The orb pulsed steadily in Leora's hand, its pale blue light cutting through the thick fog curling around the peaks. She gripped it tightly as she descended the other side of the Hollow Mountains, her boots crunching across narrow paths that twisted along cliffs and disappeared into the mist.
It had been two days since the Seer died—or vanished.
She hadn't stopped moving.
Not just because she was afraid the Order might still be on her trail, but because she felt something stirring inside her. A pressure. Like the sigil in her chest and palm were... growing louder.
Each time she touched the shard from the Celestial Forge, her skin felt warm, and her breath would catch. She didn't know if it was fear or awakening.
The orb's light flickered. Then it changed color—blue to violet.
She paused.
Up ahead, the rocks narrowed into a passageway. Vines hung from the walls. The air was thicker here, heavier. She stepped forward, and the light from the orb stopped completely.
Leora looked around. "Where am I?"
She passed through a thin veil of moss, and the path opened into a hidden canyon—wide, steep, and silent. At the far end stood a structure of jagged stone and shimmering runes.
A gate.
Or rather, the remains of one.
Two broken pillars flanked the structure, half-buried in the cliffside. Between them, a swirling void shimmered like a cracked mirror. Its surface pulsed slowly, as if breathing.
She stepped closer, feeling the sigils under her skin hum again.
This had to be the Shattered Gate the Seer spoke of.
The orb in her hand vanished the moment she got within reach.
She stared into the swirling mirror, uncertain.
A voice broke the silence.
"You don't want to go in there, girl."
Leora turned sharply, her hand already on the shard stone in her satchel.
A young man sat on the edge of a rock above the gate, legs crossed, bow slung across his back. His cloak was patchy, dyed forest green and black. He looked relaxed—but his eyes were sharp, golden like a hawk's.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Name's Kael. Hunter, scout, part-time annoyance." He gave her a crooked smile. "You're the Starborn, aren't you?"
Leora narrowed her eyes. "How do you know that?"
He dropped from the rock and landed with ease, walking toward her like someone used to dangerous places.
"You don't exactly hide the glow very well," he said, nodding toward her hand. "Also, there's a bounty on you the size of a small kingdom. The Order's offering a year of noble titles and two chests of gold."
She stepped back.
Kael held up both hands. "Relax. I'm not interested in gold or titles. I'm interested in staying alive. Which, if I may point out, is harder when you're near."
"Then leave."
He tilted his head. "Can't. You're about to walk into the Voidlands. And unless you want your soul peeled off your bones, I'd suggest someone goes with you."
"I don't trust you."
"You shouldn't. I wouldn't trust me either."
Leora stared at him, uncertain.
But something in her gut whispered that he wasn't lying. Or at least, if he was, he wasn't hiding a weapon behind his back while doing it.
"What are the Voidlands?" she asked finally.
Kael's face turned grim. "They're what's left of a continent the stars cursed. A place where magic eats itself. The gate you're standing in front of is older than the kingdoms. Older than language. Some say it connects to the end of time itself."
"So why did the Seer tell me to go there?"
Kael shrugged. "Seers are weird."
Leora turned back to the gate. It shimmered faintly now, like it knew she was here. The sigils beneath her skin were burning hotter with each second.
"I don't have a choice," she murmured.
Kael stepped beside her. "That's what most people say right before dying."
"I have to find the next sigil. There's seven. I've awakened two. The third one is… calling."
"Calling from inside the Voidlands?" he asked.
She nodded.
Kael sighed and cracked his neck. "Fine. I'll go. But if I die, I'm blaming you."
Leora managed the faintest smile. "Noted."
Together, they stepped toward the Shattered Gate.
The surface of the void shimmered violently as they approached. The symbols on Leora's arm glowed like firebrands, and then the mirror cracked open, splitting down the center. Instead of shattering, it folded inward—opening into a tunnel of swirling starlight and shadow.
They stepped through.
Instantly, everything changed.
The air was thin and sharp. The sky was not sky—it was a dome of swirling stars with no sun, no moon. Just lightless constellations that moved unnaturally fast. The ground beneath them was dark stone veined with red cracks, like old wounds.
Kael let out a low whistle. "Well. This is charming."
Leora ignored him. Her focus had narrowed. The sigil in her chest now beat like a second heart. Her palm was glowing, hot enough that she had to clench her fist to endure it.
The shard in her satchel rattled.
They walked for what felt like hours, through ruins of ancient towers and empty roads that led to nowhere. Time didn't feel right here. Sometimes shadows moved without anything casting them.
Once, a floating eye the size of a wolf drifted above them, watching silently.
Kael raised his bow. "What is that?"
"Don't," Leora whispered. "It hasn't attacked."
"Yet."
They pressed on.
Eventually, they found it—at the center of a broken city sunken into the earth. A spire of obsidian stone that pierced the false sky, covered in hundreds of glowing marks.
Leora knew without a doubt: the third sigil was inside.
But standing at the base of the tower was something else.
A creature of ash and smoke, shaped like a man, but with no face—only a black void where the head should be. Its fingers were long and thin, each one tipped with claws.
Kael cursed. "That's a Wraith Sentinel. They guard the lost sigils."
"Can we fight it?"
"No."
"Then how do we get in?"
"We don't."
Leora clenched her jaw. "I didn't come all this way to stop now."
She stepped forward, the shard stone held tightly in her hand. The moment she did, the creature raised its head—if it had a head—and let out a soundless scream.
It charged.
Kael fired an arrow. It passed through the Wraith like mist.
Leora didn't stop.
The sigils on her body flared—chest, hand, and now her back. Something lit behind her shoulder blades, a third symbol forming in gold fire.
The creature hesitated mid-lunge.
Leora slammed her palm onto the ground.
The shard pulsed.
A wave of blue and gold fire exploded outward, knocking Kael back and disintegrating the Wraith where it stood. The fire didn't burn—it sang. A thousand voices echoing a single word she didn't understand.
The tower's door opened.
Kael groaned from behind a rock. "So… you do explode. Great."
Leora stood, shaking.
The third sigil had awakened.
---
End of Chapter Six Cliffhanger:
Leora successfully passes through the Shattered Gate into the eerie Voidlands. With Kael by her side, she battles a Wraith Sentinel and awakens her third sigil in a burst of celestial fire. But what lies inside the obsidian spire—and why are the voices calling her by name?