The wind stirred gently around them as Ren's words lingered in the air, fragile and uncertain. *"I think... we need to talk."*
Ayame's heartbeat quickened. She didn't know this boy—*not truly*. And yet, something about him was disturbingly familiar. The sakura petals danced around them in spirals, as though nature itself were holding its breath.
"What do you mean?" Ayame asked cautiously, taking a step back, fingers instinctively closing around the pendant at her chest.
Ren hesitated. "I shouldn't be saying this yet. But there's no time." He glanced around as if the trees might be listening. "You've seen things—dreams, flashes, right?"
Ayame narrowed her eyes. "Why do you know that?"
Ren pressed his lips together. "Because I see them too. And... because I know Kael."
The world stopped.
She hadn't heard Kael's name spoken aloud in so long, and now it dropped from the lips of a stranger like a stone in water.
"Who are you?" she demanded, every nerve alive. "Why are you saying his name?"
"I'm not here to hurt you. I promise," Ren said, hands raised. "But there are things you don't know—things he never had the chance to tell you. Kael didn't leave by choice."
Ayame's fingers loosened slightly on the pendant, her mind reeling. The dreams, the glowing object, the visions she had chalked up to grief—they were all connected?
Ren stepped forward slowly. "There's a place between places. A world that touches this one but hides behind it. We call it the Etherfold. Kael is trapped there."
Ayame blinked, stunned.
"That sounds like a bad anime plot," she said weakly.
Ren cracked a smile. "Yeah. But it's real. And you're part of it, whether you want to be or not."
Ayame sat down beneath the sakura tree, grounding herself in the bark behind her. "This is crazy. I don't even know you."
He nodded. "I get it. You don't have to trust me. But Kael asked me to find you—before time runs out."
Ayame's eyes searched his face, desperately hoping to find some flaw in his story, something that would confirm this was nonsense. But there was none. Only that same echo she felt in her dreams—the starlight whisper.
"Tell me everything," she said finally.
---
Ren sat beside her, speaking in hushed tones.
He explained the Etherfold: a dimension parallel to their own, pulsing with ancient energy. A place that occasionally touched the human world through dreams, intuition, and emotion. It was beautiful but unstable, governed by emotion and memory. Only those with deep soul-links could navigate it.
"Kael found a portal—by accident," Ren said. "He wasn't meant to. But once you've seen the Etherfold, it sees you back. Something pulled him in... and now it won't let him go."
Ayame's head swam. "Why haven't I been pulled in?"
Ren hesitated. "Because you were his anchor. You kept him tethered. That's what the pendant is—it was a token from the Etherfold, given to you because your connection to him was strong enough to form a bond."
She clutched the pendant, its light faintly pulsing.
"So what do we do?" she whispered.
"You find him," Ren said, standing. "And I help you."
---
The next few days were a blur.
Between classes, Ayame met Ren in secret—behind the gym, near the library, once even in the old observatory. He taught her how to meditate, how to listen to the Etherfold's whisper, how to open her senses to the flow of time and memory. It sounded like madness, but the results were undeniable.
She began to *see* Kael.
Faint glimpses. His outline reflected in windows. A laugh echoing in the corridor. Notes in her locker written in his familiar handwriting.
One afternoon, after an intense focus session, she fell into a trance—and for the first time, she truly saw him.
---
Kael stood on a fractured plain, stars wheeling above him in strange constellations. His eyes were searching—frantic—but when he looked up, his expression changed. He saw *her*.
"Ayame?"
His voice was distorted but unmistakable.
"I'm coming," she whispered.
---
She jolted back to consciousness, gasping for breath.
Ren steadied her. "You made contact."
She nodded, heart pounding. "He's alive."
Ren smiled gently. "And he's waiting."
---
But not everything moved in their favor.
The more Ayame drew closer to the Etherfold, the more it pulled at her. Her sleep became restless, her appetite faded, and shadows grew longer around her edges. Teachers noticed. Riku noticed. Even her best friend Hana asked if she was okay.
Ayame deflected them all. How could she explain?
Then, one night, everything shifted.
---
She woke in the middle of the night to a sound—a bell. Soft, metallic, and distant.
The pendant around her neck flared brilliantly, lighting her dark room in ethereal blue. She sat up, heart racing, and looked around. On the wall, a thin crack of light was forming—vertical, pulsing like a heartbeat.
A portal.
Without thinking, she stood. The air shimmered, growing colder, and the crack widened.
She was about to step forward when a voice stopped her.
"Not yet," Ren said, appearing at her window. "You're not ready. That portal will tear you apart."
Ayame froze. "But Kael—"
"We have to go together," he said. "Soon. But not tonight."
She let the light fade. The wall returned to normal. The portal had vanished.
She dropped onto her bed, shaken. "Why does it feel like time is speeding up?"
Ren looked grim. "Because it is. The Etherfold is unraveling. And when it breaks, Kael won't be the only one lost."
---
Ayame stared at the ceiling that night, her heart aching with the weight of what lay ahead. She thought of Kael's smile, of the promises they made. And now, an entire dimension stood between