The skyway activated at dawn.
A thin platform of oldworld stone and shimmering energy extended from the Observatory's base, curving out into open air like a ribbon through the clouds. As the three stepped onto it, the wind howled beneath them—cold, dry, endless.
"No guardrails," Mira muttered, staring over the side. "Of course."
"It was made for Skyborn," Kaelen said. "They weren't meant to fall."
Orin walked carefully, eyes locked on the path. The threadbridge shimmered with every step, lit from below by unknown energies. Mountains crumbled far beneath them, and the horizon ahead began to darken—not just from distance, but from something else.
The Black Waste.
A desert of soot and obsidian glass, stretching as far as the eye could see. It was lifeless, yet pulsing with wrongness. Even the sky above it dimmed.
They reached the end of the skyway by midday. The stone platform ended abruptly at a broken spire half-buried in sand. Around them, only ruin. Not even wind dared cross this place.
"We walk from here," Kaelen said.
The sand crunched beneath their boots. It wasn't normal sand—it glittered slightly, and where Orin stepped, it seemed to absorb light. The silence was oppressive, a weight behind every breath.
As they walked, Mira kept glancing behind them.
"Do you feel that?" she asked finally.
"Yes," Kaelen said without turning. "We're being followed."
Orin froze. "By what?"
Kaelen drew his blade. "Not what. Who."
A figure stepped from behind a jagged boulder—cloaked, face wrapped in gray cloth. Their eyes glowed faintly with pale fire. Not a Scorcher. Not Order.
Something else.
They raised a hand, and spoke with a voice like fractured glass:
> "Skyborn. You walk toward the Inversion. The Chainbreaker watches."
Kaelen stepped forward. "Who are you?"
The figure tilted its head. "A Remnant. One who survived Nahl'Karai's fall. I bear a warning."
"Then speak it," Orin said.
The Remnant's eyes locked with his.
> "Within the upside tower, time eats itself. Your memories will lie. Your past will betray. And if you climb too far, the stars will scream."
The figure stepped backward—and vanished into dust.
They stood in silence.
Mira whispered, "I hate this place."
Kaelen turned to Orin. "We go forward. But remember this: the anchor you seek may not want to be found. And the Hollow Star is not the only thing that remembers."
They continued walking.
Ahead, the silhouette of the inverted tower of Nahl'Karai loomed larger—like a dagger driven into the sky.