The shadows slid across the floor like oil.
Not fast, but deliberate and intelligent-like.
Kazi's breath caught as she stepped backward from the edge of the glowing platform, eyes locked on the dark shapes slithering toward its center. The runes etched into the floor continued to pulse in a rhythm that matched her mark's thrum, like heartbeat mirroring heartbeat.
"What are they?" Dakarai whispered, voice low and tight.
"Not creatures," Rhazir answered. "Not exactly."
He didn't sound surprised. Not shaken. Just… curious.
Kazi's mark flared again. This time the heat spiked sharper, like a warning rather than a pull. The smoke-thin tendrils in the air began to twist toward her. They didn't touch her, but hovered just close enough to feel their cold, sinister presence.
One of the shadows reached the center of the platform.
It rose, not upright like a person, but like smoke rising through water, forming into the loose impression of a figure. A vague outline of a body, tall and bent, with hollow shoulders and a long neck. It had no face or features, but just its presence felt ancient; patient.
Kazi felt her knees lock in place. Her pulse was racing, and not from fear, but from recognition.
She had seen this form, or one like it, during the dream Azibo gave her. A silhouette behind the fire, a watcher.
"They're remnants," Rhazir said, stepping forward as if approaching an old friend. "Residual beings left behind by resonance tears. They're drawn to openings. Like moths to flame."
"They feel… wrong," Kazi said. "Twisted even."
Rhazir didn't deny it.
"They exist between places," he said. "Neither here nor there. Neither living nor dead."
The shadow turned its faceless head toward Kazi. Its movement was slow, but deliberate. As it leaned closer, the glow of her mark pulsed again, brighter this time. The air trembled around her, a subtle ripple across the surface of the room.
Dakarai took a step forward, sparks flickering along his arms. "If it touches her—"
"Don't," Rhazir said sharply.
Kazi raised her hand towards it. "Wait. I think it's… trying to speak."
No words formed, but the air around her shifted.
A sound, low and melodic, filled the chamber. It wasn't a voice, but a frequency, one that vibrated in her chest, behind her eyes, in her teeth. She blinked for a moment, and the room wasn't there.
She stood in a vast open space. Black sky above. Infinite. A single line of glowing symbols floated around her in a ring, each one from the Mark. But one of them had cracked. And from that crack, shadow bled outward.
Kazi gasped and snapped back to herself. She was back in the room.
The shadow retreated instantly, pulled backward as though it had finished its message. The rest followed, sinking back into the platform until only the flickering ring of runes remained.
Silence fell like a curtain.
Kazi dropped to one knee, heart pounding. Her hands trembled.
"They showed me something," she said. "Something inside the Mark. One of the symbols was broken."
Rhazir crouched beside her, his tone unreadable. "A fracture."
"Can that happen?" Dakarai asked.
"Anything bound to power can break," Rhazir said. "Even something divine."
Kazi looked at him, suddenly more suspicious than before. His calmness. His lack of reaction to the shadows. His familiarity.
She opened her mouth to ask, then she suddenly stopped herself. "Not yet." She thought to herself, knowing that they weren't ready for that truth.
Rhazir stood and dusted off his hands. "The gate was built around that fracture. Which means it was meant to be stabilized. Or hidden."
"Or controlled," Kazi said quietly.
Dakarai moved to her side, offering a hand. "So, what now?"
Kazi took it, steadying herself. Her eyes locked on the platform's center one last time.
"We keep going."