The Library of Lost Stars crumbled around them, one collapsing memory at a time. Scrolls turned to ash midair. Bookshelves tumbled like dying giants. The cosmic walls flickered—stars sputtering into blackness, galaxies swallowing themselves. Ayame clung to Kael's hand, her other arm wrapped around the pulsing tome that had started it all.
"We need a way out!" she cried, voice barely audible over the cacophony of unraveling magic.
Kael's gaze darted from the disintegrating staircase to the mirrorlike floor, now cracked like glass underfoot. "There *has* to be one! Every place has an exit!"
"Unless it was never supposed to have visitors," she shouted.
A tremor pulsed through the ground. Cracks spiderwebbed outward, catching up with them. Ayame stumbled—and Kael caught her. But behind him, a portion of the floor gave way entirely, revealing a swirling void beneath them.
"We'll be swallowed if we stay," he said, helping her up.
Ayame's fingers tightened on the leather-bound tome. The lock she'd twisted earlier still hung open, swinging slightly like a door left ajar.
A flash of memory.
The silver-haired woman again, whispering: *"If the book opens, so too does the path."*
She gasped. "Kael—the book! I think it's a portal!"
Without waiting for confirmation, she flung it open again. This time, instead of pages, a tear split the air before them. Not a rip in the book—but in reality itself. A glowing slit widened into a shimmering doorway, mist curling at the edges like frost.
Kael blinked. "Did we just *make* an escape hatch?"
"No time—GO!"
They jumped.
The moment they passed through, the roar of the collapsing library vanished. Silence fell like snow. The portal sealed itself behind them with a whisper.
Then came the thud—of landing.
Hard.
They groaned in unison as they sat up, limbs tangled and dazed.
But something was wrong.
The world around them had… changed.
They were no longer in the library. No longer in any version of their own world, either. They stood in a forest where the trees whispered secrets and the moonlight bled silver. The sky had two moons, both unmoving. Shadows didn't follow objects—they hovered beside them, detached yet loyal.
Kael took a slow breath. "This isn't Earth."
Ayame turned in place. "I think… I think we just landed in one of the forgotten timelines. One of the *paths not chosen*."
"Is that even possible?"
"I don't think *anything* is impossible anymore."
A rustling.
They froze.
From the underbrush, figures emerged—cloaked in sapphire and rust, faces veiled, eyes glowing beneath the hoods. One stepped forward and raised a hand, not in greeting but command.
"You carry the Tome of Echoes," the figure said in a melodic, distorted voice. "You should not be here."
"We didn't mean to—" Kael began.
"It doesn't matter. The book chose you. And now, you must face what it buried."
A staff was slammed into the earth. Rings of light spiraled out. From them, an illusion rose—a tower, shattered and dark, perched atop a crimson sea. At its base… hundreds of glowing figures, all facing away.
Ayame's heart stopped.
Because one of those figures looked like her.
Not *just* like her—*was* her. But broken. Corrupted. Her smile twisted, her eyes glowing like fireflies.
"I don't understand," she whispered.
"You will," the veiled figure said.
Then every hooded being dropped to one knee.
Kael stepped in front of Ayame instinctively. "What's going on?"
The lead figure bowed his head. "She is the one who woke the breach. The one the stars feared."
Ayame's voice trembled. "Me?"
A pause. Then a whisper—carried by the wind, the trees, the moonlight itself.
*"The Stardust Witch has returned."*
Kael turned to her slowly. "Ayame… what did you do in that missing year?"
She had no answer.
But the look on her face said it all.
She didn't know.
And that terrified her most of all.
---