Jessica – First-Person NarrationPart II: The Womb of Ice and the First Fracture
When the sky split open, every bit of logic inside me collapsed.
That light…Thuban's Absolute Light…Not an aurora, not a star, not a cloud.It felt like a door hidden beneath the sky had opened—and instead of light, a consciousness was pouring through.
Inside me, one voice said:Run.
Another whispered:Approach.
And the most dangerous one, the quietest one:"You will remember."
Harper stood beside me, hair whipping in the wind.Her arms were outstretched as she tried to calm the air.But the wind… wouldn't obey her.
"Jess, the wind isn't listening!"There was panic in her voice.Harper usually panicked even while petting a cat, but this… this was different.
"Harper," I said, slowly pushing myself upright."This place is wrong. Tonight is… wrong."
Harper's eyes widened."Wrong as in… the kind of wrong where we're not supposed to be on this planet?"
A very Harper sentence.
"Yes," I said. "Exactly that kind of wrong."
The shaman woman's house was now far behind us.The villagers had vanished; it was as if the night had touched them and called them all inside.
But we…We were being pushed outward—by earth and by air.
Harper looked toward the hills where the light pulsed and flickered.For a moment, she spoke with her artist's face on:
"That light is moving. Like it's alive. Jess… can light be a living thing?"
"I don't know."I truly didn't.All I knew was this:
The light was calling us.
I felt Harper place a hand on my shoulder."Jess. I think we need to go to the kurgan."
Hearing that word made my stomach twist.Kurgan.The Womb of Ice where the Watcher sleeps.
And the thing the earth had whispered to me:The Watcher is waking up.
"Let's go," I said.
Harper blinked in surprise.Then her curly hair lifted slightly in the restless air, and a small smile spread across her face.
"Dark Jessica is back. Let's go!"
***
We drove halfway up the road.Then the earth closed it off.
Yes… the earth itself.A massive fissure split open right in the middle of the path.As if it were saying to me, "You won't pass through here—you will walk."
Harper leaned over the steering wheel, staring at the crack."Jess… did you do that?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Harper, I can barely control half my soul, let alone the entire Altai Mountains—"
The fissure widened.
Harper raised her eyebrows."I think it likes you."
"I don't want the earth to like me."
Harper snorted."I wish my element were earth so I could make dramatic power entrances like that."
"Your element is air."
"Yes, my element is air! Wind blows! How can wind be dramatic—"
Before she could finish, the wind shoved Harper backward.
I rolled my eyes."Air loves you, Harper. Maybe a little too much."
"That is… a terrible consolation."
As we walked, the air grew colder.The ground became wetter, heavier… turning into something that breathed.
Harper whispered,"Jess… your steps aren't leaving prints."
I looked.They really weren't.Wherever I stepped, the earth closed back up a second later.As if the ground was trying to take me in.
"Yours?" I asked.
Harper stomped her foot on the ground.The earth rejected her.Not even a footprint.
Something sparked inside me at that moment.
This place belongs to me.Not to Harper.Not to humans.Not to us.To me.
Harper suddenly stopped.Whispered:
"Jess… do you hear that?"
The wind was speaking.But there were no words.No letters.Only a tone.
I wasn't hearing it.I was feeling it.The earth… was pulsing like a heartbeat.A cold, icy heartbeat.
And inside the mountain…something moved.
An inhale.A breath being drawn.A breath of a creature that had slept for thousands of years.
Harper edged closer to me."Is—Is that thing sleeping?"
"Yes."
Then I added:
"And it's waking up."
***
The kurgan on the hillside wasn't covered in ice.On the contrary… the ice had cracked, and light was leaking out from within.
Every cell in my body tightened.My heart climbed into my throat.
Harper whispered,"Jess… that grave is opening."
Light seeped through the cracks in the ice like a breath.Like something alive.Like a heartbeat.Like an awakening.
The temple stones—yes, this wasn't a grave, it was a temple—were trembling.
Harper grabbed my arm."Jess… what happens if we go in?"
My inner voice:You can't go back.
The earth:Come.
Harper's element had no voice.Maybe she heard it too.Maybe she just didn't want to.
I exhaled."You asked the wrong question, Harper."
"What?"
"What happens if we don't go in?"
Harper's eyes widened."Jess… you're scared."
"No," I said.
But it wasn't true.
I was scared.Because the voice of the earth had told me one more thing.
A whisper that froze me from the inside out:
"Time is up."
When we reached the entrance, the cold rose up to our knees.Not ice.A sort of… timeless cold.
Harper shivered."Jess… the air isn't breathing here."
"Yes," I said. "Because there is no air here."
Harper's eyes filled with tears."Jess… are we the only things breathing?"
I didn't want to hear it.But it was true.
When I stepped into the tomb, the light pulled itself from the walls and drew inward.As if it recognized me.
The earth throbbed like a pulse.I could feel a heartbeat beneath my hips.
Harper's voice shook:"Jess… there's someone inside."
