Into the Wastes
The wind howled across the frozen horizon.
Cael stood at the edge of the broken sanctuary, his coat reinforced with woven mana-thread—Varuun's final parting gift.
"You sure you won't come with me?" Cael asked.
Varuun shook his head. "My place is here, watching what stirs beneath the ice. Your shard calls south. Follow it."
Cael nodded, then began the trek alone into the Glacien Wastes, the shard pulsing faintly in his chest like a compass.
The Silent Wreckage
After half a day's journey, Cael came upon a ruined caravan buried in snow.
Wagons shattered. Scorch marks blackened the ice. No corpses—just empty gear, torn cloaks, and scattered relic shards. Something had attacked, but left no bodies.
He found an Essentia journal, its pages barely intact:
"The cold speaks at night. Shapes in the mist. Eyes behind the veil. We lit the beacon. No answer came. We pray someone sees the flames…"
He looked up. The horizon shimmered with unnatural aurora.
And then a voice spoke behind him.
"Most would've turned back by now."
The Stranger in Red
The man stood without tracks behind him. He wore a red, rune-stitched coat and leaned on a staff made of petrified bone. His face was aged but sharp, and his eyes glowed faintly violet—like someone who had long ceased to be entirely mortal.
"I saw the lights," Cael said warily. "You part of the caravan?"
The man chuckled. "The caravan? No. That was a long time ago. Too long."
"Who are you?"
"A survivor. A sinner.
A man the Void refused to take."
He held up a hand—and Cael's shard reacted. It pulsed once, dimly. The stranger's body flickered, as if unstable.
"Your shard calls to mine," he said.
"But mine was broken. Long ago."
A Warning in Code
As they sat near a campfire of glowing emberwood, the man offered insight in riddles:
"The seals weren't meant to be broken… but neither were they meant to last."
"You've heard the Void whisper. Did it tell you your name won't survive the journey?"
"Every shard awakens a guardian… but not all guardians remain loyal."
Cael asked, "What happens when all seven shards are awakened?"
The man only stared into the fire.
"Then the sky weeps.
And the Fracture breathes."
The Wraith-Hound Attack
Suddenly, the ice cracked. A twisted howling echoed across the flatlands.
Three Wraith-Hounds emerged from the mist—mangled beasts cloaked in frost and Void corruption. Their eyes burned white. Their howls shattered nearby ice pillars.
Cael rose, glyphs forming instinctively.
Spell Formed: [Tseron – Chain Variant]
Frozen Bind, Multipoint Cast
Icy tendrils lashed out—two beasts froze mid-leap.
But the third slipped past—rushing Cael with its jaw unhinged. Too fast.
And then—
The stranger stepped through the air.
He moved like a ripple—disappearing from one spot and appearing in another.
His staff struck once.
The hound evaporated into fractured runes.
"Tier 3 Void Step," he murmured. "Don't try that yet. You'd forget your own bones."
A Fragment Remembered
As dawn approached, the stranger rose.
"You'll find the cracked seal buried under a black lake. The waters lie… farther than the map tells."
"Why are you helping me?" Cael asked.
The man didn't answer right away.
Then:
"Because I remember what I once was.
And what I failed to become."
He turned to walk into the frost.
"Wait!" Cael called. "What's your name?"
The stranger looked back, smiling sadly.
"I had many. But the world forgot them.
Maybe one day… you'll forget yours too."
And then he vanished.