Lightning shattered the clouds as the mountain trembled, dust raining from the cracked ceiling of the shrine. Kaelen hauled Surya backward just as a chunk of stone smashed into the platform where the Origin shard had floated moments ago.
"We're out of time," Kaelen growled. "The Veil's been touched. Whatever force is watching—it's not going to wait."
Surya steadied himself. His core still burned from the trial, but not in pain. It hummed with clarity. And with that clarity came a chilling thought: he'd been seen.
"Where's the boy?" he asked.
Kaelen spun, scanning the entrance. The elemental sling was torn open. The boy was gone.
No. Not gone.
Standing in the archway, shadow curling around his legs, was the same child—but his face had changed. Older. Colder. Wrong.
"I see you now," the boy whispered, eyes bottomless. "And so does He."
Kaelen raised his hand. "Get behind me."
But Surya stepped forward.
"You're not him. You're just a door," Surya said. "What's trying to get through?"
The child smiled. "You'll know soon enough. The others are already moving. The shrines are waking. The Academy will notice."
That last word cut deeper than expected.
Kaelen's face paled. "What did you say?"
The child's voice shifted—layered with echoes. "Tell your teacher: the trials have begun across all realms. And the Arcspire is no longer dormant."
A pulse of shadow surged forward.
Kaelen hurled fire in a wide arc, creating a blazing barrier. The boy stepped back into the storm and vanished into the obsidian haze beyond the shrine.
Silence returned.
Surya stared at Kaelen. "What's the Arcspire?"
Kaelen exhaled. "It was... a relic. A gate between realms. And at the heart of it is the Academy. The place where the Five Paths converge."
"You've been there?"
Kaelen didn't answer immediately. "Yes. Long ago. And if they've taken notice of you now, it means everything is accelerating."
He looked to the horizon. "We need to leave the mountains. There's a Seer's enclave west of here. They keep records from before the Fracture. They may have answers."
Two days later, they stood atop a bluff overlooking a shattered valley—once a basin, now fractured like glass under pressure. From its center rose a spire of white stone, twisted and glowing faintly. Around it, charred trees curved inward unnaturally, as if bowing.
Surya stared. "What is this place?"
"An old boundary line. Between what was and what isn't anymore."
As they descended, Surya's Flame Shard pulsed again. The rhythm had changed. Not wild. Measured. Curious.
In the night, he dreamed.
He stood at a gate of black stone, enormous and cold. Around him, countless voices whispered in languages he did not know.
On the other side of the gate, he felt it: a place of power and knowledge, bound by discipline and flame. A tower among towers.
A sigil shimmered in the air above the gate: a spiral of five elements interlocking.
And from within, a single phrase echoed:
"Not all who awaken are welcomed."
Surya awoke, heart pounding.
The path ahead was changing.