"Yes," I said."For thousands of years."
And then…
We saw her body.
The Ice Princess.The Sentinel.
A light flickered between her ribs.As if…as if her heart were working.
Harper spoke with her breath:"Jess… is she… alive?"
I swallowed.
"No."
Then I whispered:
"Not yet."
***
The vibration spreading from the heart of the light was faint at first—like the breath of a candle flame.Then… the woman inside the ice, that dead body from a time beyond memory…
Breathed.
Harper jumped back; the sound of that breath echoed through the tunnel like the awakening of a continent, not a person.Deep, heavy, a breath that defied time itself.
Inside me, two things broke at once:One was fear.The other was fate.
Harper whispered:"Jess… this isn't good."
"I know."
But I didn't step back.Because the voice of the earth was no longer speaking to my ears—it was speaking inside my chest.
"You are ready."
I knew I wasn't.But the earth didn't care.
The Sentinel's eyelids fluttered.Harper's palms were sweating; the wind curled around our shoulders, spiraling in panic.
"Jessica, she—"
"I know."
The woman's eyes opened.Completely white.No iris.No humanity.
A cracked voice echoed inside the kurgan—a voice that felt like it belonged to no mouth, to no body:
"The Earth has returned."
Harper lost her breath."Jess… she's speaking about you."
Yes.For me.And to me.
The woman—or what remained of a woman—began to rise, cracking through the ice.The light flickering between her ribs quickened, turning into a hungrier rhythm.
I knew that rhythm.
The heart of the earth.
My heart.
When the Sentinel took two steps, the ground split open.Ice prisms shot upward like arrows; it was as if the mountain was breaking its own bones and hurling them into the sky.
I grabbed Harper's arm the moment I saw her being thrown back."Get down!" I yelled.
But it only took me a second to remember her element.
The wind caught her.Not in anger—but with the urgency of a protective mother.
Harper's eyes widened."Jess! The wind—it's acting crazy!"
"Harper, don't try to control it!"
"I'm not! It's screaming at me!"
The ground rumbled beneath us.The air around Harper twisted into a sharp, panicked whine.
And in that moment…
For the first time, the elements collided.
Like flint striking steel—but older,deeper,more primal.
The tunnel filled with a massive wave of energy, a merging of brown (earth) and white (air/ice).The earth rose.The air crashed downward.
Harper was slammed to the ground.
I… remained standing.
The earth wasn't just touching me.It was holding me.
Harper whispered in stunned disbelief:"Jess… you're… not falling."
"The earth won't let me fall."
The Sentinel raised her hand.Light poured from her ice-covered fingers—cold as death, yet frighteningly alive—and reached straight toward me.
"Legacy." she said."You will reclaim it."
And in that instant, the world beneath my feet…exploded.
The Air's Detonation
Harper's element screamed—higher, sharper, more desperate.But also more wild.
"Jess! The air—it's malfunctioning!"
"What?!"
"It's malfunctioning! It's not obeying! It's—yelling at me!"
Harper's hair whipped upward, sucked into a crazed cyclone.She couldn't breathe; the air was torn between choking her and protecting her.
"Harper! Look at me!" I shouted.
She lifted her head.Her eyes had turned completely white.Just like the Sentinel's.
"Jess… it can't see!"
I slammed my palms into the ground.The earth surged upward like a pillar, splitting the air apart and carving a hollow so Harper could breathe.
Harper collapsed to her knees, gasping:
"This… this shouldn't be happening."
"Yes," I said. "But this is the truth."
Harper whispered, terrified:
"What do you—"
She never finished the sentence.
Because the Sentinel stepped into the center of the kurgan at that exact momentand commanded both elements at once.
She opened her arms.A torrent of light blasted out from between her ice-ribbed chest—bright as electricity, cold as death.
Earth and air fell to their knees.
They withdrew their power.
From Jessica.From Harper.
The power…flowed into the Sentinel.
The earth-voice inside me—the ancient whisper that had always spoken softly—shouted for the first time.
"RISE!"
Even though my knees had buckled, it felt like a hand dragged me up from the ground.
The Sentinel walked toward me.Harper trembled behind me.The air still wrapped around her, refusing to obey.
The woman stopped in front of me.
Her pure white eyes saw my darkness.
And she spoke:
"Earth has chosen its new vessel.""It will take the other as well."
The other.
Harper.
"Leave her," I said.My voice cracked.Not like a plea—like a threat.
The Sentinel paused.Something flickered in those white eyes.Not understanding.Not memory.
But a kind of… measurement.
"She is air.You are earth.For balance, both are needed."
Harper whispered:
"Jess… don't let it take me—"
"Harper! Get behind me!"
The Sentinel raised her hand.Light flared.Earth trembled.Air screamed.
I shouted:
"NO!"
And in that instant—
Earth exploded.Air erupted.The Sentinel was thrown backward.
The light died.The ice split open.
And darkness—absolute, complete darkness—flooded the kurgan.