Night fell quickly over Ætheris.
The glass towers reflected the stars like shards of a broken sky, their lights shimmering against the dark water of the canal streets. Kael walked alone along the elevated walkway, hands in his pockets, cloak trailing lightly in the cold wind.
The shattering of the orb still rang faintly in his ears.
The vision—Lian's silhouette—had not been a hallucination.
Something in Tianluo had reached back through the residue.
She felt me.
She shouldn't have been able to.
Kael reached the halfway point of the bridge before stopping. The mana lines beneath the city pulsed faintly, warm and rhythmic like blood vessels beneath skin. But tonight, their pattern felt wrong.
Off-beat.
Unstable.
It took him a moment to realize:
the mana grid was syncing to another rhythm.
A distant one.
The same pulse as the veil.
Kael lifted his gaze toward the sky, eyes narrowing.
Clouds churned silently above—unnatural, whispering.
"Found you…"
His second self murmured it so softly he almost didn't catch it.
Tianluo — Under the Crimson Moon
The mist parted as Lian climbed the highest cliff overlook, her cloak snapping in the mountain wind. Above her, a crimson-hued moon glowed—an omen of imbalance.
The elders' warnings echoed in her mind:
The veil was trembling.
Something from another world had stirred it.
Something tied to the boy she had seen.
Lian exhaled, letting her Qi spread outward. Threads of spiritual perception fanned across the valley like invisible blades. They traced the air, the stone, the distant rustle of beasts.
Then—
A pulse.
Not Qi.
Not spirit energy.
Something colder.
Something familiar.
Her eyes widened. "You…"
She closed her eyes and focused harder. The pulse reverberated again—this time carrying an image.
A faint outline of a city of glass.
And atop a bridge reaching into the sky…
A boy with two shadows.
Lian's breath caught.
The vision cracked like lightning through her skull, but she held onto it, refusing to let it fade.
"Show me," she whispered. "Why does the veil echo him?"
Another pulse answered.
This one felt like a heartbeat.
His heartbeat.
Ætheris — Kael's Awakening
Kael staggered when the connection struck him.
It felt like fingers of pure Qi sliced into his mind—searching, probing, uninvited yet desperate.
He braced a hand against the railing, breath clouding in the cold night air.
A voice threaded through his consciousness.
Soft.
Resolute.
Female.
"Who are you?"
His pupils contracted.
He knew the voice.
The girl from the mountains.
His darker self reacted first—thrilled.
"She's calling for you," it purred. "Reach back."
Kael clenched his jaw.
But the connection deepened before he could shut it out.
Images flashed behind his eyes: swirling mist, towering mountains, the silhouette of a woman standing against crimson moonlight. Her staff glowed with draconic silver, Qi rippling from its core like wind from a storm.
She was searching for him.
Through the veil.
Across worlds.
And she was succeeding.
Kael whispered under his breath:
"…This shouldn't be possible."
"Answer me."
Her voice again—closer now, echoing directly inside his mind.
Kael's balance faltered. The second personality surged forward with almost gleeful force, tearing through his restraint. His reflection in the glass windows sharpened—eyes darker, smile cruel.
"If she seeks the hunter," his other self murmured, "she should be prepared to be prey."
The air warped around Kael's hand. Mana twisted into a sharp ripple—half spell, half instinct. A reaching thread.
A link.
He could touch her back.
Right now.
He could answer.
Kael's heart hammered.
His two selves aligned—not in conflict, but in perfect agreement.
Do it.
Do it.
He raised his hand.
Mana coiled like a serpent—
—then violently shattered.
The connection snapped so abruptly he nearly fell forward.
Across the veil, Lian cried out, dropping to one knee as the cliff beneath her cracked under the spiritual recoil. She slammed her staff into the ground to anchor herself, breath ragged.
"What—was that…? Did he reject the link?"
No—
Not a rejection.
A severing.
Too clean.
Too deliberate.
Her eyes narrowed against the crimson moon.
"He's dangerous."
And yet…
She felt no hatred.
Instead, something colder slid into her heart.
Curiosity.
Fear.
Recognition.
And something else she didn't dare name.
Ætheris — The Afterglow
Kael's breathing steadied.
The cruel smile faded from his reflection, replaced again by the calm, unreadable boy the academy thought they knew.
He stared into the night horizon, where flickers of mana still danced in the air—the only trace left of their momentary link.
He wiped the blood from under his nose.
The severance had cost him, even with his dual nature stabilizing him.
"…She's strong."
The admission tasted strange on his tongue.
Unwelcome.
Familiar.
His darker self chuckled.
"Good. Strong prey tastes sweeter."
Kael said nothing.
He turned back toward the academy, the wind whispering behind him through the glass rails.
Tonight, a girl from another world had found his presence.
Not his location—not yet.
But enough.
More than enough.
Their destinies had brushed together, and the veil had trembled in fear.
Which meant only one thing:
The thread between their worlds had now become a path.
And paths can be walked.