac moon watched silently, bearing witness to the first step of something far greater.